Wheat Gold and Cream Diamond Lattice Kilim, Hand-Woven Wool

Material: 100 percent hand-spun wool, flat-woven with soumak embroidered lattice. 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 weave rather than across it.
• Turn the kilim over every year — it is reversible and wears evenly if used both sides.
• Blot spills immediately, working from the outside in. Pale grounds mark more readily than dark ones.
• Have the kilim professionally cleaned when needed — never machine wash.

Almost every Afghan flatweave is woven on a strong ground — madder red, indigo, deep brown — because the wool takes those dyes best and because a dark surface hides the wear of a working life. A pale one like this is the exception, and it changes the whole character of the piece: the same dense diamond lattice that reads as bold on red becomes quiet here, closer to embroidered linen than to a tribal rug. The colours inside the compartments are held to olive, apricot, sage and terracotta, all within a few tones of the ground, so the pattern emerges slowly rather than announcing itself. It is the easiest of these weavings to live with in a pale room, and the one that will show a spill soonest.