A new weaver asked me if "broken twill" was the correct term to use for her weaving "structure" after she completed samples from a recent workshop. The instructor provided the draft and used that term, so in that context I thought it was okay.

However, I did not see the actual draft. That got me to thinking, could "broken twill" actually mean a variety of different structures? In other words, it's a pretty broad term, right? When searching the term in Handweaving.net, a whole variety of patterns come up, some with a straight draw threading where the twill break happens in the treadling, and some with the break happening in the tie-up.

Yes, I floundered about with my edition of Emery in the pursuit of an anwer.

While asking this question, I am thrown back to thinking about Sara von Treskow's presentation at CWS in Maryland many years ago. She presented a draft naming system that was very precise by identifying the floats, warp or weft, in order, as part of the naming convention. With the resulting name, you immediately knew a lot more about the structure construction without even seeing a draft.

The new weaver was seeking a simple answer to complete her sample sheet - but her question left me with more questions.

Sally

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