Stockinette stitch
Stockinette is knit one row, purl one row worked flat — or knit every round in the round. It curls, and you fix that with a border, not with blocking alone.
Updated August 12, 2026·6 min read
Stockinette is the fabric most people picture when they picture knitting: smooth columns of V's on the front, a bumpy surface on the back. Flat, it's knit one row, purl one row. In the round, it's knit every single round and you never purl at all.
That difference matters more than it sounds. A beginner who hates purling can knit a hat in the round and produce identical fabric with half the work.
Working it flat
- 1Cast on any number of stitches. Stockinette has no multiple to respect.
- 2Row 1 (right side): knit every stitch.
- 3Row 2 (wrong side): purl every stitch.
- 4Repeat those two rows. The knit rows face you on the smooth side; the purl rows face you on the bumpy side.
Working it in the round
Knit every round. Because you never turn the work, the smooth side stays facing out permanently, and you never touch a purl stitch. This is why sock, hat, and sweater-body patterns are written in the round so often.
The one cost is the jog at the start of each round, which shows up mainly in stripes. In single-colour stockinette it's invisible.
Why it curls
A knit stitch and a purl stitch are not mirror images in bulk. The purl bumps sit further out from the fabric plane than the knit V's do, so the two faces have different surface tension. The side edges roll toward the front, the top and bottom edges roll toward the back. Every stockinette swatch does this. Nothing is wrong with your knitting.
| Approach | Works? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Garter or seed stitch border, 4-6 rows and stitches | Yes | Balanced fabric at the edge cancels the roll. The standard fix. |
| Ribbed border | Yes | Stops the vertical curl and pulls in; good for cuffs and hems. |
| Slipped-stitch edge | Partly | Tidies the edge, doesn't stop the roll on its own. |
| Blocking a wool piece | Mostly | Wet blocking sets animal fibres and holds. Acrylic springs back. |
| Seaming into a garment | Yes | The seam and neighbouring pieces hold the edge flat. |
| Knitting tighter | No | Tighter fabric curls harder, not less. |
If you want a flat stockinette scarf, add the border at the cast-on and plan it into the stitch count. Retrofitting one afterwards means picking up stitches along all four edges, which is a bigger job than the scarf.
If it goes wrong
- A rogue ridge of bumps appears on the smooth side.
- You knit a row that should have been purled, usually after putting the work down. Read the fabric before starting each row rather than trusting memory.
- The purl rows look looser than the knit rows, giving a stripey texture.
- Common, and it's tension, not a mistake. Most knitters purl looser. Work purl rows on a needle a half size smaller, or focus on snugging the yarn after each purl wrap.
- The side edges look sloppy and uneven.
- Edge stitches always stretch. Slip the first stitch of every row purlwise with the yarn in back, or plan to seam or pick up along that edge, where it disappears.
- The fabric leans or biases diagonally.
- Usually a highly twisted single-ply yarn releasing its energy. Wet blocking helps; a plied yarn avoids it entirely.
Reverse stockinette
Same fabric, bumpy side declared the right side. Patterns call for it as a background behind cables, where the recessed texture makes the cable stand up. Nothing changes in how you work it — only which side you call the front.