Patterns

Gingham is a kind of woven fabric pattern, also called plaid and sometimes called checked, but it is not the same as a checkerboard pattern.

A grid is a series of parallel criss-crossing lines. A grid is usually made up of lots and lots of equal sized squares.

Herringbone is a pattern with a distinctive zigzag in it. It can be seen on tweed clothes, knitted clothes and also as a floor design.

Houndstooth is an abstract two-colour check design that was made by weaving two colours of wool together in a particular way. Houndstooth is most commonly seen in black and white.

A lattice is made from strips of a material like wood crossing over itself, leaving gaps between the strips. The gaps are usually square or diamond shaped, but more intricate lattices have more interesting shapes. Lattices can be made from wood, plastic, metal or may even be made out of pastry strips on top of a pie.

A mosaic is a picture made from lots of tiny colored pieces. Traditionally, mosaics were made from pieces of tile, stone or glass. Modern mosaics can be made from photographs.

Paisley is a pattern based around twisted teadrop shapes.

Piebald is another word for pied. It is generally used to describe horses.

An animal is pied or piebald when its coat or feathers has large patches of two or more colors, usually on a white background. The horse in the picture has a black and white piebald coat.

Pinstripes are stripes that are very thin, between other much wider stripes. Pinstripe is a very common pattern on suits and business shirts.