Teec Nos Pos rugs in the classic style of Navajo rugs usually have a decorated border. The center pattern is any geometric design other than a diamond as in a Two Grey Hills or Ganado Red rug. The yarns used can be hand spun or commercially produced or a combination of both. Hand spun yarns are normally a single ply. Commercial yarns used are 1,2,3,or made with 4 plys. It is the played yarns that give this rug type it’s long wearing strength. Usually Teec Nos Pos rugs have a lot of color. Although color can be had using natural wool or vegetal dyes, most weavers use aniline dyes which will hold its color longer over time and use.

These usually have a plain border of black and white bands, though on occasion they can be some what fancier. The center pattern is a diamond or multiple diamonds. In each corner, it is typical to have a stair stepped cloud pattern. The colors used are, white, black, and one or more shades of grey and brown. The natural brown is the most prized color due to its rarity.The yarns used can be hand spun or commercially produced or a combination of both. The hand spun and commercial yarns are normally a single ply.

Modern Germantown rugs are copies of a style featuring a 3 of 4 ply commercial yarn produced around the turn of the century from Germantown, PA. The yarns used today can be hand spun or commercially produced or a combination of both. The hand spun and commercial yarns are normally a single ply. The pattern can be both horizontally banded or be vertical. Germantown rugs usually have a red background. Many times the pattern looks like a chief rug with a lot more pattern. The Mokie have a blue background or a series of thin bands, alternating between blue and black.

The main feature of this type is the central X or H pattern found in the center of the rug. The rug itself can be made using any color combination and or any type of wool yarn. This includes handspun single ply, commercial one ply, and multi-ply yarns. There are many stories as to what this X or H means. I have heard it represent lightning, the four sacred mountains, the four directions. As with most Navajo rugs, the patterns have no hidden meaning.

Pictorial rugs come from all over the Navajo Reservation. Pictorial elements can be found in all types of rugs. You might see a train in a Chief rug, a face in a Teec Nos Pos rug, or a weaving comb in a Red rug. As an artist paints his world as he sees it with paint, the weaver, weaves the world as he or she sees it with wool and yarn.

In the Navajo creation story there is one sandpainting that features a Bird roosting on a corn stalk. From that sandpainting Navajo weavers have taken that one element and stylized it to become the modern Bird type Navajo rug.

Ganado and Klagetoh are red rugs that share the same pattern as a Two Grey Hills rug. It is generally a diamond(s) pattern with cloud patterns in the corner. They have a plain border of black and white bands, though on occasion they can be somewhat fancier. The colors used are, white, black, and one or more shades of gray and red. The Ganado is noted for a red background, while the Klagetoh has a gray background. The yarns used can be hand spun or commercially produced or a combination of both. The handspun and commercial yarns are normally a single ply.

This type of Navajo Rug depict the spirits or the Yei’s. Usually, they show one or two elements of a Sand Painting, but it is not a complete Sand Painting. In many cases the yeis are partly surrounded by a rainbow guardian band. Yei-be-chei rugs are more like pictorials. They represent actual dancers of the Blessing Way Yei ceremony. Rugs from the Shiprock area are usually made with many colors. The yarn can be hand spun or commercially produced or a combination of both . Lukachukai Yei rugs differ in that they were vegetal dyed.

The Vegetal dye types of Navajo Rugs are horizontally banded in pattern and usually without a border. There are three basic types of Vegatel dyed rugs, Wide Ruin, Pine Springs, and the Chinle type. They are named for the Trading posts in the region from where they originated. The patterns used are common to all three types, differing only in the use of color.