Are you seeing a few white knots in your area rug and wonder what these are? Well, many owners and more than a few cleaners are unaware that even though a rug is marked 100% wool, the foundation is made of cotton.
You see, when a rug is being woven the weaver often has to tie the end of one cotton foundation yarn to a new one due to the fact that there is no endless spool of cotton. Or, a yarn will break in the weaving process and need to be tied back together so that the weaver can keep working. These are known as foundation fiber knots or white knots and are found in every woven rug. They do not indicate damage to the rug. They can be white in color or whatever color the foundation is.
There are 4 ways to deal with white knots in your rug:
- Leave it alone and appreciate it as part of the natural beauty of your rug!
- Hide it by pushing it to the back of the rug (only if the weave of the rug is loose enough to allow this)
- Clip the ends of the knot strands shorter than the pile
- Hide them with ink or dye (note that this is not a permanent solution and will be undone with washing)
You should know that these white knots will become more visible with age and a good washing. You will find with age that traffic will wear down the pile of the rug and the white know becomes more visible. More modern rugs are made with a shorter pile to start so these knots may be more prevalent from the start. Washing will also take away any dye used to cover up the knot making it more noticeable.
If you have any questions or concerns about your area rug and it’s white knots, please contact us!