Type of canvas in rugs

The question of the type of canvas to use is summed up very neatly by Mr C. E. C. Tattersall in his invaluable little book Notes on Carpet-Knotting and Weaving:

The labour of making a carpet depends rather on the number of knots it contains than on its actual size, and so wide is the variation of texture that one carpet may entail more than twenty times the work of another of similar dimensions.

There is little advantage in pushing the fineness very far.

Pleasing textures can be obtained with 25 knots to the square inch; 50 will meet all ordinary requirements; while 100 may be regarded as the limit that can be reached under Western ideas of the value of time.