Hand knottedrugs, explained.

The rug starts as a frame of vertical foundation threads, the warp, stretched on a loom. Row by row, the weaver ties a knot of coloured yarn around each pair of warps, following the design. After each row, a few horizontal threads, the weft, are passed through and beaten down to lock the knots in place. The ends of the warp become the fringe.

Two knots are used across the rug-weaving world. The Turkish or Ghiordes knot is symmetrical: the yarn wraps both warps and comes up between them. The Persian knot is asymmetrical: it wraps one warp fully and passes under the other, which lets the weaver tie finer, more curving detail. The Persian knot is also called the Senneh knot, after the town of Senneh (today Sanandaj) in western Iran, and it gives Senneh Knot its name.

Quality comes from several things together: the intricacy of the design, the number of knots and the type of knot, the nature of the fibres, and the quality and kind of dyes. More knots per square inch allows finer detail, but a well-made rug with a bolder, lower-density design can be just as good. Turn a corner over: on the back of a hand-knotted rug you can see every knot, and the pattern shows almost as clearly as on the front.

Because every knot is tied around the foundation, the pile cannot pull out the way a glued or tufted pile can. A good hand-knotted rug, padded and cleaned every few years, is made to be used for generations and handed down.