Pile and yarn — Woven Wind guide

The pile tab

The pile is knotted onto the cloth in rows. These controls decide how many threads there are and how long they grow.

knotted · flat-woven	With or without pile. Flat-woven shows only the cloth.
knots	Knots across the width of the rug. More knots, finer detail, more threads to move.	40–400
ply	Strands in every knot. More ply fills the pile in.	1–8
height	How long the pile grows.	0.01–0.4
carve	The motif cuts the pile higher and lower, so the pattern stands out in relief.	0–1
detail	Segments along each thread. More segments bend more smoothly.	6–24

The tab also counts the threads. Above 800,000 it notes “heavy live, fine to export”: the live view may slow down, but pictures and videos still come out right. Choosing a mood, or wild, sets knots back to 220 and ply back to 4.

What they doEach pair differs in one control.

A rug with very short pile; the kolam is crisp — **height 0.03**short, crisp

The same rug with long pile; the kolam blurs into shag — **height 0.20**long shag

A rug with few knots; the cloth shows between sparse tufts — **knots 60**sparse

A rug with many knots; dense and fine — **knots 300**dense

A tall-pile rug without carving; the motif is flat — **carve 0**one height

The same rug carved; the motif stands taller — **carve 0.9**the motif in relief

A rug with one strand per knot; thin pile — **ply 1**thin

A rug with eight strands per knot; full pile — **ply 8**full

How a thread holds itselfBody and nap, in the pile tab.

Body
spring	How hard each thread springs back upright.	0–1
calm	Damping: how soon movement dies away.	0–1
anchor	Extra stiffness near the knot.	0–1
tuft	Above the middle, the threads of one knot lean together; below it, they splay apart.	0–1
twist	The yarn’s ply as a curl along each thread.	0–1
unruly	Thread-to-thread variation in length and lean.	0–1
thickness	How thick each thread is drawn.	0.05–1

Nap
lean	How far the pile leans at rest.	0–1
direction	A dial: which way it leans. 90° points to the near end of the rug.	0–359°

Five yarnsIn the light tab.

The kolam rug in wool, close up — **wool**soft and matte

The kolam rug in silk, with bright highlights — **silk**a sharp, bright sheen

The kolam rug in jute, pale and dry — **jute**coarse, pale and dry

The kolam rug in metallic yarn, with coloured glints — **metallic**coloured glints

The kolam rug in velvet, shining with its nap — **velvet**dark down the pile, pale side-on

The light tab

Yarn
wool … velvet	The five yarns above.
sheen	How strong the yarn’s highlight is.	0–1.5
gloss	How sharp that highlight is.	0–1
sunlit tips	Brightens the last part of each thread.	0–1
depth	Shade deep in the pile, near the knots.	0–1

Lamp
from	A dial: the side the light comes from. The shadow falls the other way.	0–359°
height	The light’s angle above the floor. Lower light, longer shadow.	5–90°
backlight	Light through the threads when you look towards the lamp.	0–1
exposure	Overall brightness, in stops.	−2–2

Room
floor	The colour of the floor and background.
shadow	How dark the rug’s shadow is.	0–1
vignette	Darkens towards the corners.	0–1

Camera
film · close-ups · soft focus	The camera that films the rug by itself. See chapter seven.

Video
length	How long “mp4 from now” records. A loop always lasts one weather loop.	5 · 10 · 20 · 30 s
fps	Frames a second, for both kinds of video.	30 · 60