Up Close with Knit Fabrics, Part II

Welcome to the final (for now) edition of Up Close with Fabrics - Knits, Again.  I think this will be the last one for a while, at least until I diversify my stash a bit.  I know I haven't done any silk...but beyond that I'm a bit out of ideas.  But this will resume periodically when and if I discover some new textiles or if I get any requests.

Today I have four knits that are pretty different to the eye and hand, but turn out to be pretty similar in structure.
First up I have a light-medium weight polyester ITY jersey from Cali Fabrics:

(L) Nylon lycra print; (C) Polka dot ITY

31x
109x
1440x
Polyester fibers are fairly smooth, as we've seen before, compared to natural cotton or wool fibers.

Next up is a nylon lycra, a swimwear or activewear type of material also from Cali Fabrics:
37x
95x
It has the same general knit as the ITY, a 'braided' kind of pattern.
384x
872x
Moving on to a scuba knit, which Mood Fabrics calls a neoprene but isn't really.
(L) Ponte knit (R) Scuba knit
It is a heavyweight polyester spandex, and also shows the 'braided' knit pattern:
24x
This scuba has 2-way (1-direction) stretch, unlike the ITY and nylon spandex which have 4-way or 2-directional stretch.
86x
2790x
Finally a ponte - this particular ponte is a polyester lycra blend from Harts Fabric:
26x
This has a slightly modified version of the braided loops we've seen so far.  This ponte has 2-way (1-direction) stretch, like the scuba.
86x
445x
Comparison of 2-way and 4-way stretch fabrics:
2-directional stretch
1-directional stretch

OK, that concludes our current tour of textiles!  I hope to come up with some more ideas as I do my spring/summer sewing, but if you have any requests, let me know. I hope this has been at least mildly interesting and informative. Until next time, Happy Sewing!

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