Rev St st or Reverse Stockinette stitch is Stockinette stitch viewed from the purl side, which in Stockinette is the wrong side. Reverse Stockinette is the purl side of Stockinette stitch fabric, where the knit side is viewed as the right side. If the purl side is used as the right side then it is called Reverse Stockinette stitch.
How To Work Rev St st or Reverse Stockinette stitch
Worked flat:
Row 1 (RS): Purl
Row 2 (WS): Knit
Repeat Rows 1 and 2.
Worked in the round:
Rnd 1: Purl
Repeat Rnd 1.
Why Use Reverse Stockinette stitch?
There are reasons to use Reverse Stockinette instead of Stockinette.
- Working cables or other textured stitches, which are typically knit stitches on the right side, a Reverse Stockinette background gives greater relief to the cables and texture stitches.
- Having Stockinette on the inside of a garment give a smoother fabric against the skin.
Characteristics of Stockinette and Reverse Stockinette stitch?
The Stockinette side is the smooth side and the bumpy, purl side is the Reverse Stockinette side.
It is the nature of Stockinette and Reverse Stockinette to roll at the edges. Rows (or the vertical edges) roll in toward the Reverse Stockinette side of the fabric. At the same time, the cast on and bind off edges, or the stitches (horizontal) will roll toward the Stockinette side.
It has become fairly common to allow this tendency to roll horizontally to create a rolled edge. It is simple to execute and makes use of the nature of the fabric. In previous decades this was considered too casual a finish and borders or bands were added to stockinette and Reverse Stockinette fabric to counteract this characteristic. Front edges will roll, so borders or bands need to be added. If the bands or borders are not wide enough or done on a smaller sized needle, the Stockinette or Reverse Stockinette will “flip up” the bands or border.
