What is a carpet?
A carpet is a pile weaved lag characterized by its length of pile.
The pile weave is a form of textile created by weaving the warp thread and the weft such as wool and silk.
It is presumed that the pile weave began in 4-5 B. C. In Turkey and Iran, especially, it became popular in 16th century, and its manufacturing method spread far and wide from the North Africa to the Central Asia.
The manufacturing method may be divided into two general styles: “double-knit” or “Turkish knit” and “single-knit” or “Persian knit.” As its name shows, Persian knit is a single knitted cloth. On the contrary, Turkish knit is strong because of its double knitting.
Many knots make it easy to describe carve and circle.
On detailed designed carpets, you can find dozens of knots in a square centimeter.
Recently many machine-made carpets are produced, and a carpet becomes a popular item in Europe, American, and Japan.
What is a kilim?
Kililm means a plain-weave woolen textile in Turkish, and had been produced by nomads. Interweaving the warp spread with the weft is its basic process and its texture is plain unlike the length of pile on carpets. It was the necessities of life and its history is older than carpet’s. As you know, nomads moved with its house and animals from place to place, so a foldable, wieldy kilim might be a handy item for them. Although kilims are mainly made by wool, some of them are made by goats’ fur, camels’ hair, and cotton. Poisonous insects such as a scorpion and a centipede don’t like a smell and texture of kilim. So nomads could avoid these insects by spreading kilim in their tents. In Turkey, there are people who live like nomads during summer. They, in fact, live with kilims now.
Not only as lugs, were kilims made as bags. Some can be used as the bag to keep foods or carrying like a rucksack. Due to its convenience, kilims have been used in various ways like what is now called multi-cover. Many Asian countries (mainly the West and Central Asia) have been produced interesting kilims. Each area has characteristics and different designs.
How a kilim is weaved
There are various ways of weaving to produce a kilim. Among plain-weave kilims, its way of interweaving the weft is different.
Kilim: interweave the warp with the weft by turns, push, and repeat the same process. It is the most usual way.
Cicim: interweave another color of threads with kilim and make patterns. A Cicim looks like an embroidery.
Sumak: interweave another weft with kilim. As a characteristic for Sumak, the thread is twisted from the front to the back. This technique can often be found in Iran kilims.
Zilli: interweave plain-weave kilim with adding the weft. Zilli can describe oblique patterns.