Stitchin' in My Kitchen

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 n...

 I'm sure most/all of you know the fundamental difference between wovens and knits, mainly that knits are made from a continuous thread - like, when you knit by hand - giving them stretch. And wovens are created with a criss-cross pattern of fibers that are woven together, so they only have mechanical stretch on the bias.  Basically are the fibers crossed (wovens) or looped (knits).  After having seen the wide variety of wovens commonly seen in garment sewing, I have a selection of knits for this week.  First off, a cotton jersey - I believe this is 100% cotton jersey (no lycra/spandex) that I bought from Mood. Cotton jersey, olive swatch, far right 32x This fabric has a medium amount of stretch - no spandex, so it's not super stretchy.  But you can see how the fibers are knit to allow for some stretch (compared to a cotton woven). 110x 1900x The irregularity of natural fibers are visible at high magnification. Next up is a bandage knit...