The Knitting Fiend

Yes. Today, I will discuss stockinette, also spelled stockinet, also called stocking stitch.

I know, you are stunned! But have no fears. Look at the photo to the left and rest assured that I will delve deeply into stockinette. I will discuss “Western and Eastern” knitting, not to be confused with “Continental vs. English” knitting. I will show you pictures of “Crossed and Uncrossed Stitches”.

But, don’t get too excited. In this article, I will only illustrate how to knit plain old ordinary stockinette knit using the “normal” method. When I say “normal” I am being totally ethnocentric and mean “the method described in nearly all knitting books found in American bookstores” ; that is also called the “Western Uncrossed Method” and sometimes simply the “Western Method”. It is called “Western” because it’s use is common in Western Europe. It is called “Uncrossed” because it results in untwisted stitches; the word uncrossed is often omitted because Western Europeans generally knit uncrossed stitches.

(For those wondering, I knit using the “Western Uncrossed Method” and using the “English”, not “Continental”, hold. I am also thrower not a flicker. Read this article, and you impress your knitting friends with your deep knowledge of knitting trivia!)

So, having duly introduced this topic, let me begin “Stockinette, ad nauseum: part I: Western Uncrossed Method!

Some who already know how to do this will still learn something.

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These are the basic instructions for stockinette, knit back and forth:

• Row 1: Knit all stitches.
• Row 2: Purl all stitches.
• Alternate rows 1 and 2.

Simple enough.

If you followed instructions in nearly any “How To Knit” book in found in a book store in the United States, your knitting looks like the two rows illustrated at the bottom of the photo to the left. That’s the way you think stockinette is “supposed” to look when knit using the “western uncrossed method”. It also looks that way if you knit using either the “eastern uncrossed method” or “Combined Method”.

Naturally, you noticed the word “uncrossed”; uncrossed means the two legs of the stitch don’t cross. On the far left side of the illustration, I traced the outline of the stitches. Notice stitch legs in the bottom row do not cross over. The stitches in the next two rows up cross so the front leg slant left to right; the stitches in the top rows cross so the front leg slant left to right. Both are examples of crossed stitches.

To explain how we create the three variations shown, I need to discuss two things:

• How does the yarn sit on the needle; this is governed by how you yarn over when forming stitches and
• How do you insert the needle tip into the stitch.

Examine the illustrations in the table below. On the left the yarn winds in a direction that places the right leg of the stitch in front of the needle and the left leg behind the needle. This is the way stitches normally sit when knit using the Western Method. On the right, the yarn winds so that the left leg of the stitch sits in front of the needle.

How does the yarn sit on the needle?

Western

Eastern

What makes the stitches sit on way rather than the other? The method of yarning over when you knit or purl a stitch.

However, since knitters always insert the tip before yarning over and drawing the loop through, I’m going to discuss these together and I’m going to discuss knitting “Western Uncrossed” first.

Western Uncrossed Knit

Insert needle tip

Yarn over: below, to front, over top, to back

When using the Western method, you first place the right needle tip to the leftof the front leg which is on the right hand side, and then poke into the hole; this opens the stitch and untwists it; see the figure above and to the left. When the yarn sits the in the “normal” seat, inserting this way results in an untwisted, aka, uncrossed knit stitch.

Next, when working a knit stitch using “western uncrossed”, you yarn over by taking the yarn below the needle, to the front, and then over the top of the needle to the back. In the photo above and to the right, the arrow indicates the direction of the free end of the yarn.

Afterwards, you pull this loop through to form the stitch. Yarning over this way when forming knit stitches causes the to sit the “Western” way. That is, if you examine it, the right leg is in front and the back leg in back.

Western Uncrossed Purl

Insert Tip.

Yarn over: over top, to back, below to front.

Now, to work a purl stitch using the “western uncrossed” (aka “normal” method)! Even though you turned to work the purl side, you will find stitches still “sit western”¹, that is the right leg is in front of the needle; the left leg is behind the needle. To purl you insert the tip from right to left through the front leg (also sometimes called ‘loop’). When the stitches are sitting in the normal “western” position, inserting the tip this way to purl will result in an untwisted stitch.

The yarn over is shown above and to the left. You then yarn over by taking the yarn over the top of the needle, to the back, below the needle then to the front. You draw this loop through the stitch. When you yarn over in this direction to form a purl, the stitch has a “Western” seat. That is, the right leg lies in front of the needle and the left leg lies in back of the needle.

You can continue this across the row. When you turn the work, you will see the stitches are not twisted.

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1. Those teaching fluid mechanics courses are permitted to slap themselves on the forehead and say “I could use a flexible knitting needle and yarn to illustrate a vortex!”

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Hot links to later articles were added as they were written:
Part II: Eastern Crossed.
Part III: Western Crossed .
Part IV: Combination Knitting.