Rose Red and Plum Kilim, Hand-Woven Wool

Material: 100 percent hand-spun wool, flat-woven with soumak embroidered banding. No pile.

Care instructions

• Always use a rug pad underneath — a flatweave slips easily without one.
• Vacuum gently with the beater bar off, working along the bands rather than across them.
• Turn the kilim over every year — it is reversible and wears evenly if used both sides.
• Blot spills immediately, working from the outside in.
• Have the kilim professionally cleaned when needed — never machine wash.

Look closely and this is really two techniques in one cloth. The plain stripes are kilim, woven flat as part of the fabric itself. The rows of diamonds and hooks between them are soumak, a wrapping stitch worked over the warps afterwards, which sits proud of the surface and gives the rug a raised, almost embroidered texture. Weavers alternate them because soumak is slow and heavy while kilim is fast and thin, so banding the two together produces something durable and richly patterned without taking a year to make. No two bands here carry the same combination, which is the mark of a piece worked from memory rather than a drawing. Thin, light and reversible, it suits a wall or a layer over a larger rug as readily as the floor.