Knitted fabric
textile material made using knitting techniques, often by machine knitting

Knitted fabric is a textile that results from knitting, the process of inter-looping of yarns or inter-meshing of loops. Its properties are distinct from woven fabric in that it is more flexible and can be more readily constructed into smaller pieces, making it ideal for socks and hats.
Weft-knit and warp-knit fabric
There are two basic varieties of knit fabric: weft-knit and warp-knit fabric. Warp-knitted fabrics such as tricot and milanese are resistant to runs, and are commonly used in lingerie.
Weft-knit fabrics are easier to make and more common. When cut, they will unravel (run) unless repaired.
Warp-knit fabrics are resistant to runs and relatively easy to sew. Raschel lace—the most common type of machine made lace—is a warp knit fabric but using many more guide-bars
(12+) than the usual machines which mostly have three or four bars. (14+)
Structure of knitted fabrics
Courses and wales
In weaving, threads are always straight, running parallel either lengthwise (warp threads) or crosswise (weft threads). By contrast, the yarn in knitted fabrics follows a meandering path (a course), forming symmetric loops (also called bights) symmetrically above and below the mean path of the yarn.
“Knitted fabric” enters the record as textile material made using knitting techniques, often by machine knitting. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Knitted, fabric and textile can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Knitted fabric” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Knitted, fabric and textile provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q830128. The Library of Congress control number is sh85072698. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Knitted fabric” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.