Drop-stitch knitting is a
knittingKnitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth. Knitting consists of loops called stitches pulled through each other. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can be passed through them....
technique for producing open, vertical stripes in a
garmentA feature of nearly all modern human societies is the wearing of clothing or clothes, a category encompassing a wide variety of materials that cover the body....
. The basic idea is to knit a solid fabric, then (deliberately) drop one or more stitches (i.e., draw a loop out from the loop below it, and so on repeatedly), producing a
run (or
ladder) in the fabric. The run will continue to the bottom (i.e., cast-on) edge of the garment, or until it encounters an
increaseIn knitting, an increase is the creation of one or more new stitches, which may be done by various methods with distinctive looks.-Methods of Single Increasing :...
, at which it stops.
Drop-stich runs are an easy way to get the "see-through" effect of
laceLace is an openwork fabric, patterned with open holes in the work, made by machine or by hand. The holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric. Lace-making is an ancient craft. True lace was...
, but with a much more casual look.
Drop-stitch knitting is a
knittingKnitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth. Knitting consists of loops called stitches pulled through each other. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can be passed through them....
technique for producing open, vertical stripes in a
garmentA feature of nearly all modern human societies is the wearing of clothing or clothes, a category encompassing a wide variety of materials that cover the body....
. The basic idea is to knit a solid fabric, then (deliberately) drop one or more stitches (i.e., draw a loop out from the loop below it, and so on repeatedly), producing a
run (or
ladder) in the fabric. The run will continue to the bottom (i.e., cast-on) edge of the garment, or until it encounters an
increaseIn knitting, an increase is the creation of one or more new stitches, which may be done by various methods with distinctive looks.-Methods of Single Increasing :...
, at which it stops.
Drop-stich runs are an easy way to get the "see-through" effect of
laceLace is an openwork fabric, patterned with open holes in the work, made by machine or by hand. The holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric. Lace-making is an ancient craft. True lace was...
, but with a much more casual look. The designer can make interesting arrangements of open
stripeOriginating from the Latin word "stripus"; a stripe is a long, straight region of a single color; it may refer to:* Candystripe, a pattern of diagonal stripes twisted around a cylinder stereotypically embodied by the candy cane...
s (of whatever length); the endpoints of the stripe are specified by the initial
increaseIn knitting, an increase is the creation of one or more new stitches, which may be done by various methods with distinctive looks.-Methods of Single Increasing :...
and the point at which the first
stitchStitch may refer to:*Sewing, a method of securing thread into textiles**Blanket stitch, used to reinforce the edge of thick materials**Cable knitting is a style of knitting in which the order of stitches is permuted...
was dropped. Drop-stitch stripes are usually vertical, since they follow the grain of the knitting, i.e., the
wales, the columns of dependent loops. However, the grain of the knitting can be made off-vertical, e.g., in
entrelacEntrelac is a knitting technique used to create a textured diamond pattern. While the end result resembles basket-woven strips of knitted fabric, the actual material comprises interconnected squares on two different orientations....
or by
increasingIn knitting, an increase is the creation of one or more new stitches, which may be done by various methods with distinctive looks.-Methods of Single Increasing :...
on one edge and
decreasingA decrease in knitting is a reduction in the number of stitches, usually accomplished by suspending the stitch to be decreased from another existing stitch or by knitting it together with another stitch.-Methods of Single Decreasing :...
on the other.
Instead of being left open, the cross-strands of runs (the "rungs" of the ladder) can also be modified in various ways. For example, using a crochet hook, one can re-work them into larger knitted bights, e.g., by drawing four strands through the four below them, and so on indefinitely. As another example, the "rungs" can be bound up in different patterns using a contrasting yarn and a darning needle.