Its unique structure gives Distitch many advantages, making the extra yarn and time that it requires a good investment. In particular, Distitch is great for decorative effects, warmth, strength and variety.
Decoration
Distitch techniques create even stitches, and knitting with neater, cleaner lines, allowing for designs that really pop. Colourwork looks vivid and precise, stitch patterns are crisp, and textures, such as cables or brioche, are more pronounced. Even beginners can get these results, as stitch tension is evened out by the stitches being worked twice.
DS Stocking stitch, for example, forms a well-defined herringbone pattern, and the addition of contrast colour stripes creates striking zigzags that aren’t possible with conventional knitting.
Distitch also provides beautiful edging, from the sharp lines of simple selvedges, to two-coloured designs that look stunning. It can also wrap around the corners of a project, from cast-on to bind-off, for when detail really matters.
Warmth
The special structure of Distitch means that its stitches are very tightly meshed, and the gaps between them are very small.
So Distitch works up as a thick, close fabric that is warmer than conventional knitting, giving extra protection against cold and wind.
Distitch also has more stretch than other thickly knitted fabrics such as double or stranded knitting. You get all the benefits of stranded knitting, without the problems of strands!
It can be used throughout a garment or over certain areas: for example the ears and/or forehead of hats, without changing yarn or design.
Strength
Distitch creates a dense fabric, making it much more durable and resistant to over-stretching.
Use it with garments that experience a lot of wear, such as socks, gloves and especially children’s clothes and to introduce protection against holes and misshaping in your hand-knits.
Distitch ribbing provides extra grip and durability at cuffs and brims without loosing comfort.
To summarise, Distitch can be used wherever additional strength and durability is required.
Variety
By applying the Distitch principle to almost any pre-existing stitch pattern you can create its Distitch equivalent, for example DS Stocking stitch, DS Garter, DS 1×1 Rib and DS Brioche, opening up a whole new range of variations.
Detailed instructions for some brand new Distitch stitch patterns and the Distitch equivalents of the most common knitting stitch patterns can be found in Appendix 1 (p. 173). There is also a selection of Distitch crocheted stitch patterns, with short descriptions of how they are made.
Distitch framing
You don’t need to knit the entire garment in Distitch pattern. Sometimes it’s just enough to add only one Distitch column. This could be a selvedge worked with Distitch instead of conventional stitch. Distitch cast-on and Distitch bind-off can complete the project.
By using Distitch, you can create beautiful framing for all types of knitting.
Distitch gives a beautiful, even and firm selvedge – use it as a decorative edge that doesn’t loosen with wear. The two types of DS selvedge detailed in this book are Simple DS selvedge and Slip DS selvedge.
Assia Brill 