The most effective edge for stockinet stitch
Naoko Honma
EWS, July 16, 640498C
Stockinet stitch is the most popular way in knitting and often used in making mufflers. But one major problem is muffler knitted in stockinet stitch is apt to curl. There were many measures to deal with this problem, but which measure was most effective was unknown. I made 5 works of 20stitches×20stitches stockinet stitch, left one of them as it was, took 4 different measures on the rest of them and discovered which didn’t curl in the largest area of the work. The result revealed which measure had to be taken in making stockinet stitch works and thus created a better way to enjoy making stockinet stitch mufflers.
It had been a problem for a long time that stockinet stitch is likely to curl and difficult to use in knitting works. Therefore, four ways to prevent the curl were invented. All of these ways were the edges around the works and four kinds of edges were as follows; garter stitch, mock ribbing, double mock ribbing, and single crochet. All of these edges were popular and especially mock ribbing was popular, butwhichwas most effective to the curl was yet to be known. To answer this question, I measured and comparedhow many centimeters the last rowsof the works, which were most likely to curl, went up from the ground. From this experiment, which edge should be used to the works was clarified and the result will help knitters create more beautiful stockinet stitch works.
Before I created edges, I made five stockinet stitch works using the same wool and decided how to count rows of the work. I defined the 1st row as the point where I started stockinet stitch, counted rows in the way shown in fig.1, and defined the 20th row as the last row where I stopped stockinet stitch. Then I left one of them as it was and created edges on the rest of four. The stockinet stitch works were 20stitches×20stitches and the edges were everywhere 4 stitches (see fig.1).
Fig.1 20×20 Stockinet stitch and edges
These four works were edged respectively by garter stitch, mock ribbing, double mock ribbing and single stitch. Then I left these five works on my desk and observed near the last rows, which were more likely to curl than anywhere in the works. Finally, I measured the height of the last row from the desk, researched where the works began to curl (fig.2) and decided which work curled least.
Fig.2 two points to measure
The work with no edges was as follows. (pic.1) The last row curled so many times that I couldn’t measure how many centimeters it went up from the desk. The curl began from the 13th row.
Pic.1 Stockinet stitch work with no edges
The work with garter stitch was as follows (pic.2). The last row was 1.6 centimeters high from the desk and the curl began from the 19th row.
Pic.2 Stockinet stitch work with garter stitch
The work with single stitch was as follows. (pic.3) The last row was 4.5 centimeters high and the curl began from the 17th row.
Pic.3 Stockinet stitch work with single stitch
The work with mock ribbing was as follows. (pic.4) The last row was 1.4 centimeters high and the curl began from the 20th row.
Pic.4 Stockinet stitch work with mock ribbing
The work with double mock ribbing was as follows. (pic.5) The last row was 2.3 centimeters high and the curl began from the 20th row.
Pic.5 Stockinet stitch work with double mock ribbing
These data showed that the work with mock ribbing, with the last row going up lowest and curl beginning from the highest row, was the flattest and most beautiful work. The flatness followed in this order; double mock ribbing, garter stitch, and single stitch. Although all the edges were effective to some degrees, single stitch edge, which went up to 4.5 centimeters, was not useful. This research suggests that mock ribbing edge is most effective to 20×20 works and it is assumed that this edge is most effective to mufflers, but there is no research which compares the effectiveness of edges using mufflers, which are much larger than 20×20 stitch works. Therefore, researches on mufflers have to be done in the future.
Until now, though mock ribbing was more popular as an edge around stockinet stitch than any other stitch, there were no experiments which proved that it was more effective than any other stitches. My research showed that the popularity accords with the effectiveness of the stitch. Due to this result, like before, mock ribbing will continue to be used as an important edge.