The knit and purl stitches, when arranged in alternating rows, produce stockinette stitch, recognized by smooth V shapes on the right side and purl bumps on the wrong side. Knitting every row, by contrast, yields garter stitch, a ridged, reversible fabric that looks the same on both sides. Mixing knits and purls within the same row produces ribbing, an elastic fabric commonly used for cuffs and hems; 1x1 ribbing alternates single knits and purls, while 2x2 ribbing alternates pairs. Seed stitch alternates knit and purl every stitch and every row, creating a pebbled texture that lies flat without curling.
More elaborate textures come from manipulating stitch positions and adding or removing stitches. In cable stitch, stitches are held to the front or back while others are worked, twisting the held stitches over their neighbors to form braided or rope-like patterns. Lace knitting creates deliberate holes through combinations of yarn overs, which wrap the yarn over the needle to form an eyelet, and decreases such as knit two together (k2tog), a right-leaning decrease, and slip slip knit (ssk), a left-leaning decrease. The same decrease family exists on the purl side, with purl two together (p2tog) serving as the standard purl decrease.
Crochet builds texture differently. The chain stitch forms the foundation of nearly every crochet project, and stitches such as single, double, and treble crochet build upward from that base in increasing heights. Each stitch has variants between regions and traditions, and slip stitch serves to join or move stitches without adding height. Together, these simple actions let crocheters produce dense fabric, lacy shawls, three-dimensional toys, and flat motifs all from the same handful of techniques.