Flat and Circular Knitting
Weft-knit fabrics can be divided into two types: those that have selvages (side edges) and those that are tubes, where the side edges have been joined. The former are knit using "flat knitting", whereas the latter are knit using "circular knitting", also known as "knitting in the round".
In flat knitting, the hand-knitter generally knits from right-to-left on one side of the fabric, turns the work (over), and then knits right-to-left back to the starting position. Usually one side of the fabric is considered the right side, the one that faces outwards for viewing; the side that faces inwards, towards the body, is known as the wrong side. Thus, flat knitting involves knitting one row on the right side, then one row on the wrong side, etc. Stitches knit on the wrong side are reversed in appearance; for example, a knit stitch carried out on the wrong side will appear as a purl stitch on the right side, and vice versa. Thus, the uniform stockinette fabric requires that the hand-knitter knit all the stitches on the right side, and purl all the stitches on the wrong side. For comparison, garter-stitch fabric is produced if the knitter knits (or purls) every stitch in every row, regardless of which side is being worked.
In circular knitting, the knitter generally knits everything from one side, usually the right side. Circular knitting is usually carried out on a single circular needle, although this becomes more difficult as the circumference of the tube gradually shrinks. In such cases, the knitter can resort to a variety of alternative techniques, such as double-pointed needles, knitting on two circular needles, a Möbius strip-like "magic needle" approach (commonly known as "Magic Loop"), or careful use of slip-stitch knitting or equivalently double knitting to knit the back and front of the tube.
Read more about this topic: Hand Knitting
Famous quotes containing the words flat, circular and/or knitting:
“We may divide characters into flat and round.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“The night in prison was novel and interesting enough.... I found that even here there was a history and a gossip which never circulated beyond the walls of the jail. Probably this is the only house in the town where verses are composed, which are afterward printed in a circular form, but not published. I was shown quite a long list of verses which were composed by some young men who had been detected in an attempt to escape, who avenged themselves by singing them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Nor the tame will, nor timid brain,
Nor heavy knitting of the brow
Bred that fierce tooth and cleanly limb
And threw him up to laugh on the bough;
No government appointed him.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)