PurlbedPleats and folds › Diagonal and V folds
Diagonal (Moving) Fold
A crease line running at an angle across the fabric, mountain or valley. It is the building block for chevrons, X shapes, stars, and origami. It appears as a slanted narrow band of contrasting texture (single jersey) with a shadow on one side.
- Two beds
Machine types that can knit it
Demo swatch
Drawn for: Double-bed hand flat (V-bed)Approximate preview worked out from the bed chart, not a photo.
The full card
- What it looks like
- A crease line running at an angle across the fabric, mountain or valley. It is the building block for chevrons, X shapes, stars, and origami. It appears as a slanted narrow band of contrasting texture (single jersey) with a shadow on one side.
- How it behaves
- Hinges along the slant, letting panels rotate out of plane. In combination with other folds it creates collapsible origami.
- How it works
- A band of F single-bed stitches travels across the needle bed. At the leading edge, every rows rows, transfer one DJ stitch from the other bed onto the fold bed (that needle on the other bed goes out of action). At the trailing edge, return one out-of-action needle to work at the same rate, so the band stays F wide and the DJ ground survives. Diagonals can only be made by transferring; Ottoman cannot make them.
- Machines
- Needs a double bed and many single bed-to-bed transfers by hand (transfer tool). On a domestic machine, the main carriage and ribber must both cope with needles moving in and out of work. Keep a row counter and a ticked chart. A punch card does not help. - rate = s stitches : r rows. Default 1:2: transfer whenever the carriage returns to the same side, which is the easiest to track. - 1:1 gives a flatter diagonal. - s > r gives a nominal angle below 45°; r > s gives one above 45°. - The real angle is θ = atan((r/s)·(row_height/stitch_width)), measured on finished fabric. Shrinking yarns (elastic, thermoplastic) cut row height and flatten θ. Loose DJ lengthens rows and steepens θ. - Bed choice follows the angle rule: θ > 45° counts as vertical (front bed = mountain); θ < 45° counts as horizontal (back bed = mountain). 1. Set the fold band: F needles at position x0 hold stitches on bed Bfold only, with the opposite-bed needles out of action. 2. Knit r rows. 3. Leading edge: transfer the opposite-bed stitch at needle x_lead+1 onto Bfold and put the vacated needle out of action. 4. Trailing edge: put the out-of-action needle at x_trail back into work. It is empty and will refill by itself. 5. Repeat steps 2-4 for L rows, until the fold reaches its target position (e.g. the next vertical fold).
- Charting
- 1 square = 1 needle × 1 row. A stepped diagonal band F squares wide, red (front) or blue (back), shifting s squares every r rows. Needle diagram for one step: the two bed rows of dots; one curved arrow at the leading edge from the opposite bed onto the fold bed; one dot at the trailing edge marked "back to work"; the caption gives the row number, e.g. "R12: shift →1".
- Limits and common problems
- A forgotten out-of-action needle refills and kills the fold. Forgetting to return trailing needles widens the single-jersey band into a sloppy fold. The angle drifts with any change of yarn or finishing, so swatch first.
- Combines with
- Every origami card. It is the basic unit of all of them.
- Pieces and assembly
- Used inside a panel, not as a separate piece.
Written in our own words from machine manuals, knitting references and swatching. Knit a test swatch before a whole piece.