Kazak is one of the trickier names to explain. There is a town called Kazak (or Gazakh) in the northwestern corner of Azerbaijan. But, other than in old books about rugs, that’s not the name of a group of people in the area. Some have suggested that the term is a corruption of Cossack, while others think it comes from the name of the town. In any case, Kazak rugs are made by Armenians, Azeri Turks, Georgians, and Kurds living in the area between Tbilisi and Erivan. The city of Kazak is more or less is in the middle of this region, so it is a convenient marker on the map for these rugs.

Kazak rugs are usually made with wool dyed in bright colors with red and blue being most common. They use large-scale, geometric motifs with strong, angular lines. This sock uses the deep blue common to the region and strips the characteristic angular lines to their most basic form.

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