Story · 6 October 2026

The long count

A carpet takes a team of weavers most of a year. They count every knot.

Three weavers working side by side on a large carpet

The warp is strung before anyone sits down - hundreds of cotton threads, tight as a harp, running floor to ceiling.

Each knot is tied by hand around two warp threads and cut with a single stroke of a hooked blade. A good weaver ties one every few seconds, all day.