Garter Stitch or Stockinette?
Basic knitted fabrics are so fundamental that some types have been adopted as part of the language of knitting, similar to techniques such as yarn over or decrease. Examples include stockinette stitch, reverse stockinette stitch, garter stitch, seed stitch and some others.
The Complete Guide to Lace Knitting: Table of Contents
In some cases, these fabrics appear differently on the right side (as seen when making the stitch) than on the wrong side (as seen from the other side, when the work is turned).
Lace knitting is done mostly on either garter stitch or stockinette stitch ground. This ground I refer to as your drawing canvas: it’s a bit like a white, empty canvas inviting you to play with. Your colors and brushes are the stitches you choose to use.
Garter Stitch
Garter stitch – also known as the Knit stitch – is the most basic form of knitting. In the round, garter stitch is produced by knitting and purling alternate rows. By contrast, in the flat, garter stitch is produced by knitting every stitch (or purling every stitch, though this is much less common).
In garter-stitch fabrics, the “purl” rows stand out from the “knit” rows, which provides the basis for shadow knitting. Garter-stitch fabric has significant lengthwise elasticity and little tendency to curl, due to the symmetry of its faces.
When worked in fine yarns on larger needles, the ridges don’t stand out that much any more and some of the elasticity is lost, too. It makes a better basis for lace stitches this way, though.
Stockinette Stitch
Stockinette stitch (also called “Stocking Stitch” in UK, Australia, New Zealand etc.) is another basic knitted fabric; every stitch (as seen from the right side) is a knit stitch. In the round, stockinette stitch is produced by knitting every stitch; by contrast, in the flat, stockinette stitch is produced by knitting and purling alternate rows.
Stockinette-stitch fabric is very smooth and each column resembles a stacked set of “V”‘s. It has a strong tendency to curl horizontally and vertically because of the asymmetry of its faces.
Reverse stockinette stitch is produced in the same way as stockinette, except that the purl stitches are done on the right side and the knit stitches on the wrong side. In the round, reverse stockinette stitch is produced by purling every stitch.
Garter Stitch or Stockinette Stitch?
When creating shawls, choosing your basic canvas is either a question of tradition or personal preference. Shetland shawls are mostly worked on garter stitch ground, and most Orenburg shawls are too. For Estonian and Austrian lace knitting, the stockinette stitch ground is more common.
Which One is Your Favourite?
Which ground is your favorite to work with? I’d love to hear your opinion – just leave a comment below!
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I hate the sloppy look of garter stitch, always looks inside out to me, so I vastly prefer stockinette stitch.
So many of the beautiful handpainted or hand dyed yarns need stockinette to avoid visual chaos.
The issue of curling has ruined more than one stockinette/stocking stitch project or pattern. Even slipping the first stitch or garter stitch on the first 3 stitches of an edge sometimes isn’t enough.
Have you found a reliable way to avoid curling?
I really dont mind either of them, but if I were honest I would say the knit stitch, (garter stitch).
I don’t mind purling because I knit in the english style, but purling in the continental style has me beat. It just seems so awkward to me. I tried continental knitting because one of the ladies at my craft group knits that way. She is Danish. She makes it look so easy, and her movements are so tiny. When I try it my all my hands want to do is scream. 🙂
I prefer stocking stitch, as i find it shows off the beauty of the yarn better. I am on the hunt for a plain, rectangular stocking stitch wrap, using fingering singles. Any suggestions? Thanks, liz
I prefer stockinette stitch. Going back and forth between knit and purl adds some variety to the process instead of just knit knit knit which can become quite boring.
I have used both garter stitch on a Faroese shawl and Stockinette on a lace caplette, I have just finished. I think, I prefer to use garter stitch, I can control my stitches much better. When I used the stockinette on the caplette I noticed I had trouble keeping tension on the stitches. It seems strange because when I am using stockinette to knit Christmas stockings or any of the other items I knit, I have no issue with my tension.
I like the look of stockinette better but dislike purling. That being said, I really don’t have a preference.
To me I love the garter stitch the only reason it seems to go faster and you can see your project faster
For me, it depends othe needles. Straight needles – garter stitch; circular – stockinette. Hmmm. May also have something to do with the fact that I’m not keen on purling #
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I really have no preference. I like to do both. I do use two different size needles when working Stiocking stitch because I abhor those “corn rows” on the right side of the fabric. The purl stitch is naturally done a little looser than the knit stitch so I compensate for this by using a smaller needle on the WS of my work ( the purl stitches)