Cream and Gray Plain Hand-Knotted Wool Rug, Agra Series

The whole surface is loops — thick wool bouclé tied one at a time onto a cotton base, with no pattern anywhere on it except the heathering in the yarn, where cream and gray are spun together.

01Knot by knot, by hand

Hand-knotted in India, in five sizes, of which 200 × 300 cm (6'7" × 9'10") is the one usually on the floor. Standing on it is the point. The loops are large and springy enough that they push back a little under the arch of a foot, and the effect people describe is closer to pressure than to softness. Because there is no drawing to place, the rug can be laid in any direction and moved between rooms without looking wrong.

02Color that shifts through the day

The gray in the heathering keeps the cream from reading as beige under warm lamplight, which is where most plain cream rugs go astray. Each loop is knotted individually rather than tufted or glued, which is the difference between this and the industrially made bouclé rugs it resembles at a glance. Turn a corner over and the back tells you which of the two you are holding.

03Coming off the loom

Cream shows what a room does to it, so this is not a rug for a hallway with a door onto the street, and it will want washing by a specialist sooner than a dark rug would. Hand-knotted in India, loop by loop, on a cotton base. Wool loops in heathered cream and gray, with no pattern. Large-gauge bouclé — the loops give under the foot and spring back. Reversible in direction: no top, no bottom, no pattern to align. Five sizes, from 80 × 150 cm to 240 × 340 cm. A pale rug in a busy entrance will need washing often; plan accordingly. Cleaning by hand, by people who do it for a living. Loop rugs go their own way with age — a little flatter where people stand, a little woollier everywhere else — and neither change is damage.