Technical Rug Terms:

F

Field:  The part of a rug’s design surrounded by the border.  The field may be blank or contain medallions or an all-over pattern.

Flat weave:  Any Rug woven without a knotted pile.

Foundation:  The combination of warps and wefts in the body of a rug.

Fringe:  Warps extending from the ends of a rug, which are treated in several ways to prevent the wefts and knots from unraveling.

G

Ghiordes knot:  See “Symmetrical knot.”

Glide Reflections:  Rigid motion with reflected repetition along a line.

Hand made:  Any rug constructed by hand.

Hand tufting: A form of hooking: yarns are pushed though the foundation of a rug (usually canvas) with a tufting gun to form a pattern.

I

Interlacing:  Atiyeh rugs used a multi-color wool-yarn interlaced within the flat selvage at two ends.  The purpose is function, not form.  Years into the future (75-100), if the fringe is worn away by use, this interlace will secure selvage and alert the owner it is time overcast this area or refringe the rug.  Think of this as a long-term warning light.

J

Jufti knot:  A knot tied over four warps instead of the usual two.

K

Kerman:  a city and province in Southeastern Iran where Atiyeh rugs were first produced.  The name Kerman also refers to our design style of rugs we now produce in China.

Kilim:  A flat weave pileless rug woven using the tapestry technique.  Commonly

decorated with geometric patterns and bright colors, these rugs are usually used in high traffic areas like kitchens and game rooms

Kork:  Any fine wool

Knots:  The wrapping around the warps of the yarn (usually wool) threads, the ends of which project to form the pile of the rug.

Knots per square inch: Number of knots per square inch rates the knot quality in hand knotted rugs.  Usually noted by the K.P.S.I. designation (i.e., K.P.S.I. 240).

L

Lines:  Some mass produced Chinese rugs graded by line count which indicates the number of knots per lineal foot.  For other characteristics of rug quality you should consider the variables of wool quality, weaving construction, pile height or the number of top colors.

Loom:  A wooden structure that holds the warp and weft threads for weaving the rug.  It can be vertical or horizontal. The height and width of the loom determines the rug size.

M

Matting:  The result of the untwisting of the yarn and intermingling of the yarn tips as a result of foot traffic.

Medallion:  The large enclosed portion of a design, usually in the center.  Typical shapes are diamonds, octagons, ovals, and hexagons.

N

Nap:  Top or body of the rug where the knot ends are cut.  Rugs have nap direction caused by the knotting direction. Often a tightly knotted rug will look light at one end and dark from the other end.

Needlepoint:  A flat weave, pileless rug woven using a stitch similar to a cross-stitch.  Mainly produced in China, workers peer through the canvas to follow the design, Which is spread out flat underneath it. Workers stitch directly onto the canvas.

Node:  One loop of a pile knot around a warp as seen from the back of the rug.

O

Oriental Rug:  A hand knotted piled or flat woven fabric made from natural fibers (most commonly wool or silk.)

Overcastting:  A process by which selvedges are wrapped or interwoven with a yarn that is not part of the foundation weft.

P

Patina:  The mellowing of the surfacing appearance of a rug usually with age or use. Can also be achieved with chemical washes.

Pattern:  Foundation of the rug design.

Persian knot:  See “Asymmetrical knot.”

Pile:  The nap of the rug or the tufts remaining after the knotted yarns is clipped.  Most rugs have wool pile, while some have silk or a combination of silk and wool pile.

Power loomed:  Machine made rug

R

Raj:  Iranian rugs use a knot count based upon raj.  This is the number of lineal knots in 7cm.

Reflection:  A rigid motion with repetition across a line (axis).

Root Names:  When Persian designs are produced in China the word Sino precedes it in a description e. g.:  Sino-Persian.  If a Kerman design is produced in China it is called Sino-Kerman. The same is true with other countries’ production such as India When Indo precedes the descriptive name.

Rotation:  Rigid motion with repetition around a point.

Runners:  Usually rugs measuring not more than 3 to 4 ft. wide and ranging from 8 to 20 ft. in length.

S

Scatter rug (throw rug):  Any small rug under 3’ x 5’.  Usually used as kitchen, bathroom, or front door rugs.

Scouring:  The washing of wool to remove unwanted lanolin and other impurities. 

Selvedge:  The edge warps of a rug and the foundation weft around those warps.

Serging:  a method of finishing edges of area rugs by using heavy, colored yarn sewn around the edges in a close, overcast stitch.

Shearing:  The professional removal of a sheep’s wool.

Silk:  Comes from the cocoon of silkworms.  Because it is an expensive fiber it is less frequently used as a pile material in handmade rugs than wool.

Soumak:  A flat weave, pileless rug woven from a technique that produces a herringbone effect.  This special weaving technique is also known as weft wrapping. Soumaks generally have a mixed cotton and wool foundation with geometric and brightly colored design. This weaving method is also used to produce storage bags, cradles, and other every-day necessities.

Spin:  The direction of a yarn’s twist.

Staple:  The average length of fibers in a yarn.

Symmetrical knot:  A knot tied on two warps:  also known as the Ghiordes or Turkish knot.

T

Talim card:  A written description of the numbers of pile knots and their colors needed to create a specific design.  Used in the execution of a rug’s design.

Tea Stain:  See Antique Finish/Wash

Tibetan knot:  A distinctly different knot.  Tibetan rugs are woven by wrapping a continuous length of yarn over a rod laid across the warps stretched on the loom. When the rod has been wrapped for its entire length, a knife is slid along the rod, cutting the wrapped yarn into two rows of pile tufts.

Translation:  Rigid motion with repetition along a line.

Turn-arounds: Reversals in direction of the new wefts.

W

Warp:  Comprising the foundation, parallel warp yarns run the length of the rug, and are interlaced with wefts.

Warp-faced:  A rug in which warps are more closely spaced that wefts and wefts are concealed.  In a balanced plain weave rug, warps and wefts are equally visible.

Washing:  See Antique Finish/Wash

Weft:  The yarns woven horizontally through the warps.

Weft twining:  A weft wrapping method in which two wefts pass across warps, twisting together after each wrap or at regular intervals.

Whip stitch:  A stitch used to overcast and lock the final weft in rug ends.

Wool:  The soft wavy or curly undercoat of various hairy mammals, especially the sheep.

Woolen:  A wool yarn of mixed staple that has been carded.  Fibers are neither as long nor as parallel as worsted yarn.  The average length of woolen yarn is shorter than 3 inches.

Worsted:  A process that occurs prior to spinning, whereby wool yarns are firmly twisted from combed fibers that are longer than three inches in length. This process improves the wool’s quality by leaving only the longer pieces of fiber for final spinning.

Y

Yarn:  A continuous, often plied strand composed of either natural or man-made fibers or filaments.  Used in weaving and knitting to from cloth.