Turquoise Oushak-Pattern Handwoven Wool Rug, Mahal Series

In Pakistan there are workshops that have kept the Anatolian double knot alive for generations, and one of them made this: a Mahal Series Oushak-pattern rug, turquoise ground inside broad cream borders, 197 × 261 cm (6'6" × 8'7"), wool over cotton. One piece.

Turquoise is the difficult member of the blue family — too green and it turns clinical, too blue and it stops being turquoise at all. Here it holds in the middle, cooled by the cream that surrounds it and warmed by the earth tones inside the motif work. The Oushak forms are drawn with fine curves and flower shapes rather than hard geometry, and they behave differently at different hours: direct sun lifts them off the ground almost completely, while evening light flattens them back into it and the whole rug goes quiet.

The double knot the weavers used ties around two warps and is the reason a rug of this age of design survives a century of feet. Wool makes the whole visible surface, cotton the foundation, plus a marginal amount of synthetic thread to hold the shape. It is not a thick rug, and the hand of it is solid rather than soft; that solidity is why it keeps its rectangle and why a vacuum is enough between washes. Hand-dyed yarn puts a great many natural tones into one turquoise field, which is the thing worth looking at up close. Take it to a professional for washing.

• Woven in Pakistan by hands that still work the Anatolian double knot.
• Turquoise field framed by wide cream borders in earth tones.
• Fine curving Oushak motifs, drawn as flowers rather than geometry.
• Hand-dyed yarn: many natural tones inside a single color.
• Wool surface, cotton foundation, a little synthetic yarn for form.
• 197 × 261 cm (6'6" × 8'7") — a sitting room, a study, an office.
• Solid rather than soft, and it keeps its shape.
• Professional washing. One rug.

Turquoise dates faster than any other color in a rug, and this one avoids it by being three tones at once.