Carpet facts & stats

Question 1

What is the name for the soft surface of loops or cut yarn on a carpet?

Accepted Answer

Pile. A carpet's pile is the raised surface of yarn tufts, which can be looped or cut.

Question 2

A 'Persian' rug traditionally comes from which modern country?

Accepted Answer

Iran. Persia is the historic name for Iran, a country famous for its hand-knotted rugs.

Question 3

What is a flat-woven rug with no pile, common in Turkey and Central Asia?

Accepted Answer

Kilim. A kilim is a flat-woven textile with no pile; shag, Axminster and Saxony are all pile carpets.

Question 4

Which synthetic fiber, widely used in carpets, was invented by Wallace Carothers's team in the 1930s?

Accepted Answer

Nylon. Nylon was developed in the mid-1930s by a team led by chemist Wallace Carothers and is now a common carpet fiber.

Question 5

Hand-knotted rug density is often described by counting what per square inch?

Accepted Answer

Knots. Knots per square inch (KPSI) is a common measure of how finely a hand-knotted rug is made.

Question 6

Wall-to-wall carpet is often laid over a cushioning layer called what?

Accepted Answer

Underlay. Underlay, also called carpet padding, sits beneath carpet to add comfort, insulation and longer wear.

Question 7

The Pazyryk carpet, the oldest known pile carpet, was found in a frozen tomb in which mountains?

Accepted Answer

Altai Mountains. The Pazyryk carpet, from about the 5th century BC, was preserved in ice in a burial mound in the Altai Mountains of Siberia.

Question 8

The carpet weaving names Axminster and Wilton come from towns in which country?

Accepted Answer

England. Axminster in Devon and Wilton in Wiltshire gave their names to two classic English methods of making woven carpet.

The basics