Blue Shawl-Pattern Loom-Woven Wool Rug, Karnaval Series

Nothing in this listing is large. The four sizes begin at a 60 × 90 cm (2'0" × 2'11") mat and stop at 150 × 217 cm (4'11" × 7'1"). All four carry the same shawl pattern in 100% wool on a deep blue ground, loom-woven in India with every fringe tied by hand. Shawl patterns come off woven cloth rather than off rugs, which is why the drawing is finer than an Anatolian village pattern and why the color count is so high — reds, ochres, greens and creams packed into a field that still reads as blue from across a room.

01The tone of the ground

In a single-toned space it works as contrast and nothing else. In a room already carrying several colors it stops being a highlight and starts being the thing that ties them together, which is the more useful of its two jobs. The loom does the structure and a person does the rest; the fringes at both ends are knotted individually.

02From ground to pile

The wool is undiluted, with no cotton or synthetic in the pile, and it behaves the way undiluted wool does: it takes a footprint and loses it again, it holds color for decades and it sheds a little for the first month.

03After the color

Sizes this small go beside a bed, inside a door, or in a child's room, which is where most of them end up. Loom-woven in India, with the fringes tied by hand one at a time. 100% wool pile — no cotton and no synthetic in the surface. Shawl pattern in red, ochre, green and cream on a deep blue ground. Four sizes: 60 × 90, 89 × 125, 122 × 180 and 150 × 217 cm. New wool sheds lightly for the first weeks and then stops. Deal with spills while they are still wet; the deep cleaning is a professional job. A rug this size ends up beside a bed, and a pattern this busy is a strange and good thing to put a bare foot on first thing in the morning.