Hand-tufters and rug-makers of the world, lay down your needles and your yarn and - though I know it goes against your grain when you could be knotting another a few tufts - let us sit still for a minute to mark the centenary of the Irish invention that makes your work possible, writes Mary Mulvihill.
For it was 100 years ago, on December 21st 1903, that Robert Flower, eighth Viscount Ashbrook of Durrow, patented his latch-hook needle.
Co Laois, or Queen's County as it then was, is not exactly world famous for its ingenuity and inventiveness. Yet Flower had several patents to his name, and his needle is still used by craft-workers the world over to knot yarn in handmade carpets. Flower's invention also gave rise to a small factory at Abbeyleix that flourished for a number of years, producing high-quality carpets for prestigious clients, including the ill-fated liner the Titanic.
It was a simple yet ingenious improvement on the existing hooked needle that carpet workers used to knot yarn: Flower's version had a hinged latchet that kept the yarn hooked so that it could be drawn through and knotted in one single, deft movement. And the rest, you could say, was hand-tufted history, at 20 knots to the square inch.
Robert Flower, born in 1836, was an enthusiastic inventor, though one early experiment with gunpowder left him with a permanent limp. His many patents included designs for organ pipes, water-heating stoves and even a technique for soldering aluminium.
Textiles were his primary interest, however, and he patented several designs for improved automatic looms, also hand-looms for unskilled workers and people with disabilities, making it easy for them to weave and therefore earn a supplementary income.
The handlooms were popular with wounded ex-soldiers after the first World War.
When Flower invented his latch needle he also designed a loom for it, plus a special canvas foundation on which the knots were made. He called his patent (No 27966): "Improvement on the manufacture of hand-tufted rugs and carpets", and hoped it would revolutionise the industry.
Hand-tufted carpets, which attracted a premium price then as now, were traditionally made on large upright looms. Each tuft was woven around the warp and then, in a separate movement, knotted in place; heavy beams supported the fabric rolls. In Flower's new system the carpet was made instead on a small flat-bed loom; the yarn was knotted onto short lengths of special canvas foundation, then sewn together to make a larger carpet. The canvas, woven on a separate automatic loom, had a double warp and single weft to held the knots tightly in place. Flower claimed his system was simpler, cheaper and faster than the traditional approach.
Within a month of filing his patent, Flower sold all the rights for £100 to another innovative Laois man, Ivo, fifth Viscount de Vesci. This philanthropic entrepreneur from nearby Abbeyleix was keen to provide local employment, especially for women, and later in 1904 he opened the Abbey Leix Carpet Factory incorporating Flower's system.
It was just one of many ventures established then in a bid to create work for local women, slow emigration and save rural communities. Most were based around crafts, notably pottery, lace, weaving and carpet-making. Donegal had a well-established carpet industry, for instance, and in 1902 the Mercy Sisters opened a small carpet factory in Naas.
The new Abbeyleix factory employed 24 women at its peak, and a team could produce a 12- by 15-feet carpet in three months, with 20 knots to the square inch. De Vesci commissioned designs from well known artists, and Abbeyleix carpets quickly earned an international reputation and numerous awards. They graced Ascot's grandstand, Dublin's Mansion House, and Boss Croker's elegant home at Glencairn in Co Dublin (now the British ambassador's residence), and they were sold in Harrods of London and Marshall Fields of Chicago.
But, as industrial archaeologist Mairead Johnston has written in her history of the factory, Hidden in the Pile, benevolence and business do not make good bed-fellows. The venture was not a commercial success, and in 1909 it merged with the Naas factory to form Kildare Carpets.
It wasn't so much a merger as a takeover: Flower's innovative method was abandoned, the workbenches were replaced by the conventional large upright beam looms, the factory was extended to accommodate the bigger equipment, and the staff were retrained.
Ironically, Abbeyleix now supplied its most notable order: carpets for the twin liners Olympic and Titanic, won through de Vesci's friend, White Star Line chairman Lord Perrie. But relations with Naas were never happy, and they deteriorated when a rail strike in England disrupted yarn supplies. In December 1912 the Abbeyleix factory closed, and Naas followed a few years later.
Robert Flower died in 1919, but his innovative needle is still used the world over, and the remains of de Vesci's entrepreneurial factory survive behind the motor works on Abbeyleix's Main Street.
Their story survives too in the award-winning local heritage centre (currently open Mon-Fri, and weekends by appointment, and seven days a week from April; tel: 0502 31653). There, you can see a reconstruction of the carpet factory, and even try your hand at knotting yarn.