Drop-stitch knitting
Encyclopedia
Drop-stitch knitting is a knitting
Knitting
Knitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth or other fine crafts. Knitted fabric consists of consecutive rows of loops, called stitches. As each row progresses, a new loop is pulled through an existing loop. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can...

 technique for producing open, vertical stripes in a garment
Clothing
Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...

. 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 increase
Increase (knitting)
In 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 lace
Lace
Lace 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 stripe
Stripe
Stripe or Stripes may refer to:* Stripes * Stripes * S.T.R.I.P.E., a fictional superhero* Striper, a fish* Stripes Convenience Stores* Data striping, a data storage technique...

s (of whatever length); the endpoints of the stripe are specified by the initial increase
Increase (knitting)
In 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 stitch
Stitch (textile arts)
In the textile arts, a stitch is a single turn or loop of thread or yarn. Stitches are the fundamental elements of sewing, knitting, embroidery, crochet, and needle lace-making, whether by hand or machine...

 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 entrelac
Entrelac
Entrelac 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 increasing
Increase (knitting)
In 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 decreasing
Decrease (knitting)
A 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. A drop-stitch that does not produce a vertical strip(or a run) occurs when the initial increase happens in the middle of a stitch (wrap the yarn over the right needle multiple times during the stitch which should produce what looks to be multiple yarn-overs on the right needle) and the increase is then dropped instead of worked in the next row. This produces a stitch that is twice as long as a normal stitch. This method will produce a horizontal stripe when it is used on multiple adjacent stitches. When the number of increases applied to a single stitch is raised the resulting stitch is proportionately lengthened.

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.
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