Multicolor Shawl-Pattern Hand-Knotted Wool Rug, Şahzade Series

Row after row of the shawl motif, which is where the pattern takes its name: a multicolor shawl-pattern hand-knotted wool rug from the Şahzade series, 155 × 204 cm (5'1" × 6'8"), red dominant with blue, green and beige worked through it, knotted in Afghanistan, wool over a cotton foundation. One piece.

Red sets the key and the other colors answer it in stripes: blue and green inside the figures, beige wherever the drawing needs air. The palette is bright without being juvenile, because the tones themselves are mature ones — the reds run toward brick rather than scarlet and the greens sit low. Laid in a sitting room it becomes the loudest object present and the furniture ends up arranged around that. In a bedroom it does the opposite and simply warms the floor.

Months of double-knotting in Afghanistan go into a rug this size, and the small departures that hand work leaves behind — a motif a knot wider here, a color shifting half a tone there — are what separate it from anything printed. The face is wool, the frame is cotton, and a little recycled synthetic yarn is set into the foundation for durability. The weave is dense, so it sheds very little. For cleaning, a rug washer.

• Knotted by hand in Afghanistan with the traditional double knot.
• Shawl motifs set out in rows rather than scattered across the field.
• Red leads, with blue, green and beige carried through the bands.
• Wool face on a cotton foundation, with a small share of recycled synthetic yarn.
• 155 × 204 cm (5'1" × 6'8"), a middling size for a sitting room or a bedroom.
• The weave is dense enough that shedding is minimal.
• Send it to a rug washer rather than cleaning it wet at home.

Every row is slightly unlike the row above it, and after a few weeks that is the thing you look for.