tamgas   Nomadic livestock brand which may also be a tribal emblem woven into rugs.

talim (P)   A written description of the numbers of pile knots and their colors to create a specific design.  Used in the production of factory rugs.

tapestry weave   Any one of a variety of weaves in which there are no supplementary wefts and the pattern or design is created by ground wefts and the pattern or design is created by ground wefts that are not continuous from selvage to selvage.

tapestry yarn   A 4-ply, hard-spun yarn.

tar (P)   Warp.

tent band, girth, jolam, yup   Tent bands, visible from the inside of Turkmen tents, serve both structural and decorative purpose.  Some tent bands are ornamented with pile.  Tent bands are between 8 in. and 22 in. wide and about 40 ft. long.

torba (T)   A shallow bag hung from the tent structure.  A torba is smaller than a joval.  Pile knotting may be used on only one face of a torba.

triclinium   See "audience rug."

tun (P)   Warp.

turnarounds   In reweaving foundation, new warp reverses direction when it passes from one column of knot nodes to the next column of knot nodes.  New weft reverses direction when it passes under a knot.  These reversals of direction are called "turnarounds."

Turkbaff   See "symmetric knot."

Tukish knot   See "symmetric knot."

twill   A basic diagonal weave in which warps consistently skip 2, 3, 4 or 5 wefts or wefts consistently skip 2, 3, 4 or 5 warps.

V

vagier reh (P)   "That which is gotten from something else."  A sample rug.

vakif (A)   The Islamic practice of giving land, rugs or other assets to the mosque.

vase carpet   Carpets with a field filled by flowers and tendrils or a lattice with a vase located at one or both ends.

verneh   Caucasian flatweave rug.

vordelik (T)   Wall hanging.  Silk rugs are often used in this manner.

W

warp   Warps are the initial structural components of loom-woven fabrics.  Parallel warp yarns run the length of the loom.  Wefts are woven through the warps and pile knots are tied to the warps.

warp faced   In a balanced plain weave, warps and wefts are equally visible.  In a warp faced fabric, warps are more closely spaced than wefts and wefts are concealed.

warp offset, warp depression   A set of warps can be held in a plane by tight supporting wefts (cable wefts) while alternate warps are permitted to lie in another plane due to loose and bending wefts (sinuous wefts).  Alternate warps are seen to be depressed from the back of the rug.  Warps may be offset to the extent that one warp may lie on top of another.  See "cable weft."

washing   Rugs may be washed in chemical solutions to soften (bleach) colors and to increase the lustre of fibers.

weft   Wefts are yarns woven through warps by means of a shuttle.  Wefts are horizontal or crosswise yarns when the fabric is viewed on a loom.

weft chaining   A weft wrapping technique similar to crochet work in which weft loops are pulled through each other as they pass around warps.

weft faced   In a balanced plain weave, warps and wefts are equally visible.  In a weft faced fabric, wefts are more closely spaced than warps and warps are concealed.  Because of the warp spacing dictated by pile knotting, end killims are usually weft faced.

weft float brocade   The use of supplementary wefts, not continuous from selvage to selvage, to create a design by skipping over warps.  The ground fabric is usually a plain weave in oriental rugs.

weft twining   A weft wrapping method in which two wefts pass across warps, twisting together after each warp or at regular intervals.

weft wrapping   Any system by which wefts loop around warps rather than only interlacing or passing over and under warps.  Soumak and weft chaining are two forms of weft wrapping.

weld   The plant, Reseda luteola, the stalks, leaves and flowers of which yield a yellow dye.

whip stitch   A simple stitch used in overcastting and to lock the final weft in rug ends.

woolen   A wool yarn of mixed staple that has been carded.  Fibers are neither as long or as parallel as worsted yarn.

worsted   a wool yarn of long staple with fibers that have been combed prior to spinning.  Combing produces more parallel fibers than carding.

Y

yak-gereh (P)   Asymmetric knot.

yastik (T)   A small Anatolian pillow face about 1 1/2 ft. by 3 ft.

yatak (T)   Anatolian shaggy-pile rugs made as sleeping mats.

Z

"Z" spun   Yarn spun in a counter-clockwise direction.  The diagonal lines in the "Z" suggests the direction of spin.

zalil   See "esperek."

zar (P)   Persian linear measure of about 41 or 44 inches.  Also, gold.

zaronim (P)   A Persian rug of about 5 ft. by 3 1/2 ft.  Literally, one and one-half zars.

zili, sili   A Caucasian flatweave.

zilu (P)   Woven cotton rug.

Glossary of Terms A through L
Glossary of Terms G through M
Glossary of Terms N through S
Glossary of Terms T through Z