When you are making hand woven cotton rugs, the number of working warp ends to the inch is called, in weaving terminology, the sett. To decide how many warp ends will be put on the loom, you must first decide how wide the loom woven rag rug is to be and how dense.
If the warp threads are too thin for the weft, the hand woven wool rug will be rather sloppy and you will be able to poke your finger through it easily. If the warp is too thick for the weft, the finished woven vinyl rug will be rather stiff and hard and the weft will not be able to cover the warp properly.
The aim is, of course, to make a firm woven sisal rug of good texture. This is done by adjusting the balance between the amount of warp ends per inch and the amount of weft per inch.
For wilton woven rugs, if a thick warp yarn is available it can be used singly, but it is more usual to use two, three or four warp threads together as one working warp end. It is usual to have between three and six working ends per inch in the warp. In general, the thicker the working ends per inch or the greater their number, the thinner the weft yarn must be for natural woven rugs.
The selvedge
During weaving of the machine woven rugs, the outside warp ends get quite a lot of wear and therefore need to be strengthened. The area of strengthening is called the selvedge. In woven rug weaving, this area is particularly necessary because the woven throw rugs edges are naturally given a lot of wear and tear in use.
To make a selvedge on a narrow leather woven rug, the two outside warp ends are worked together. In a wider woven rug, the four outside warp ends are worked together.
The texture of the weave in hand woven cotton rugs has to be considered from two points of view, the artistic and the technical designs of cloth.