Twisted Stitches
Rebekkah and I were discussing the effect twisted stitches have on finished items this morning and I decided to upload pictures of an extremely biased hat I knit with twisted purl stitches.
This is the right side, it's modeled off an Old Navy hat Andrew saw and liked. I used Rowan Wool-Cotton and US 3 needles. All the purl stitches are twisted, resulting in the slant.
Here's the wrong side, where it's easier to see the twisted stitches. (Photos can be clicked to make bigger) While there's nothing wrong with the hat, it's not the effect I was looking for, and if I was doing color work or something similar the bias could cause unpleasant distortion. I think it's important to know what you're doing with your knitting. Now I can use twisted stitches when I want them for a certain effect, and get a non twisted result the rest of the time. What was causing my twisted purls was wrapping the purls the wrong way.
Edit: I forgot to add that I knit this hat in June 2004, when I'd been knitting about 4 months. I think it was my last FO with twisted purl stitches.