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# Woven Cloth Classifications

This document lists common weave structures and techniques organized under TempoWeave's three coverage-based cloth categories, with definitions. Category is determined by the proportion of warp-to-weft visible in the finished cloth (driven by sett + beat), not by threading or treadling alone — a given threading can sometimes appear in more than one category depending on how it's woven. We have grouped commonly used structures and styles under Normal, Warp and Weft faced weaves.  Typically warp and weft faced cloths are thicker and have less drape; they are often used as tapestries or rugs. 

## Normal 

Warp and weft are both visible; sett and beat can be proportional or balanced, meaning that the ends per inch of warp can be greater than the picks per inch in weft, or vica-versa.

Some weave structures often used in "normal" cloth follow:

* **Plain weave** — The simplest interlacement: each weft thread passes over one warp thread, under the next, alternating every row. Forms the base of most balanced fabrics.
  * **Basketweave** — Plain weave woven with two or more warp and weft threads treated as a single unit (2/2, 3/3, etc.), producing a coarser, more textured checkerboard look.
  * **Half-basket** — Basketweave variant where warp and weft groupings are unequal (e.g., 2/1), giving a subtler ribbed/basket texture.
* **Twill family** — Structures where the interlacement point moves diagonally across the cloth from row to row, producing a visible diagonal line.
  * **Straight/even twill (2/2, 2/1, 3/1, etc.)** — Standard diagonal twill named for the float length over/under (e.g., 2/2 = over 2, under 2).
  * **Broken twill** — The diagonal is deliberately interrupted/reversed at intervals rather than running continuously, breaking up the visual line.
  * **Herringbone** — Twill reversed at regular intervals to create a zigzag/chevron pattern.
  * **Point twill** — Twill threading reversed at a "point" to create a symmetrical diamond or zigzag motif; the threading basis for structures like krokbragd.
  * **Undulating/wavy twill** — Twill threaded with varying float lengths to create wave-like curved lines instead of straight diagonals.
  * **Diamond twill** — Point twill threaded and treadled to form closed diamond shapes.
  * **Advancing twill** — Each threading repeat shifts by more than one shaft, producing complex, elongated diagonal patterning.
* **Overshot** — A supplementary-weft pattern weave: a pattern weft floats over blocks of the ground plain-weave structure (woven with a fine tabby weft alternating with the thicker pattern weft), creating bold figured motifs against a plain-weave ground.
  * **Tied overshot** — Overshot variant where extra tie-down points are added to shorten the pattern weft floats, giving a firmer, more durable cloth.
* **Summer and Winter** — A tied-down supplementary-weft weave (typically on 4+ shafts) where the pattern weft is anchored every other thread, producing a reversible cloth with pattern on one face and its "negative" on the other.
* **Crackle weave** — A four-shaft point-twill-derived structure combining tabby and twill-like blocks, giving a texture between overshot and twill with shorter floats than overshot.
* **Huck / Huck lace** — A weave using floats arranged to create small textured or lace-like openings, based on a plain-weave ground with float groupings.
* **M's and O's** — A block weave using floats grouped to create a basket-like or waffle-like textured surface, worked in two blocks that alternate.
* **Bronson lace / Barleycorn** — Lace-effect weaves built on a plain-weave base with floats arranged to form small geometric lace motifs (barleycorn refers to a specific spot-motif variant).
* **Shadow weave** — A color-and-weave effect structure using alternating light/dark threads in both warp and weft with a twill-based threading, creating subtle shaded blocks and patterns from color placement rather than structural floats alone.
* **Waffle weave** — A structure using floats arranged in nested squares that pull in during finishing, creating a three-dimensional honeycomb/waffle texture.
* **Doubleweave** — Two layers of plain weave woven simultaneously on the same loom, which can be kept separate, joined at edges (tubular cloth), or interchanged to swap layers and form pattern blocks.
  * **Doubleweave blocks** — Doubleweave where the two layers are exchanged in a block pattern (pick-up or block-threaded) to create bold two-color pictorial or geometric designs.
* **Deflected doubleweave** — A doubleweave variant where threads are deflected out of their straight vertical/horizontal paths, creating curved lines within a grid-based structure.
* **Lace weaves (Bronson/spot lace family)** — General term for structures producing small perforated or textured lace-like motifs on a plain-weave ground via strategic float placement.
* **Pattern & Ground / compound weave structures** — Multi-shaft-group systems (as used in drawloom and complex weaving) where a figuring weft and ground weft interact under a three-state tie-up system; classified as Normal when woven with balanced sett.

## Weft-Faced

Weft completely covers the warp; sett is opened and/or beat is packed to hide the warp entirely. The weave structure helps bring different weft colors to the surface, so what is on the surface of one side is usually visibile on the back.

* **Boundweave** — A weft-faced technique using two wefts per pick — a heavier pattern weft and a finer binder/tabby weft — with the binder locking the pattern weft into discrete color blocks while itself staying hidden in the cloth.
  * **Rosepath boundweave** — Boundweave woven on a rosepath (point-twill-like) threading, the classic Scandinavian form.
  * **Other point/block-threaded boundweave variants** — Boundweave built on alternate threadings (block or other point drafts) to vary the pattern repeat and motif shapes.
* **Krokbragd** — A Norwegian weft-faced technique usually woven on a 3-shaft point twill threading with a 3-treadle system, alternating a pattern weft with a binder weft to produce small diagonal/step geometric motifs.
* **Tapestry** — A weft-faced technique where discontinuous wefts of different colors are worked back and forth only within their own design areas (rather than selvedge-to-selvedge), building an image or pattern freehand.
  * **Plain (tabby-based) tapestry** — Tapestry woven on a plain-weave structure, the most common tapestry base.
  * **Slit tapestry** — Where two color areas meet vertically, a small vertical slit is left unjoined between them.
  * **Dovetail tapestry** — Adjacent color areas share a common warp thread, interlocking the wefts around it to avoid a slit.
  * **Interlock tapestry** — Adjacent wefts of different colors literally hook around each other between warp threads to join color areas without a slit.
* **Rep weave (weft rep / Finnish rep)** — A weft-faced structure using a paired/grouped warp with a fine, dense sett so that only the weft shows, typically producing a fine ribbed surface; pattern comes from color changes in the weft picks.
* **Rag rugs** — Weft-faced plain weave using strips of fabric as the weft, beaten hard against a widely-spaced warp so very little of the warp shows.
* **Taquete** — A supplementary-weft-faced block weave (structurally related to the boundweave/summer-and-winter family) where pattern and ground wefts interchange to form blocks, with the warp fully hidden.
* **Soumak** — A supplementary weft-wrapping technique where the weft is wrapped around groups of warp threads (rather than simply interlaced), typically used to add raised, braid-like texture within a weft-faced ground.
* **Finnweave** — A weft-faced technique closely related to boundweave, using a similar pattern/binder weft system, associated with Scandinavian (particularly Finnish) rugs and wall hangings.
* **Any balanced-threading structure woven weft-faced** — A structure normally classified as Normal (e.g., overshot, point twill) can be woven with an opened sett and packed beat to fully hide the warp, moving it into this category — this is structurally how krokbragd relates to a "plain" point twill draft.

## Warp-Faced

Warp completely covers the weft; sett is closed tight and weft is beaten to nearly disappear.

* **Warp rep** — A warp-faced structure using a very dense warp sett with a heavier weft that's fully hidden, producing pattern and ribbing entirely from warp color and threading. The interlacement of the cloth is plain weave and is often designed with multiple blocks of plain weave.
* **Inkle-woven bands** — Narrow bands woven on an inkle loom, using a continuous closed-shed warp under high tension so the warp completely covers the weft; pattern comes from warp color arrangement (often with pick-up floats).
* **Backstrap warp-faced bands** — Similar warp-faced narrow-band weaving done on a backstrap loom, common in many pick-up-patterned textile traditions.
* **Warp ikat** — A technique where the warp threads are resist-dyed with a pattern before weaving; the cloth is then woven warp-faced so the pre-dyed pattern reads clearly through the warp alone.
* **Pick-up warp-faced bands (Baltic, Andean, etc.)** — Narrow warp-faced bands where individual warp threads are manually picked up/manipulated during weaving to create supplementary-warp figured motifs, common to Baltic and Andean textile traditions.
* **Warp-faced plain weave bands** — Simple warp-faced bands with plain-weave interlacement and no supplementary patterning technique; pattern (if any) comes purely from warp color striping. (Card/tablet weaving is a related but structurally distinct technique, also typically warp-faced.)