Here’s the truth. I love stockinette. Years later in my knitting practice, and I still love stockinette. For in-the-round projects, it’s simply doing knit stitch every stitch, and I love it! I like looping yarn and not counting stitches every single row to follow a chart. I can chart read, but it’s not the same feeling as simply knitting and enjoying the tactile sensation of the yarn. I love seeing all those little magical “V’’s” that form as the stitches are looped from left to right needle that slowly build in to a completed project from a single length of yarn.
By knitting the knits and purling the purls, you are making something magical happen.
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Some people call it sticks and string. That combining two straight sticks and a length of string can generate a wearable piece of knitted fabric is just completely amazing. And I love that. Even all these years later, I’m still mystified it works. I wonder who actually figured it out?
Let me tell you something. A well-executed fabric of stockinette (stocking stitch for my readers from across the pond) is a thing of true beauty. I believe all knitters should spend a lot of their time in the beginning working on perfecting their stockinette.
Perfecting your stockinette means you are doing a number of things:
- You’re learning how to make your knits and purls which is the foundation of ALL knitting
- You’re learning how to create proper, even tension in your knitting
- You’re learning how to “read” your knitting, which is very important for future success.
- You’re developing the muscle memory required to further develop your knitting skill.
- You’re perfecting the stitch pattern that is the primary fabric for 90% of all sweaters, and we all want to make our own sweaters (someday).
It’s like building a foundation for your house or like learning scales in music. If you can’t get those things right, you’re never going to get any of it right. Your house will be crooked and your Beethoven will never sound right.
Isn’t Moonlight Sonata just as lovely as any great symphony?
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To my ear, it’s preferable. I’d much rather spend an afternoon listening to Chopin’s Nocturnes than Tchaikovsky ‘s symphonies.
I like to think of stockinette as the Moonlight Sonata (or the elegant Nocturnes) of knitting. It’s simple, it’s classic, it’s chic. When you get it right, it’s magical to behold.
Patty McGuire is a knitter (and photographer) who designs beginner knitting patterns. Video tutorials and online classes are currently in the works. She resides in the resort city of Virginia Beach where she has a small container garden and knits for her much loved Golden Retriever, Willie. She photographs and writes all the content on this blog (including this byline which seems weird because I’m writing about myself in 3rd person, but people like this sort of thing so I’m including it.)