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Fabric Design · Lecture 04
Twill Weaves
Regular, irregular and steep twills, cavalry twill, and the pointed twill — all built from one rule.
2/12/23/1Steep 63°Pointed
The twill rule
Write the lifting order of one end as up/down numbers — 2/1 means two up, one down — and move it one end to the right on each successive pick. The repeat is the sum of the numbers on both ends and picks; the diagonal runs at 45° when the step is one end per pick.
2/1 twill (warp-faced) · 6 ends × 6 picks
Fabric effect (2× repeat)
2/2 twill (balanced) · 8 ends × 8 picks
Fabric effect (2× repeat)
3/1 twill (drill) · 8 ends × 8 picks
Fabric effect (2× repeat)
A warp-faced twill (2/1, 3/1) shows mostly warp on the face; turn the cloth over and you see the weft-faced 1/2 or 1/3. Balanced twills (2/2) look the same on both sides. Twills interlace less often than plain weave and can be set denser (see cover factor divisors in Weaving Calculations 12).
Irregular and steep twills
Irregular twill 2/1/1/2 · 6 ends × 6 picks
Fabric effect (2× repeat)
Several up/down groups of different sizes still shift one end per pick.
Steep twill (63°) — cavalry twill · 8 ends × 8 picks
Fabric effect (2× repeat)
The lifting order advances two ends per pick, so the diagonal rises at 63°; a pronounced double ridge is typical of cavalry twill.
2/2 twill, S direction · 8 ends × 8 picks
Fabric effect (2× repeat)
Shifting to the left gives an S twill; Z and S twills alternate in herringbones (Lecture 7).
Pointed twill
Reverse the draft at the end of the repeat — thread the ends 1-2-3-4-3-2 — and the twill line turns back on itself, forming points (chevrons) warp-way. The weave below is a 2/2 twill pointed on 8 ends.
Pointed 2/2 twill · 6 ends × 8 picks
Fabric effect (2× repeat)
Draft · 4 healds
Threading order: 1 2 3 4 3 2
Lifting (peg) plan
Note the draft: only 4 healds are needed although the repeat is 6 ends wide, because ends 5 and 6 repeat the movement of ends 3 and 2.