A knitter describes “the joy of making a piece of string into something I can wear is overwhelming.”
Knitting has been traditionally associated with women and has been one of their favorite pastimes. It was long considered grandmothers or expectant mothers’ province, but it has become the most popular hobby in the 21st century. Today knitting is making a comeback. Knitting is always trendy and eco-friendly pastime.
Knitting is the process of manipulating yarn to create a fabric. It can be done by hand or machine. Knitting makes stitches of loops of yarn in rows. Knitted fabric contains a number of consecutive rows of connected loops that mingle with the successive and previous rows. As each row is formed, each newly created loop is pulled through one or more loops from the prior row and placed on the gaining needle. This is done so that the loops from the preceding row can be pulled off the other needle without unraveling. There are usually many active stitches on the knitting needle at one time.
Structures: Courses and wales
In knitting, a wale is a column of loops running lengthwise and corresponding to the warp of the woven fabric. A course is a crosswise row of loops, corresponding to the filling.
Variety: Weft and warp knitting
Weft knitting variety is more common. In it, the wales are perpendicular to the course of the yarn and the entire fabric may be produced from a single yarn. In warp knitting, the wales and courses run roughly parallel, and one yarn is required for every wale.
Stitches: Knit and purl stitches
Knit Purl
This stitch can pass through the previous loop from either below or above. The two types of stitches have different visual effects; the knit stitches look like 'V's stacked vertically, whereas the purl stitches look like a wavy horizontal line across the fabric.
