Purlbed

Cables and lace › Dropped stitches and ladders

Fringes and ladders

Strips of knit joined by long open threads: a ladder if left whole, a fringe if cut. Only a few needles at each end of a repeat knit, with a long gap of needles out of action. The yarn floats across the gap on every row.

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.
Bed chart
15101520253035→←→←→←→←→←→←→←→←→←→←→←→←→←→←→←→←→←→←Both beds (double jersey)Out of work1 square = 1 stitch × 1 row · read from the bottom · Hand flat (V-bed), 36 needles, half pitch
Needle notation, first steps
1. Rows 1–36: knit 36 rowsDouble jersey (all needles)carriage →backfrontShowing needles L12–R12 of 36; repeat across the working area.

Carriage settings on a Dubied

Fringes and ladders
RearFront
  1. rearfront1111
    Cast on all needles and drop stitches as you need. Knit slowly, with the feeder quite low. For fringes, steam, then cut the long threads up the middle.
How to read the cross
  • The four quarters are the carriage: top rear bed, bottom front bed, left moving left, right moving right.
  • Corners, knit/miss cam: 1 knits; ½ knits on high butts only and misses low butts; 0 is out of work.
  • Diamond, tucking cam: 0 no tuck; ½ low butts tuck, high butts knit; 1 all needles tuck. An empty diamond is all 0.
  • Numbers on the line are tension dials, 0 tightest to 20 loosest. A + means looser than your usual size.
  • Set-out: long tick high butt, short tick low butt, dot out of action.
Racking handle: up moves the rear bed left, down moves it right, up to 6 notches. Rack only with the carriage clear of the needles.

Steps

  1. Cast on all needles.
  2. Drop the stitches you do not need.
  3. Check the feeder is low.
  4. Knit slowly.
  5. For fringes, steam, then cut the long threads up the middle.

The full card

What it looks like
Strips of knit joined by long open threads: a ladder if left whole, a fringe if cut.
How it behaves
Open. Heavy threads drape.
How it works
Only a few needles at each end of a repeat knit, with a long gap of needles out of action. The yarn floats across the gap on every row.
Machines
Dubied, feeder set quite low.
Parameters
3 needles + a wide gap. Rows as you need.
Steps
1) Cast on all needles. 2) Drop the stitches you do not need. 3) Check the feeder is low. 4) Knit slowly. 5) For fringes, steam, then cut the long threads up the middle.
Charting
Bed chart with needles out of work across the gap.
Limits and common problems
Fast knitting or a high feeder drops the yarn at the edges.
Combines with
dropped-stitch-design, racked-full-rib.
Pieces and assembly
Cut as trims, or leave in one piece, perhaps with racking.

Written in our own words from machine manuals, knitting references and swatching. Knit a test swatch before a whole piece.

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