More on Pleats

In the last post, I had some musings about the possibilities of knitted pleating, and how it might function in a garment. I had an experiment--albeit mostly unsuccessful, a good source of learning--to discover exactly how knitted pleating might work in a garment.

Here's a swatch:

This is kind of strange looking, but there are a couple of experiments here.

In her introduction to Ribbed Pleating, Mrs. Thomas says, "By introducing a wider rib of Knit and Purl between narrower ribs...or other fabrics, the wide Knit rib with roll over the Purl, and so form a pleat." Thus, the bottom section of pleating in this swatch was an experiment to see if, instead of doing a one by one rib as we see in the Knife Pleating pattern and swatch in the last post, if it would work equally well with seed stitch. It didn't. The knit stitches just don't roll over enough to create the illusion that the pleats are made up of only seed stitch. It got even worse after I blocked it--the knitted part of the pleat bulges out, leaving the seed stitch to sink down. Not the pleat I had in mind at all. I wonder what Mrs. T had in mind when she said "or other fabrics". If seed stitch doesn't work here, I wonder what would work better.

In addition to that, the stockinette fabric above the pleats also has a tendency to roll, which, if in a finished garment, wouldn't allow for the crisp clean lines I would hope to see from a flat fabric into a pleat. I think if I were to design a skirt, I would have a knitted pencil or slightly A-line skirt, and, instead of knitting the pleats as part of the same fabric, I would knit it separately and sew it on, to give the pleats the structure they would need to keep their form, as well as to give the skirt a really clean line. 

The second section of pleating on the swatch was just to satisfy my curiosity. In my last post, I mused about how the pleats would behave within a stockinette frame--would it curl like a ruched fabric? Would it hold a pleated shape? The top of the swatch is rather close to a seed stitch border, which seems to give the stockinette fabric a little more support, so that the stockinette fabric doesn't bend in the same way as the pleats should. When I blocked this, I pinned out only the stockinette portions, to see if it would make a difference in the way the pleats behaved. The pleated section near the top of the swatch is almost flattened--not really pleated at all. The unusual ribbing does kind of look cool, but it defeats its original purpose.

There is one more pleated pattern in Chapter 2, so let me skip ahead. On pages 36-37, there is the Pennant Pleating pattern. Although there is a relatively good photo in the book of this pattern, I just couldn't help but knit it--I was having too much fun with pleats. It really is quite lovely!

Like the Knife Pleating pattern, it sits very nicely and has a lot of body. Unlike the Knife Pleating, this one doesn't have any ribbing at all, there are simply these triangular, pennant shaped sections of purl. As the number of purled stitches decrease, and where the purl and knit stitches meet, the fabric naturally folds over itself. It makes for a geometric pattern, and, with worsted wool with a sheen such as this, the light really plays off the shapes. 

I have an idea for a variation of this pattern--I'll have to come back to it again soon.

And of course, as with many knit/purl patterns this one, too, is double sided! That would lend itself well to a scarf or shawl edging, or some other garment that would be seen on both sides.