Glossary of Terms

Wool

The original carpet fibre. Wool is noted for its excellent dyeability, luxurious feel and relatively high cost.

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Nine reasons we love flat weave rugs (and you should, too!)
.../li> Flat weave rugs do not shed. Without a cut pile or constant friction on the ends of threads, flat weave rug fibers typically won’t shed as much as other types of rugs — even in the case of wool, which typically sheds more than other rug materials. Flat weave rugs are relatively inexpensive. Flat weave rugs are wonderful examples of fine craftsmanship, but they take much less ...
Designing With Rugs
... density and fiber. The denser the pile (with closer tufts or stitches), the better your area rug will wear. Synthetic yarns – nylon, polyester, acrylic and polypropylene – and the naturals – wool and cotton – are durable, soft and easy to clean. You’ve got to hand it to machine-made area rugs; they may look strikingly similar to the handmade kind, but they’re usually much less ...
Rugs 101
...the center of the rug field. Common shapes are octagons, hexagons, and diamonds. Rug Fiber There are three basic types of rug fiber - Polypropylene, nylon and wool. All create beautifully-colored, rich designs in a soft, thick, luxurious pile for unsurpassable style, quality and value. POLYPROPYLENE - is a petroleum-based fiber formed into y...
Natural Fiber Rugs
...the more heavily used areas such as halls and passageways. Jute is a very versatile, adaptable yarn which weaves well, looks and feels good and comes in natural tones. It can also be mixed with wool and linen, enabling more color variations, and improving durability, so the jute/wool/linen mix can be used throughout the home except for in kitchens or bathrooms. Coconut husks con...
Kilims
... tribes. During their migrations, these nomads, who were exposed to severe weather conditions, learned to use goat hair in the making of their tents. Goat hair is longer and much stiffer than sheep's wool. The flat-weave technique was used in the making of nomadic tents. Just as with a little girl's braided pony-tail where strands of the shorter and stiffer hair stick out, the goat hair st...
Tibetan/Nepalese Rugs
... classic Tibetan designs exemplify our inspired recreations of an antique collection which once adorned the aristocratic estates of Tibet. Woven in Tibet from handcarved and handspun Tibetan highland wool. Available in four categories of designs: Geometrics, florals, symbols and wildlife in standard and customized sizes. Due to political change in Tibet from 1959 through the early 60's, th...
Oriental Rugs
... rugs are now made in Romania, Iran and India as well. Oriental rugs represent a good value as labor costs remain low. The most expensive oriental rugs are woven from silk, cheaper oriental rugs from wool. The warmth and beauty of Oriental rugs bring interest and luxury into almost every room in the house. Their amazingly resilient and durable qualities make oriental rugs perfectly suited ...
Area Rugs
...A rug is a textile floor covering typically consisting of an upper layer of pile attached to a backing. The pile was traditionally made from wool, but, since the 20th century, synthetic fibers such as polypropylene, nylon or polyester are often used, as these fibers are less expensive than wool. The pile usually consists of twisted tufts which are typically heat-treated to maintain their struct...
Hand-Made Rugs
...an is such that the national flag features a vertical red stripe near the hoist side, containing five carpet guls (designs used in producing rugs). Kashmir is known for handknotted carpets of silk or wool. Child labour has often been used in Asia for hand knotting rugs. The GoodWeave labeling scheme used throughout Europe and North America assures that child labor has not been used: importe...
Hooked Rugs
... is not the same as latch-hooking, which uses a hinged hook to form a knotted pile from short pieces of yarn. Hooked rugs are cheerful, handmade rugs produced using scraps of fabric or wool. Antiques - especially early North American hooked rugs - can be expensive, but their modern equivalents are much more reasonable.
Axminster Rugs
...nsive Axminsters. It was a double loom process and any pattern could be produced in any required shape. It only became popular in America after WWI. Axminster rugs are a beautifully patterned wool carpet woven in the most beautiful array of colors. The "Axminster" power look was invented in England in the early 19th century. It was invented to simulate the beauty of hand woven carpet. Axmi...
Braided Rugs
...ty. Braided rugs are made by plaiting and coiling material. Braided rugs are usually oval but can be round as well. Braided rugs are cheerful, handmade rugs produced using scraps of fabric or wool. Braided rug antiques - especially early North American braided rugs - can be expensive, but their modern equivalents are much more reasonable. Since the cloth strips for the rug came from many d...
Bokhara Rugs
...reds, whites, and browns. You'll hear these referred to as Beshir, Turkoman, or Samarkand. Bokhara artisans would incorporate a weave cotton warp and weft (old Turkomans were almost always on wool foundation) in a huge variety of qualities, from really bad rugs with fewer than 50 knots per sq. in. to very tightly woven pieces with over 288 knots per sq. in. Most have wool pile, but some ha...
Chinese Rugs
... Mediterranean in the Han(206BC-AD220) and Tang(168-907) dynasties, and China enjoyed fame as the Land of Silk in the East. Silk carpet making was not a Chinese tradition, but it was born of wool weaving of nomadic tribes. While rugs were being woven in China two thousand years ago, there was not a real industry until the mid-eighteenth century. Chinese rugs differ radically from their ma...
Flokatis
...Flokati rugs are Greek hand-woven area rugs made from 100-percent wool that are almost always a natural, off-white color. They have been produced for centuries and were a staple of early Greek shepherds. The rugs originally serviced the shepherds, being used as clothing, beds for tents, keeping them warm during the long winter months. The 5th century Vlachs, who lived in Samarina, the highest V...
Needlepoint Rugs
...the hand-stitched needlepoint rug has existed since the times of William the Conqueror in 1066 A.D. Made popular in the 17th and 18th century salons of Europe, this enchanting rug is stitched in pure wool and available in a wide variety of sizes and styles. Needlepoint is more accurately described as an embroidery rather than a weave. Woolen yarn threaded through a needle is stitched by ha...
Persian Rugs
...gn and color depending on what region they come from. Saruks, Hamodans, Kashans, and Kirmans, all named for the towns they come from. The most usual material for Persian carpets and rugs was, and is, wool, but particularly fine silk Persian rugs are now much sought after. In fact, there is an old Persian saying: "The richer the man the thinner the carpet", which refers to the superb quality of the...
Rag Rugs
...es. There are as many ways of making rag rugs as there are rug-makers. In the old days, rugs were nearly always worked on hessian (sacking) or burlap, but are often made on canvas now. Felted wool was usually the main or only fabric used, but we have a vast range of different materials available to us, not all of them fabric! You can use just about anything you can cut into strips, as long...
Ryas Rugs
...inters, the rya rug is found all over Scandinavia. Originally ryas rugs were woven on a loom with the pile knotted on the warp threads by hand but now you can use a canvas foundation and knot the wool with a ratchet hook. Rya rugs have an individual style of coloring. Each knot is made of three strands of wool which allows enormous scope for using different shades of color to build up a r...
Savonnerie Rugs
...e in Southern France, in the 17th c. students of Pierre DuPont took control of the hopsice and created a self-supporting factory that flourished through the Revolution and Napoleon. This hand knotted wool rug of gaily colored florals has an antique washed look. Indicate in comments section of the order form the color desired: burgandy, emerald, black, or blue mint. Today the word Savonnerie means ...
Turkish Rugs
... Ghiordes knot. The colors most frequently used are red and blue; green, their sacred color, is used on prayer rugs. You'll find Turkish rugs called Koula, Ladik, Bergoma, Milas, or Ghiordes. Wool is the primary material used to make Turkish rugs. Many rugs are made totally from wool where it is used for both warps and wefts, and wool is the primary weft material used with cotton warps, wh...
Turkoman Rugs
...l variables - the quality and amount of the dyeing agent, the quality and temperature of the water and the time allotted to soaking - must be correctly proportioned in a particular application to the wool, a material with a set of variable properties of its own. To this already complicated brew yet another ingredient is usually added, namely a fixative, a bonding agent known as "mordant". It is ap...
Wool Rugs
...You will find that wool area rugs differ greatly in terms of their quality and price. This is due to a number of variable factors, but primarily it is simply down to the many different varieties of sheep’s wool that can be used in the production of these rugs. Not only can the wool vary depending on its breed and country of origin, but its age and general health will also help to determine how ...
Navajo Rugs
... The Two Grey Hills Rug above, is made from all natural colors. Meaning their were no commercial or vegital dyes used. The variations in the colors is made by expertly spinning different shades of wool into yarn. The black comes from sheep that produce black wool, the white from sheep that produce white wool, and the different shades of grey come from a combination of both. This style of rug is...
Indian (India) Rugs
...India offers a wide range of floor coverings that have evolved over the centuries to suit a variety of tastes, climates and budgets. The woolen and silk carpets are more renowned compared to the other materials such as cotton and several vegetable fibers, which are used for making attractive and practically useful mats and durries. In the early stages, the motifs used in the Indian carpets were...
Sisal Rugs
...iful designs, from standard flat weaves in one color to complex ribbed weaves incorporating a variety of shapes and colors. Because sisal fibers can be fairly course, softer materials such as wool and cotton are often added to it to produce a softer and more comfortable rug. Even when this technique is employed, the sisal rug will continue to be exceptionally hard wearing. You will find th...