Why Are There Loose Threads?

Pop-ups are a very natural part of the settling period of a hand-knotted rug, more common in the first 2 months. Due to the hand-crafted nature of our products, sometimes tightly spun yarn is hiding beneath the surface of the pile. With vacuuming, foot traction and general use, these strands of yarn can begin to unfurl and lengthen themselves, causing them to ‘pop-up’ above the usual pile height. These pop ups can be carefully trimmed to be level with the rest of the pile, or pushed back through without affecting the integrity of the rug. This is usually required every couple of weeks for the first few months.

You’ll find pop ups more on jute rugs due to the thickness of the yarn. These will be either stray pieces or chunks. We tend to push through the through the thicker ends and trim the stray pieces but cutting all pop ups is completely safe and will not affect the integrity of the rug.

You may see just a small single strand of yarn or a large chunk, on flat weave designs such as Armadillo's Sherpa rug. Chunks are where a new strand has been woven in ~ the ends are not knotted in the weaving process. As there is a very long crossover of strands, pushing back or cutting is perfectly fine✂️