Wool!

In a land like Iran where mountains and water are plentiful, there's nothing better for raising sheep and goats.  The high altitudes cause the wool to grow thicker, finer, and more lustrous.  This is where it all begins.   The sheep are shorn in the spring, and in tribal areas, the ladies spend all summer spinning it into the yarn they will use for winter weaving. The longer the fiber, the better the quality and the easier it is to spin.   It's a never ending process! 

 I can't say enough about the merits of wool.  It's my favorite fiber on the planet.  Its chemical structure makes it one of the wonders of nature because it has an ability to keep a person warm even when wet.  Because of it's scratchy, tough nature, it wears well on the floor.

Old tribal carpets were made entirely of wool.  Village carpets usually have wool pile and a cotton foundation.  City carpets usually use a high quality wool in the pile, and then a silk weft.  A carpet which is made entirely of wool and goat hair, has a pliable, velvety feel.

Cotton

This plant has been around for thousands of years.  In Iran it has been cultivated since ancient times.  Because of its long fibers, it spins well into very fine threads.  Carpets made on a cotton foundation are often heavier in feel than those made on wool.  But with the finest cotton threads as a warp, the weaver can then tie finer knots, thus producing a finer material.  

Cotton lasts a long time, though not as long as wool or silk.  One of the things which plagues cotton is dry rot, a fungus which grows on cotton which has become wet and then dry and then wet again.  This causes it to lose its strength so that even the slightest pressure can result in damage.  The best remedy for this is not to get cotton wet.  

Some tribal weavings were made using cotton because cotton can be bleached whiter than wool and is suitable as a foundation for more finely woven items.  In tribal bags, cotton was often used to get a bright white.

Silk

I like to think of silk as glorified worm spit.  This keeps me from falling under the lure and fever which has plagued much of the world for thousands of years concerning silk.  

Since the Chinese discovered that they could unravel those cocoons and create fine silk cloth with it, this worm has been the most popular in the world.  Whole economies have been based on its trade.  Roads have been named for it: The Silk Road.   

From birth, the little silk worm leads a charmed life- being fed on a steady diet of mulberry leaves, and coddled until it weaves its own cocoon.   No butterfly is allowed to emerge, though.  Instead, the cocoon is killed and unraveled.  I guess the butterfly part comes out in the beautiful fabrics and yarns then made by spinning countless threads of worm spit together.  

The use of silk as a warp material allows the weaver to tie the finest knots of all.  And the use of silk as a pile gives it a sheen that does hearken to the gossamer wings of a butterfly.  Though made from the delicate threads of a cocoon, silk is very durable and wears well.  As pictured, Turkoman tribes people made their every day coats out of it because they knew of the durable and elegant qualities.

Silk also stands up against natural predators because what animal would want to be caught feasting on worm spit?  Many of the textiles in museums today are made of silk because silk lasts forever.  I suppose it is the diamond of fibers.  It's still just worm spit to me.