ground vs.pattern

Ground usually refers to the cloth structure on which a pattern warp or pattern weft floats. If the (supplementary) pattern warp or weft is cut away from the cloth, the ground structure remains intact. Such grounds are found in overshot, crackle, summer and winter, and other tied unit weaves, but not in M's and O's, lace weaves, double weave, or damask, though these can also be block weaves or unit weaves or both. Pattern, an even more general term, refers to the area of cloth where the pattern warp or weft appears on the surface, but it can also mean any part of the design that the weaver designates as pattern on what is also an arbitrary designation of background. In beiderwand, for example, the 'pattern' weft usually forms the background.