Knit Stitches

Knitting has two types of stitches: knit and purl. Knit stitches create a V pattern on the right side of the fabric. The purl stitch creates a line pattern on the right side of the fabric, with the V pattern being on the wrong side of the fabric. Although the knit stitch is one type of stitch, loom knitting has four different ways of creating it: e-wrap, u-wrap, flat, and true or traditional.

Three of these stitches are defined by the way you wrap the yarn around the peg:

• E-Wrap Stitch,
• U-Wrap Stitch and
• Flat Stitch

The True or Traditional Knit Stitch is done in a similiar method to the Purl Stitch.

One of the most significant differences between the four stitches is their tightness or tension. Tension will affect the size, density, and feel of your knitting. When you have more tension in your stitches, the piece you create is smaller, and the fabric is denser and stiffer.
Flat knit produces the tightest knit. The stitches are closer together and create a smaller piece of fabric. On the other end of the spectrum is the e-wrap. The four balls pictured here were all created on the same loom with the same yarn and precisely 10 rows of stitches. As you can see, the flat knit ball is the smallest.

U-Wrap and true knit are both in the middle. In the photo, u-wrap looks tighter than the true knit. However, that’s more about how I knit than about the stitch itself. I naturally like to pull the u-wrap tight against the peg, which creates a tighter knit. However, when I don’t pull on the working yarn so much, I create a stitch that looks like the true knit version.

For beginners and younger children, I recommend sticking with the e-wrap stitches. It’s the easiest of all of them to maneuver, and it won’t get too tight if not done right. I like the u-wrap stitch and use it almost exclusively. It looks just like the true knit stitch but is a lot easier to do.

Please note that some people also refer to stitch patterns as “stitches.” Knit stitch patterns are made using knit and purl stitches to create a design in the fabric. For example, the garter stitch pattern is made by alternating rows of knit and purl stitches.