Stockingette stitch versus garter stitch

[Ronda]

I'm working on a purse. I used 2 strands of Berroco suede in a stockingette stitch to make the "outside" of the purse. For the front and back, I cast on 30 stitches and worked for 7 inches. The sides were 15 stitches for 7 inches. The bottom was 30 stitches for 4 inches. I'm all done with that. Now you take a yarn called Lolita (I think - It's from Turkey and a lot of the label is foreign or covered in stickers from the LYS) and you use it to stitch those pieces together. Then you use the same yarn and make the lining for the purse in the same way, only you work for 10 inches so that you can fold down the lining over the outside of the purse. This Lolita is very fuzzy and white and it's very hard to see the stitches once they are cast onto the needle. It's so fuzzy, I don't think you could even tell if it had been done in stockingette, so I'm wondering if I can be easy on myself and do the lining in garter. Would you get a larger piece of fabric working in all garter stitch than you would if you worked in stockingette? I'm thinking if I work in garter stitch, it is going to be too wide for the outer part of the purse.

I would appreciate any comments or suggestion, unless you're going to tell me to buck up and do it in stockingette! :D j/k

[Ingrid]

I think garter is generally looser than stockinette. I suppose you could knit a swatch of garter and compare it to the same number of stitches in the stockinette. You could also reduce the number of garter stitches in the row to make it the same size.