New Knitter has question about garter stitch

[angiemiah_]

I know this may sound crazy to you all but what is the difference between knitting and a garter stich - my work says k 26 inches and then the next instructions is to garter stitch 4 inch???

[Cristy]

no difference--it sounds like your directions are just weird...

[five_six]

well... there is sorta a difference in that 'knitting' is a broad, all encompassing title for the yarn manipulation we do, garter stitch just happens to be one (of many) ways to knit. If you were wanting to do garter stitch in the round, you would also have to purl, so garter doesn't really mean knitting, it just involves the knit stitch.

but yeah, that instruction is weird What are you making?

[Yarnlady]

I personally think garter stitch and stockinette stitch are misleading terms. I think they should be called fabrics.

One creates garter fabric by knitting every row if one is knitting flat.
One creates garter fabric by knitting one round and purling the next round if knitting in the round.

One creates stockinette fabric by knitting one row and purling the next if knitting flat.
One creates stockinette fabric by knitting all rounds if knitting in the round.
</soapbox>

[krazy4kats]

Is there a pic or link to the pattern?

If I were doing this (flat, not in the round), I would do stockinette stitch (knit a row, purl a row) for the 26 inches and then do garter stitch (knit every row) for 4 inches. This would give you a piece of fabric with a large smooth section of the Vs that stockinette would make and then a smaller border of the wavy garter stitch and the fabric would look something like the front of this sweater:

[AnreeAce]

Pretty sweater!

I agree, I'd work in stockinette and then garter.