This page explains what knitting is and the one structural fact that separates a knitted fabric from a woven fabric, for anyone who reads, writes or checks a fabric specification: a merchandiser, a production team, a buyer, a mill employee, or a new entrant to the trade. This lesson teaches product flow: once a yarn exists, a mill turns it into fabric in one of two ways, and the way it chose shapes everything the factory does with that fabric afterwards.
Course T03-C01 already covered weaving, one of the two ways a mill builds fabric from yarn. This course opens the other way: knitting, restating the same structural test T03-C01-L01 taught from the woven side, now from the knit side, using Order A's T-shirt.
Without this, a person reads "single jersey" and does not know whether to expect it to stretch like a woven shirt or hold a fixed shape like denim. A planner cuts a pattern for a knitted fabric using a woven fabric's seam allowance, and the finished garment fits too tight. Knowing whether a fabric is knitted or woven tells you, in one step, whether it stretches by construction, before you touch a pattern.
You need: nothing but this page and, as useful background, Course 1 of this track on weaving. Neither is required to follow this lesson.
By the end of this lesson you can:
Not covered here: single jersey, rib and interlock in depth (lesson T03-C02-L02); wales and courses, a knitted fabric's density, the knit equivalent of ends and picks per inch (lesson T03-C02-L03); rib and interlock used for cuffs and collars (lesson T03-C02-L04); choosing a knit structure for a new brief (lesson T03-C02-L05).
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Knitting | The process of forming fabric by pulling loops of yarn through previous loops, repeatedly, using needles. |
| Loop | The basic unit of a knitted fabric, formed by pulling one length of yarn through a previous loop; knitting connects loops, weaving interlaces two sets of straight yarn. |
| Needle | The tool that holds and forms each loop during knitting. |
| Weft knitting | Knitting in which loops form across the fabric's width, one row at a time, from a single yarn feeding through many needles. |
| Warp knitting | Knitting in which loops form along the fabric's length, from many yarns feeding many needles at once. |
| Knit structure | The pattern in which a knitted fabric's loops are formed and connected; common structures are single jersey, rib and interlock. |
| Knitted fabric | Fabric made by looping the yarn. Stretchy. Used for T-shirts and underwear. |
Knitting forms a fabric by pulling loops of one yarn, or a small set of yarns, through loops already formed, over and over, using needles. This is one continuous looping process, unlike weaving's two-yarn interlacing (T03-C01), where a fixed warp and a travelling weft cross at right angles instead of looping. This looped structure is why knitted fabrics generally stretch more than woven fabrics of the same fibre: a loop can open and close under tension in a way an interlaced crossing point cannot. Order A's fabric, covered in T02-C01, is already fixed as single jersey; this lesson traces the loop structure behind that fact for the first time.
A person checking a fabric for the first time does not need to know knitting-machine mechanics, only what forms a loop and one reliable test.
| What can differ | The shapes you meet | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Weft knitting | Loops formed across the fabric's width, one row at a time, by a single yarn feeding through many needles | The family Order A's own single jersey belongs to, and the family this course focuses on |
| Warp knitting | Loops formed along the fabric's length by many yarns simultaneously, for example tricot | Exists in the wider industry, but is not part of this academy's two fixed orders |
| The needle | The tool that holds and forms each loop; this lesson names its role without teaching knitting-machine mechanics, which is out of scope for a merchandising-facing course | Knowing a needle forms each loop one at a time explains why a dropped stitch shows as a visible fault running down the fabric |
| Knitted vs woven, the one test | If you can trace a single yarn looped through itself, it is knitted; if you can trace two distinct sets of yarn crossing at right angles, it is woven (T03-C01) | This one test works on any product family: apparel, socks and hosiery (always knitted), and terry and towels (woven or knitted, depending on the product) |
This academy's fixed T-shirt order, Order A, is Rowad Knits' own knitted fabric: single jersey, 180 GSM, Ne 30/1 combed cotton, for 15,000 pieces, sold by the kilogram to Delta Garments, the garment factory that cuts and sews it for export. Rowad Knits' needles pull the Ne 30/1 yarn into loops, row after row, until the fabric reaches the weight Delta Garments has ordered. This lesson uses Order A to anchor "knitted" as a fabric the learner has already met in this academy's fixed figures, tracing its loop structure for the first time rather than treating single jersey as just "the T-shirt fabric."
No new calculation is needed to see knitting in action. Order A's fabric fact, fixed elsewhere in this academy, is: single jersey, 180 GSM, Ne 30/1 combed cotton, 15,000 pieces. Reading this fact as a construction choice rather than only as a costing input: every one of those 15,000 pieces is cut from a fabric built on one continuous looping process, not from two crossing yarn sets. The count itself is the worked number for this non-numeric rule: 15,000 pieces, all sharing the one knitted construction, none of them woven.
A common mistake is assuming every garment is made the same way. A learner who has only seen Order B's woven denim may assume all garments hold a fixed shape and do not stretch by construction. Order A exists specifically to show the other, structurally different family: a fabric built on loops, which opens and closes under tension the way an interlaced crossing point cannot. Treating Order A's knit behaviour as universal costs the same confusion in reverse, once a learner has only ever handled knitted fabric and then meets a woven one that will not stretch to fit.
Knitting pulls loops of yarn through previous loops, over and over, using needles, one continuous process. Weaving crosses two separate sets of yarn instead, warp and weft, at right angles. A knitted fabric generally stretches more than a woven fabric of the same fibre, because a loop can open and close under tension in a way a crossed, interlaced yarn cannot. Order A's T-shirt fabric is single jersey, a weft-knit fabric: loops formed across the fabric's width, row by row, by one yarn feeding through many needles. The one test for telling knitted from woven: a single yarn looped through itself means knitted; two straight, crossing yarn sets means woven. "Single jersey" already names a knit construction, so a learner does not need a swatch to know that much.
Northline Apparel's buyer, Sara, is reviewing a new supplier's swatch card for a possible T-shirt order. The facts in front of Sara:
The document Sara reads, one line from the new supplier's swatch card:
Is this fabric knitted or woven, and how can Sara be reasonably sure without seeing the actual swatch construction? Decide before you open the answer.
"Single jersey" is a knitted fabric. It specifically names a weft-knit structure, the simplest one, one set of needles, loops forming in one direction, the same family as Order A's own 180 GSM T-shirt fabric.
Two facts, together, let Sara answer with confidence. First, the word "jersey" itself names a specific knit construction, the same family already fixed for Order A, so the fabric family is not in doubt. Second, "single" in the term rules out the two-layer interlock structure covered later in this course, leaving the simplest single-needle-bed weft knit, exactly matching Order A's own construction.
Sara can be reasonably sure from the term "single jersey" alone, since it specifically names a knit construction, not a woven one, and can quote Order A's own 180 GSM, Ne 30/1 combed cotton fabric back to the supplier as the closest existing match to compare against. Neither fact alone is enough: knowing "jersey" means knitted without knowing what "single" rules out would leave Sara unsure whether the supplier means single jersey or interlock; knowing what "single" narrows down without first confirming the fabric is knitted would leave Sara unable to name the construction at all.
This lesson's cost is framed in fit and finishing decisions, not a single new dollar figure, because Order A's costing is already fixed for its real single jersey, not for a confusion about it. If a planner mistakes single jersey for a woven fabric and expects it to hold a fixed shape the way denim does, the wrong finishing method is chosen, and the fabric's natural tendency to curl at a raw edge, a normal property of single jersey, is treated as a defect rather than planned around from the start.
A wrong construction assumption found after cutting starts costs re-cut fabric, a re-planned finishing method, and a delay against Order A's own 16-week schedule, a real risk this lesson's structure check is designed to prevent before a piece is cut.
Copy this table into your reference sheet. Fill each row from a real specification or sample, not from memory. Lesson T03-C02-L02 fills the construction column in detail for single jersey, rib and interlock.
| Knit structure | Construction | Appearance | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knitted (general) | Loops of yarn pulled through previous loops, using needles | Stretches by construction; a loop opens and closes under tension | T-shirts, underwear, apparel needing stretch |
| Order A's single jersey | One set of needles, loops pulled through in one direction | Lightweight, curls at raw edges, one flat face and one purl face | T-shirts, everyday knitwear |
Download the full working sheet, with columns for knit structure, construction, appearance and typical use, from the link on this course's page.
1. What is the basic unit a knitted fabric is built from?
2. Which of this academy's two fixed orders is a knitted fabric?
3. A swatch card for a 5,000-piece order names the fabric only as "rib, 220 GSM." Based on this lesson's one test, what should you conclude before seeing the swatch?
| EN | AR | FR | TR | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knitting | الحياكة | Tricotage | Örme | The process of forming fabric by pulling loops of yarn through previous loops, repeatedly, using needles. |
| Loop | حلقة | Maille | İlmek | The basic unit of a knitted fabric, formed by pulling one length of yarn through a previous loop; knitting connects loops, weaving interlaces two sets of straight yarn. |
| Needle | الإبرة | Aiguille | İğne | The tool that holds and forms each loop during knitting. |
| Weft knitting | الحياكة العرضية | Tricot trame | Atkılı örgü | Knitting in which loops form across the fabric's width, one row at a time, from a single yarn feeding through many needles. |
| Warp knitting | حياكة السدى | Tricot chaîne | Çözgülü örgü | Knitting in which loops form along the fabric's length, from many yarns feeding many needles at once. |
| Knit structure | تركيب التريكو | Structure de tricot | Örgü yapısı | The pattern in which a knitted fabric's loops are formed and connected; common structures are single jersey, rib and interlock. |
| Knitted fabric | قماش تريكو | Tissu maille | Örme kumaş | Fabric made by looping the yarn. Stretchy. Used for T-shirts and underwear. |
You now know that knitting loops a single yarn through itself, and that Order A's T-shirt is a knitted fabric. The next lesson opens weft knitting up in detail: the three basic knit structures, single jersey, rib and interlock, and how each one's loop pattern gives it a different stretch, appearance and use. Back to the course map