kat, or Ikkat, is a style of weaving that uses a resist dyeing process similar to tie-dye on either the warp or weft before the threads are woven to create a pattern or design. A Double Ikat is when both the warp and the weft are tie-dyed before weaving.

Ikat means "to tie" or "to bind" in the Malay language and has the same root as the words dekat ("close"), lekat ("to stick"), pikat ("to catch") etc. The word Katt has the same meaning in all of the south Indian languages but there may be no relation. Through common usage, the word has come to describe both the process and the cloth itself. Ikats have been woven in cultures all over the world. In Central and South America, Ikat is still common in Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico. In the 19th century, the Silk Road desert oases of Bukhara and Samarkand (in what is now Uzbekistan in Central Asia) were famous for their fine silk Uzbek Ikat. India, Japan and several South-East Asian countries have cultures with long histories of Ikat production. Double Ikats can still be found in India, Guatemala, Japan and the Indonesian islands of Bali and Kalimantan.

Like any craft or art form, ikats vary widely from country to country and region to region. Designs may have symbolic of ritual meaning or have been developed for export trade. Ikats are often symbols of status, wealth, power and prestige. Perhaps because of the difficulty and time required to make ikats, some cultures believe the cloth is imbued with magical powers.

Warp
In weaving, the warp is the set of lengthwise yarns through which the weft is woven. Each individual warp thread in a fabric is called a warp end. Warp means "that which is thrown across" (Old English wearp, from weorpan, to throw, cf. German werfen, Dutch werpen).

When weaving with a loom, the warp yarns are fully attached before weaving begins.

Warp is spun fibre. The spin of the fiber can be in either an "s" twist or a "z" twist. These twist directions make yarn that is similar to hands; each the reverse of the other. Initially the fibre would have been wool or flax (which is known as linen when spun). These fibres provided a strong enough thread to be held under tension as the warp. With the improvements in spinning technology during the Industrial Revolution, it became possible to make cotton yarn of sufficient strength to be used as the warp. Later, artificial or man-made fibres such as nylon or rayon were employed. The weft is the yarn that is woven back and forth through the warp to make cloth.

Weft
In weaving, weft or woof is the yarn which is drawn under and over parallel warp yarns to create a fabric. In North America, it is sometimes referred to as the "fill" or the "filling yarn".

The weft is a thread or yarn of spun fibre. The original fibre was wool, flax or cotton. Nowadays, many synthetic fibers are used in weaving. Because the weft does not have to be stretched in the way that the warp is, it can generally be less strong.

The weft is threaded through the warp using a shuttle. Hand looms were the original weaver's tool, with the shuttle being threaded through alternately raised warps by hand. Inventions during the 18th century spurred the Industrial Revolution, and the hand loom became the more robust spinning frame with the flying shuttle speeding up production of cloth, and then the water frame using water power to automate the weaving process. The power loom followed in the 19th century, when steam power was harnessed.