Handle

Handle is how a rug feels and moves in the hand: soft or harsh, supple and folding or stiff and board-like. Textile dictionaries define it as the quality perceived by touching, squeezing or rubbing a fabric. In a rug it comes from the fibre and the build, including weft tension and warp depression. Aged wool has a handle that washing does not create, so it counts as age evidence, but only in person.

Also feel · drape · in the hand

See also Depressed warps, Lustre, Handspun wool

Last reviewed November 2026