Rug making: surrey stitch

This stitch owes its name to the fact that it was first evolved by Mrs Hawker Smith, a member of a Surrey Women's Institute.

There is a great fascination in its actual working and it makes a particularly strong, hard-wearing rug owing to the fact that each stitch covers the foundation in two different directions, vertically and horizontally, and that every hole is entered four times.

An added attraction is the reverse side of the rug where the pattern shows up with startling clarity and exquisite neatness.

Each pile stitch or knot is made with two movements of the needle, the first being to­wards the worker and the second from right to left at right angles to the first movement.