A slight change in knitting produces a zigzag effect and a slightly less elastic fabric. Use Crossed Stockinette to bring more texture to your knitting, or practice it on a swatch improve your understanding of knit fabric. Practicing intentionally twisted stitches like with Crossed Stockinette can help build the skills to avoid doing it unintentionally.

If your attempts at regular stockinette stitch looks like Crossed Stockinette, this is a common knitting error. When you’re learning to knit, it is easy to assume that knitting through the front of the stitch creates the same result as knitting through the back, but working through the back loop can twist stitches as we demonstrate here. Unintentionally twisted stitches can also be caused by wrapping the yarn in the wrong direction around the needle when knitting or purling.