Knitting Machine Tips - How Knitting Techniques Affect the proportions of a design

The techniques for two-colored Fairisle will illustrate how design proportions are affected by the design choice of knitting technique. Your basic instruction manual states the general rule for two-color Fairisle techniques. Add to this information the fact that tuck stitches widen and shorten a fabric and that slip stitches narrow and shorten it, and you can see that a wide variety of proportions can come from one design. Knit stitches produce a fabric which is wider than than it is high. Slip stitches produce a denser, tighter fabric which is shorter and narrower than that produced by knitted stitches. Tuck stitches produce a stretchy fabric which is shorter, but much wider than that produced by either knit or slip stitches. All knitting techniques use one or more of these three types of stitches to form the fabric. Which type of stitch or combination of stitches is utilized when knitting a pattern and determines the proportions of the design. Happpy knitting! Judy