I am, slowly, repairing an oriental rug.  Now this repair goes far beyond a simple whipstitching of the edges…there are Holes, some actual ‘stick your hand through and wave’, some simply where the only thing left is a fragile patch of warp and weft looking a bit like screening.  I don’t know what on earth was done to; most are clearly places of heavy foot traffic, but there is one place about an inch wide and spanning the entire rug that is worn through…did someone fold it up and take a razor to it??

You will accumulate a multitude of needles, all threaded in a multitude of colours.

You will find that Plainsong music works best, failing that something in the folk genre that is singable.  So old, genuine folk music. Rock is out.

You will never have enough light.

A square inch an hour is doing well (the rug is about six and a half feet long)

There is a whole repetoire of tricks to get the new thread and knot in just right.

Repairing a warp/weft cord is possible.

If you were being paid, the number of hours you will spend would buy quite the rug.

You’re not sure why you’re doing this, but take a certain pride in it anyway.