Knitting on the Bias

If you’ve been knitting or sewing for any length of time, you’ve probably heard the phrase “on the bias”, but maybe you didn’t know exactly what it meant. In sewing or knitting, or in fact, many other crafts, the phrase “on the bias” means that your fabric is cut or constructed on a diagonal. This gives fabric a unique drape, because the forces of gravity are not aligned with the weave or knit of the fabric. With woven fabrics, you’ll find that bias-cut pieces can also be shaped or conformed to curves more easily, again, because of the misalignment of forces.

In knitting, working on the bias also allows you to create unique designs that could be challenging to achieve when just knitting flat. When you knit on the bias, you’re working your knitting diagonally, meaning you can incorporate diagonal stripes or designs in your work, something that can be really tricky to achieve conventionally.

To create a biased-knit fabric, you’ll increase at one side of your work and decrease at the other. It can be difficult to visualize when you’re just getting started, but as your work grows, it will likely become easier to see. In the images below, the knitting on the left is worked flat as usual, without any side shaping. All the stretchy forces are as you’d normally expect: parallel and perpendicular to the the rows. The knitting on the right has shaping on the sides. And again, the forces are parallel and perpendicular to the rows. When it’s on the needle, it looks roughly the same, just with edges that shape the work like a rhombus.

Now imagine turning the bias-knit work so that the edges are perpendicular to the ground, like the edges of the knitting on the left. You’ll rotate it about 45 degrees, and you’ll see the effect: the rows of knitting are on the diagonal! And the width of the object is narrower than it appeared when on the needles.

Bias-knit fabric

When you rotate the work so the edges are perpendicular to the ground, you’ll see the diagonal stripes emerge. While the width measured in the row direction (along the diagonal stripe) is around 6”/15 cm, the width across the necktie is only 3”/7.5 cm.

Want to give it a shot? Check out A Little Biased, the cute and colorful necktie from Knitrino. Don’t have the pattern yet? It’s available for a limited time in Knitrino–click the button below from your phone to get the pattern.

A Little Biased

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