Slit-Weave

In slit-weave kilims, the weft threads of adjacent colour areas turn at the same warp thread, leaving a vertical gap, a slit, at the colour boundary. These slits are a structural characteristic of the technique, not a defect. In flat display, they are invisible; in use, they allow some light through if the piece is hung.

Slit-weave is the most common kilim construction technique globally. The slits create a visual crispness at colour boundaries that interlocked or shared-warp constructions do not produce, the pattern reads with hard-edge precision. Very long vertical slits in a slit-weave kilim can be a structural weakness, which is why compositions with long vertical colour runs are often avoided in traditional kilim design.