PurlbedPleats and folds › Diagonal and V folds
Horizontal V-Pleat (Rotated Herringbone)
Full-width crosswise folds broken by a zigzag of diagonal folds travelling up the piece. The surface bends into an arc or spiral, and repeated lengthwise it forms faceted tubes. - Small-V variant: a single compact V fold on a small piece makes a playful, flippable object.
- 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
- Full-width crosswise folds broken by a zigzag of diagonal folds travelling up the piece. The surface bends into an arc or spiral, and repeated lengthwise it forms faceted tubes. - Small-V variant: a single compact V fold on a small piece makes a playful, flippable object. - Elongated variant: the V spans nearly the full width and is shallow, giving a subtle fold. - Double-V variant: a second V on the opposite bed bends the strip back the other way, giving S-curves.
- How it behaves
- Curves and builds vessels. Repeats are unlimited lengthwise (they are not limited by the number of needles). - The herringbone geometry is rotated 90°. - Horizontal folds run across the width; they change bed where the diagonal zigzag crosses them (front bed on one side, back bed on the other). - A diagonal fold zigzags up the piece between them. - Bed choice follows the angle rule.
- Machines
- Needs a double bed with transfers. Easier on narrow domestic beds than vertical herringbone, because width is not the limit.
- Parameters
- W, distance between horizontal folds Hh, zigzag amplitude Az (fraction of W: small for the small-V variant, ≈0.9 for the elongated one), rate, optional second V on the opposite bed. 1. Cast on W in DJ. 2. Run the diagonal fold band toward one side for Hh rows. 3. Work a horizontal fold: the needles left of the zigzag knit k rows on bed X, and those to the right on bed Y. 4. Reverse the diagonal's direction. 5. Repeat for the length. 6. Optionally add a second zigzag column on the opposite bed.
- Charting
- Wide chart, 1 square = 1 needle × 1 row. Horizontal bands split red and blue at the zigzag point. The zigzag is a stepped red (or blue) diagonal line.
- Limits and common problems
- Splitting a horizontal fold across two beds in the same rows needs partial carriage control. [KB inference] On a domestic machine with ribber, use hold positions or work the two halves in separate passes.
- Combines with
- colour-in-folds, Jacquard backgrounds (industrial).
- Pieces and assembly
- Knit a long strip and join the two long edges (or the ends) into a tube to make a vase or vessel.
Written in our own words from machine manuals, knitting references and swatching. Knit a test swatch before a whole piece.