HAND-KNOTTED
Knot by knot
Short lengths of wool are knotted around pairs of warps, row after row, then trimmed into a soft pile.
See the oldest oneHOW RUGS ARE MADE
Knotted, or
woven flat?
Every rug starts as threads on a loom. What happens next decides how it looks and feels.
Try the knot check
KNOTby knot
- Warp first
- Knot or weave
- Count the knots
- Turn it over
A hand-knotted rug is built knot by knot into a soft pile. A kilim is woven flat, its pattern made by the threads themselves. Here is how each is made, from a 2,400-year-old carpet to the slits in a kilim, with museum sources.
Plain English, with the sources linked.
Updated
THE SHORT ANSWER
Pile, or no pile.
Knotted rugs grow a soft pile.
Flat-woven rugs make the pattern in the weave.
FLAT-WOVEN
The kilim
No knots, no pile. Coloured wefts hide the warps, and each colour is woven in its own block.
Why the slits?
THE KNOT ITSELF
Two knot families
A symmetrical knot rises evenly; an asymmetrical one opens to one side. Weaving traditions favoured one or the other.
Try the knot checkA QUICK KNOT CHECK
How is this
rug made?
Pick a construction to see how it works. The bar shows whether it gives the rug a pile.
Descriptions follow the Encyclopaedia Iranica, the Met and the V&A. Real rugs can mix techniques, so this is a guide to the terms, not a valuation.
TWO CARPETS WORTH KNOWING
Old knots,
fine knots.
One shows how far back the craft goes.
The other shows how fine it can get.
5th–4th century BC
The oldest known pile carpet
Found almost intact in a frozen burial mound in the Altai Mountains of Siberia, where the ice preserved it. It is now in the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.
PAZYRYK · STATE HERMITAGE
~5,300 knots
Knots in every 10 cm square
Its inscription dates it to 1539–40. The V&A says up to ten weavers may have worked on it at once, over several years, with wool pile coloured by dyes such as pomegranate rind and indigo.
ARDABIL · V&A, LONDON
Both are hand-knotted pile carpets. Separated by about two thousand years, they are made the same basic way: knots tied around warps, held in place by wefts, then trimmed.
READ A RUG
Four things to
look at.
Turn a corner over
On a hand-knotted rug the pattern shows on the back as a grid of tiny knots. A kilim usually looks much the same on both sides.
Feel for a pile
Run a hand across it. A knotted rug has a raised, cut pile with a direction; a flat-weave lies flat and thin.
Count along 10 cm
Count the knots along 10 cm on the back, across and down, and multiply the two numbers to estimate knots per square decimetre.
Look where colours meet
Small vertical gaps where two colours meet are a sign of slit-tapestry weaving, the classic kilim technique.
RUG FACTS
Five things worth
knowing.
Pile rugs are very old
The Pazyryk carpet, from the 5th to 4th century BC, is thought to be the oldest surviving pile carpet. It is in the State Hermitage Museum.
Two basic knots
Knots are generally tied to pairs of warps. The symmetrical knot was long called the Turkish or Ghiordes knot; the asymmetrical knot opens to one side, usually the left.
Region and knot often go together
In Persia an asymmetrical knot was most often used, and in Turkey a symmetrical one, according to the Met. It is one clue, not proof, of where a rug was made.
Density is a count
In the West, knot density is the number of knots per square decimetre or square inch. Knots tied over more than two warps (jofti) are quicker but give less detailed designs.
Kilims are tapestry-woven
The V&A describes kilims as a weft-faced plain weave. Each colour is woven in its own block, which leaves a slit where colours meet; weavers favour diagonals to keep slits short.
QUICK QUESTIONS
Rugs, answered.
Short answers to the questions people ask most.
What is the oldest known carpet?
The Pazyryk carpet is thought to be the oldest surviving pile carpet. It was found almost intact in a frozen burial mound in the Altai Mountains of Siberia, dates from the 5th to 4th century BC and is now in the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.
What is the difference between a hand-knotted and a flat-woven rug?
A hand-knotted rug has a pile: short lengths of yarn are knotted around the warp threads and trimmed, giving a soft, raised surface. A flat-woven rug such as a kilim has no knots and no pile; the pattern is made by the coloured weft threads themselves.
What is the difference between a Turkish and a Persian knot?
The symmetrical knot, long called the Turkish or Ghiordes knot, rises evenly between two warps. The asymmetrical knot opens to one side. The Met notes that Persian weavers most often used the asymmetrical knot and Turkish weavers the symmetrical one.
How is knot density measured?
In the West, knot density is given as the number of knots per square decimetre or per square inch. The Ardabil carpet at the V&A, dated 1539 to 1540, has about 5,300 knots in every 10 cm square.
Why do some kilims have small slits in them?
In tapestry weaving each colour is woven back and forth in its own block, so a vertical slit forms where two colour blocks meet. The V&A notes this makes kilims vulnerable to wear, and that weavers use diagonal lines to keep slits short.
Where the facts come from
- Oldest carpet: the Pazyryk carpet, State Hermitage MuseumGuinness World Records
- The Ardabil carpetVictoria and Albert Museum
- Carpets iii. Knotted-pile carpets: techniques and structuresEncyclopaedia Iranica
- Carpets from the Islamic world, 1600–1800The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Tapestry-woven wool carpet, Turkey, 1840–1875Victoria and Albert Museum
- Pieces of a puzzle: carpet techniquesThe Textile Museum, Washington DC