Difference Between Knitting & Purling
There are two basic stitches in knitting, the knit stitch and the purl stitch. Beginning knitters often confuse the two and fail to understand why both knit stitches and purl stitches are important and how they interact together to create patterned knitting. When you consider that knitting is no more than loops of yarn pulled through each other, it becomes more apparent why the direction of the loops is important.
Other People Are Reading
-
Knit Stitch
-
Knit stitches are made with the yarn at the back of the work. To make a knit stitch first push the right-hand needle through the first stitch on the left-hand needle. Wrap the yarn counterclockwise around the right-hand needle, pulling it firmly between the two needles. Catch the wrapped yarn on the point of the right-hand needle and pull it through the loop of the stitch on the left-hand needle to form a new stitch. Slip the left-hand needle stitch that you just knitted through off the needles.
Purl Stitch
-
Purl stitches are worked with the yarn in front of the knitting. Push the right-hand needle through the first stitch on the left-hand needle from the back to the front of the stitch. Wrap the yarn counterclockwise around the point of the right-hand needle. Then catch the wrapped yarn on the point of needle as you pull the loop through the stitch on the left-hand needle from the front to the back. Slip the old stitch off the left-hand needle.
-
How to Tell the Difference
-
Both knit stitches and purl stitches are formed by making a new loop on the knitting needle then pulling it through the old loop. The difference between knit stitches and purl stitches becomes apparent when they are compared with each other in a completed piece of knitting. When stitches are knitted the loops form on the back of the knitting, and when stitches are purled the loops form on the front of the knitting.
Mixing the Two
-
A mixture of knit stitches and purl stitches is what forms the different effects that are achieved in a knitting pattern. Ribbed patterns --- for instance, those used on the cuffs, welts and necklines of a sweater --- are created by knitting a sequence of knit one stitch, purl one stitch across the row. The knit stitches of one row will be purled on the next row so that the loops of the completed stitches all fall on the same side of the knitting.
-
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
