ABC MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

This month's topics are:   

ORIENTAL RUGS

              Senneh Oriental Rugs

MISCELLANEOUS           

              Dog Myths Debunked

CLEANING 

               Spring Cleaning Yesterday and Today

SPECIALS FOR APRIL

               2 Specials

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 SENNEH PERSIAN ORIENTAL RUGS

Senneh oriental rugs (Senna, Seneh, Sehna, Sinneh, etc.) originated in what is now the city of Sanandaj and surrounding areas. The Senneh speaking Kurdish people living there had a long-established weaving tradition.

Sanandaj was formerly known as Senna or Senneh and is located in Iran in the western part of the province of Kurdistan. It is considered the capital of Kurdish culture.

The economy has been supported by the production of rugs, along with animal hide processing, grain and sugar milling, and wood and metal fabrication.

The Kurdish people of this weaving area are quite different from other areas of Iran as can be exhibited by their colorful dress, including the traditional baggy pants of the men. The city used to be an important economic hub but is not as important today.

SENNEH ORIENTAL RUGS - UNIQUE WEAVING FEATURES

FOUNDATION

Senneh oriental rugs are unique, not as much for their beautiful and intricate designs, but for the meticulous weaving technique of the Kurdish weavers. This is very much evidenced in the foundation of the rugs.

Unlike most rug foundations which have straight warps (up and down foundation cords) with wefts (side to side foundation cords) interlacing the warps, Senneh rugs have just the opposite, with a foundation of straight wefts and the warps interlacing the wefts. The term for this unusual weave in Persian is 'Sennehbaf' or 'Sennah Knotted.'

The Senneh rug is a single-wefted rug (one weft cord between knots) and the wefts are larger than the warps, unlike most weaving. The foundation typically contains cotton warps and wefts and the pile is wool. Even the wool yarn is unique in that it is ultra-fine and spun very tightly, producing a high twist.

Occasionally, antique Senneh rugs knotted on silk foundations can also be found. The silk will be dyed in a variety of shades, giving a rainbow-like appearance to the fringes. These are sometimes called polychrome fringes. The colors can include purple, red, ivory, yellow, blue, and others.

Another unusual feature found in these rugs is the way the knots are compacted. The nodes come together making one bump. Because of the resulting roughness, the back of these rugs are very often compared to sandpaper.

KNOT

Surprisingly, the knot is the symmetric Turkish, not the asymmetric Persian knot (also known as the Senneh knot). The Senneh oriental rug is named for the dialect of the weavers rather than the type of knot used.

DESIGN

These rugs come in a range of medallion and allover patterns that are somewhat geometric. Motifs such as rhombs, mir-e botehs and Herati are common. The borders are very finely detailed and may often contain paired arabesque motifs known as 'turtles.'

SENNEH and BIJAR RUG COMPARISONS

Nearby Bijar and also Tabriz weavers often attempted copies of the Senneh designs. (Senneh rugs preceded the Kurdish Bijar rugs which first appeared in the late 19th century.) 

To learn more about Senneh Persian oriental rugs and kelims with photos and video, please continue reading here.

DOG MYTHS DEBUNKED

For those of us who have had the privilege of living with dogs, this article, Dog Myths Debunked, is meant to examine a few of those long-standing notions that have been passed down through generations of dog lovers and 'generally accepted as true.'

Who of us has not heard:

• "A dog ages seven years for every human year."
• Or "If your dog's nose is warm, you have a dog who is sick." 
• How about this one..."Don't worry if your puppy licks the baby's face or eats off your child's plate. Their mouths are cleaner than ours!" 
• Of course, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" has been around for just about forever.

How many of these and others have you heard and just accepted as pure fact?

2018 is the Chinese Year of the Dog so we decided to honor the dog and check out a few of these. We searched the Internet for the information. Here are our results...

DOES A DOG REALLY AGE 7 YEARS FOR EACH HUMAN YEAR?

When you compare dogs and humans this way, it at first seems to make sense because the lifespan of a dog is so much shorter than the average human's. It also follows that dogs age much faster than humans.

The problem with the 'seven years' is when you look at very young dogs (many before they are a year old) having puppies and older dogs (12 to 15 years old) who are still active and healthy compared to humans from 84 to 105, this dog myth doesn't hold much water.

Of course, there are other factors that contribute to a dog's aging. These include the type of breed and the size of the dog. As a general rule, dogs will age at a faster rate when they are young and their aging seems to slow down as they get older. And, although larger breeds tend to have a shorter lifespan, they age much more slowly than the smaller breeds.

IF YOUR DOG'S NOSE IS WARM, DO YOU HAVE A SICK DOG?

The problem with this myth is  the dog's nose is not an accurate measurement of an illness. This is especially true with dogs after a night's sleep. They may wake up with a warm or dry nose and this poses no problem. Of course, if a dog's nose is continually dry or crusted over or looks abnormal, it is time to visit your vet.

Although vaccines for distemper have brought the disease down to only rare occurrences, this particular myth may have originated with the hardening of the noses of afflicted dogs. A cool, wet nose was a sign your dog had not contacted canine distemper.

IS A DOG'S MOUTH REALLY CLEANER THAN OURS?

Should we not be worried if our dog licks our face or eats off our plate? Is a dog's mouth really cleaner than ours?
I have to admit I really believed this! It seems strange I would have taken this dog myth for the truth even though over time I had seen some very gross things enter into my dogs' mouths! For instance, the contents of the baby's diapers!

In addition, dog owners are not always as particular about their dogs' teeth as their own, so dental bacteria and tartar can add to the germs in a dog's mouth as well as to the distinctive odor of 'doggie breath.'
Fortunately though, most dog germs tend to be specific to dogs and they don't necessarily cause harm to humans. A 'kiss' from a healthy dog, one that has been de-wormed and had the required vaccinations, is probably nothing to worry about. Baby should definitely not be sharing your dog's water bowl though!

WILL A FEMALE DOG FEEL A VOID IF SHE NOT HAVE A LITTER BEFORE BEING SPAYED?

This one has always perplexed me. To think that a female dog that has been spayed would feel 'empty' if she had not had a litter of puppies seems really to be anthropomorphic (applying human attributes to non-humans). We love our dogs but we have to be very careful not to fool ourselves into believing they think like humans do.

Although there are some who believe there might be health benefits to allowing a female dog to have a litter, that has not yet been proven to be true and unless you are a responsible dog breeder with a superb female dog specimen, you are simply contributing to dog overpopulation.

DOES A DOG EAT GRASS TO SOOTHE A QUEASY STOMACH?

We have all probably seen the reason for this myth in action. A dog goes outside and starts chomping on the grass and then throws up. Oh, look. He feels better now. His stomach must have been upset!

The real truth is that dogs simply like grass. If they eat too much, the minor irritation it causes will make the dog throw up. As long as the grass your dog loves has not been chemically treated, there should be no reason to worry. 

However, if your dog has chronic vomiting after eating anything, this may be a sign of an illness that needs to be treated by your vet.

IS A WAGGING TAIL ALWAYS INDICATIVE OF A HAPPY, NON-AGGRESSIVE DOG?

Find the answer to this and explore other myths about dogs by continuing to read here.

SPRING CLEANING YESTERDAY and TODAY

SPRING CLEANING  YESTERDAY & TODAY  
This article, 'Spring Cleaning Yesterday and Today' is written for those of us who live through dark, cold, snowy winters, and just as the weather starts to get warmer and the sun comes streaming in through the windows, the spectre of Spring Cleaning rears its ugly head.

Today we have a plethora of ways to clean our homes from top to bottom. Spring cleaning may not be a lot of fun but it is certainly much easier and less time-consuming than our great-great grandmothers had it in the 19th century before the advent of technologies such as the vacuum cleaner.

The contaminants in the homes of the 19th century were different as well and were primarily caused by coal and wood-burning fireplaces, and candles and kerosene and oil lamps, as well as the buildup of tracked-in dirt from unpaved roads. Sunshine in the early spring would highlight homes filled with stale air, soot, grime, and grease.

Not only did the rugs, carpets, and upholstery need cleaning, even the wallpaper had to be cleaned after a long winter of soot and dirt. The procedure involved using a bellows to remove surface dust and then taking the crusts from an 8 day old loaf of bread and rubbing the walls from top to bottom. The crumbs and dirt would then fall off together as long as the cleaning did not go upwards or across. 

Floors had to be cleaned by a corn shuck mop dipped in lye soap. The corn shucks had to be replaced when they were worn.
Rug and carpet cleaning, especially, was hard labor and time consuming. First the rugs and carpets had to be taken up off the floors and hung on strong clotheslines outside. The next step was a vigorous beating with a wooden or wire rug beater. (Sometimes, the housewife would be spared this step if servants or children were available)! 

After the dust was removed and the floors and wallpaper inside were cleaned, the rugs and carpets all had to be brought back into the home and placed where they belonged.

THE VACUUM CLEANER/CARPET SWEEPER REVOLUTIONIZES SPRING CLEANING

The vacuum cleaner/carpet sweeper was the invention that changed spring cleaning forever! 

MANUAL VACUUM CLEANERS

Manual vacuums came first. In 1860, Daniel Hess of Iowa invented a carpet sweeper that used a rotating brush and a bellows to generate suction and gather dust.

1868 was the year of Ives McGaffey's invention, the Whirlwind. It was the first hand-pumped vacuum cleaner in the US and was made of wood and canvas. It was bulky and awkward to operate. It was worked with a belt driven fan that was cranked by hand. Melville Bissell of Michigan also constructed a similar model in 1876.

Powered cleaners were introduced towards the end of the 19th century. In 1898, John Thurman of Missouri obtained a patent for a pneumatic carpet renovator. This vacuuming system was powered by an internal combustion engine and blew dust into a receptacle. It was part of a door-to-door cleaning service.

ELECTRIC VACUUM CLEANERS

The first use of an electric motor may have been in Georgia, where Corrine Dufour obtained 2 patents, one in 1899 and another in 1900 for blown air systems using an electric motor.

POWER-DRIVEN VACUUMS USING SUCTION

1901 saw the first powered vacuum cleaners that used suction rather than blowing dirt. Both Hubert Booth of Britain and American inventor David Kenney independently invented these.

Booth's was a horse-drawn combustion engine which collected dirt and dust by suction, with air pumped through a cloth filter. 

Kenney's was a steam engine powered system. Pipes and hoses could reach from the stationary engine into homes and buildings. A real precursor to the truck-mounted carpet cleaning systems of today!

PORTABLE VACUUM CLEANER

The first portable vacuum cleaner was built in 1905 by Walter Griffiths in Birmingham, England. It most resembled today's cleaners and could be used by one person.

VACUUM USING WATER TO COLLECT DIRT

The 'Domestic Cyclone' was invented in 1906 by James Kirby. It was different in that it used water to collect dirt.

JAMES SPANGLER and WILLIAM HOOVER
For more information about the inventions that helped change spring cleaning forever, please continue reading here.

SPECIALS FOR APRIL...

#1 Spring Cleaning Special:

15% Off 

Carpet Cleaning

&

15% Off 

Tile & Grout Cleaning

in Your Home

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#2 To Honor the Year of the Dog and the ASPCA Special:

15% off Urine Decontamination of Rugs 

in Our Plant

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