Stitches

The Basic Idea of Knit Course, Wales and Purl Stitches

Definition of Purl Stitch in Knitting:

In securing the previous stitch in a wale, the next stitch can pass through the previous loop either from below or above. If the former, the stitch is denoted as a knit stitch; if the latter, as a purl stitch. The two stitches are related in that a knit stitch seen from one side of the fabric appears as a purl stitch on the other side.

Appearance of Stitches:

The two types of stitches have a different visual effect; the knit stitches look like “V”‘s stacked vertically, whereas the purl stitches look like a wavy horizontal line across the fabric. Patterns and pictures can be created in knitted fabrics by using knit and purl stitches as “pixels”; however, such pixels are usually rectangular, rather than square, depending on the gauge of the knitting.Individual stitches, or rows of stitches, may be made taller by drawing more yarn into the new loop (an elongated stitch) which is the basis for uneven knittin : a row of tall stitches may alternate with one or more rows of short stitches for an interesting visual effect. Short and tall stitches may also alternate within a row, forming a fish-like oval pattern.
Two courses of red yarn illustrating two basic fabric types. The lower red course is knit into the white row below it and is itself knit on the next row; this produces stockinette stitch. The upper red course is purled into the row below and then is knit, consistent with garter stitch.
In the simplest knitted fabrics, all of the stitches are knit or purl; these fabrics are denoted as stockinette and reverse stockinette, respectively. Vertical stripes (ribbing) are possible by having alternating wales of knit and purl stitches; for example, a common choice is 2×2 ribbing, in which two wales of knit stitches are followed by two wales of purl stitches, etc.
Horizontal striping (welting) is also possible, by alternating rows of knit and purl stitches; the simplest of these is garter stitch, so-called because its great elasticity made it well-suited for garters. Checkerboard patterns (basketweave) are also possible, the smallest of which is known as seed stitch: the stitches alternate between knit and purl in every wale and along every row.
Fabrics in which the number of knit and purl stitches are not the same, such as stockinette, have a tendency to curl; by contrast, those in which knit and purl stitches are arranged symmetrically (such as ribbing, garter stitch or seed stitch) tend to lie flat and drape well.
Wales of purl stitches have a tendency to recede, whereas those of knit stitches tend to come forward. Thus, the purl wales in ribbing tend to be invisible, since the neighboring knit wales come forward. Conversely, rows of purl stitches tend to form an embossed ridge relative to a row of knit stitches. This is the basis of shadow knitting, in which the appearance of a knitted fabric changes when viewed from different directions.
Typically, a new stitch is passed through a single unsecured (“active”) loop, thus lengthening that wale by one stitch. However, this need not be so; the new loop may be passed through an already secured stitch lower down on the fabric, or even between secured stitches (a dip stitch).
Depending on the distance between where the loop is drawn through the fabric and where it is knitted, dip stitches can produce a subtle stippling or long lines across the surface of the fabric, e.g., the lower leaves of a flower. The new loop may also be passed between two stitches in the present row, thus clustering the intervening stitches; this approach is often used to produce a smocking effect in the fabric. The new loop may also be passed through two or more previous stitches, producing a decrease and merging wales together. The merged stitches need not be from the same row; for example, a tuck can be formed by knitting stitches together from two different rows, producing a raised horizontal welt on the fabric.
Not every stitch in a row need be knitted; some may be left as is and knitted on a subsequent row. This is known as slip-stitch knitting. The slipped stitches are naturally longer than the knitted ones; for example, a stitch slipped for one row before knitting would be roughly twice as tall as its knitted counterparts. This can produce interesting visual effects, although the resulting fabric is more rigid, because the slipped stitch “pulls” on its neighbours and is less deformable.
Slip-stitch knitting plays an important role in mosaic knitting, an important technique in hand-knitting patterned fabrics; mosaic-knit fabrics tend to be stiffer than patterned fabrics produced by other methods such as Fair-Isle knitting.
In some cases, a stitch may be deliberately left unsecured by a new stitch and its wale allowed to disassemble. This is known as drop-stitch knitting. and produces a vertical ladder of see-through holes in the fabric, corresponding to where the wale had been.
The stitches on the right are right-plaited, whereas the stitches on the left are left-plaited.Within limits, an arbitrary number of twists may be added to new stitches, whether they be knit or purl. Here, a single twist is illustrated, with left-plaited and right-plaited stitches on the left and right, respectively.