Before one can begin with the actual process of knotting a carpet, one has to have a suitable loom. Looms are generally made out of wood and are made up of the upper beam, which is also known as the warp beam, the heddle and the lower beam otherwise called the cloth beam. These three components are held together by two vertical supports. The warps are then stretched tightly between the two horizontal beams. The material used for the warps is usually cotton but can also occasionally be wool, goat’s hair or silk. Two horizontal sticks then create the shed: shed stick: shed stick and heddle, both of which are attached to the loom in such a way that they remain movable and can therefore be adjusted. The plain weave is made by weaving one or more wefts after each row of knots.

A loom can either be used standing upright, also known as a vertical loom, or lying on the ground, which is then called a horizontal loom. Although the width of the loom has to match the width of the particular carpet in question, the height of the loom is less dependent on the carpets size. This is because the part of the carpet that is already finished can, in intervals, be wound onto the roller-beam.

Adding horizontal rows of knots in between the warps produces the depth or thickness of a pile carpet. However, technically speaking they are not really knots but rather tightened loops. The knots are usually tied around two, and very occasionally four, warps. The most frequently used knots are the Persian knot (also known as Senneh knot or Asymmetric knot) and the Turkish knot (also known as Gördes knot or symmetric knot):

Gördes knot (from above)	Gördes knot (from the front)
Senneh knot (from above)	Senneh knot (from the front)

The first step to tying a knot is to choose the appropriate colour. After the knot has been made by hand, or by a suitable instrument that is similar to a crochet needle, it then gets cut with a knife. When a horizontal row has been finished and the weft has been woven, the fabric gets beaten with a comb like instrument called a beater.

Besides these well - known knots, there are also a series of rarely used knots, which are, however, usually just a variation on the theme. Good examples are the Spanish- and Tibetan knots, although both of them are no longer used and can only be found in museum exhibits.

The pile of a carpet is usually made out of wool and only very rarely made out of silk or goat’s hair.

The upper and lower finishings of a carpet usually consist of a few rows of tightly woven wefts (plain weave or kelim), or alternatively an appropriate thread to secure the carpet. Both variations are there to stop the knots detaching themselves from the fabric. The warps that continuously run through the textiles are only visible as fringes on the narrow ends.

The finishings on the side of the carpet are however called selvage or selvedge. They secure the side edges, (or warp wise), of the carpet. Winding wool around the edges creates the selvage. It can be plain or multicoloured, depending on the type of carpet and its origin.

The finishing process entails trimming and washing the finished piece of work. The trimming is mostly done by hand with a pair of shears and the washing is done with clear water, as long as it is only a question of cleaning the carpet. If however, the carpet should obtain a silky shine, one can nowadays put it through a so-called antique wash that contains added chemicals.