MaterialA Karakul sheep, the source of carpet wool. Source: Wikimedia Commons
A hardy fat-tailed sheep breed of Central Asia whose strong, lustrous carpet wool is the raw material of Turkmen rugs.
The Karakul is a hardy, fat-tailed sheep of the Central Asian steppe, named after a village on the Amu Darya. Its fleece is carpet wool, not garment wool: coarse, strong and naturally low in grease, which is exactly why it takes natural dye so deeply and ages with a quiet luster.
Hand-spun, the yarn comes out slightly uneven, and that unevenness is a feature. It scatters light and takes dye at slightly different rates, giving a handmade rug a depth that even, machine-spun yarn never quite matches.
