Materials & Techniques

A join formed when discontinuous elements from adjacent areas turn back alternately around the element of the opposite set that is their common boundary.

Yarns that do not extend from selvedge to selvedge, but are confined to specific areas, usually allow for changes of color. In such cases the yarns turn back on themselves at the edge of each color area. When such yarns form the ground fabric of a cloth, the warp yarns are either interlocked or dovetailed, while the weft yarns may or may not be similarly joined. Our knowledge of the exact techniques with which cloths with discontinuous warp yarns were constructed is fragmentary.

An embroidered structure, derived from cross-knit looping, in which the thread is worked into the group fabric as well as around the cross of a previous stitch. It can be used to fill in solid areas or as an edge binding.

A symmetrical suspended knot, composed of two contiguous simple loops facing in opposite directions, taken over the same mesh loop. This structure is used in most Andean four-cornered hats, whether they have pile or not. Cow hitch is also referred to as lark's head knot.

A weave with two sets of warp, each of a different color, that are co-equal in the fabric. One set floats regularly on one face of the fabric while the other set floats regularly on the opposite face.

A type of finish on the warp edge of a fabric made after the weaving is completed, found in some Peruvian tapestry-woven fabrics. Longer than normal warp loops projecting from the end of the fabric are put through each other in sequence. Presumably, the longer than normal loops result from the removal of one or more heading cords or sticks that were present when the fabric was on the loom.

Decorated with the addition of discontinuous supplementary-weft yarn alternating with the ground weft yarns during the weaving of a fabric. The discontinuous supplementary-weft yarns each pass back and forth in their own pattern area, and are not carried from one pattern area to another.

Technique of interworking a set of elements fixed at one end by deflecting the free ends.