What is "purl stitch"

Stitch \Stitch\, n. [OE. stiche, AS. stice a pricking, akin to stician to prick. See Stick, v. i.]

1. A single pass of a needle in sewing; the loop or turn of the thread thus made.

2. A single turn of the thread round a needle in knitting; a link, or loop, of yarn; as, to let down, or drop, a stitch; to take up a stitch.

3. [Cf. OE. sticche, stecche, stucche, a piece, AS. stycce. Cf. Stock.] A space of work taken up, or gone over, in a single pass of the needle; hence, by extension, any space passed over; distance.

   You have gone a good stitch.
   --Bunyan.

   In Syria the husbandmen go lightly over with their plow, and take no deep stitch in making their furrows.
   --Holland.

4. A local sharp pain; an acute pain, like the piercing of a needle; as, a stitch in the side.

   He was taken with a cold and with stitches, which was, indeed, a pleurisy.
   --Bp. Burnet.

5. A contortion, or twist. [Obs.]

   If you talk, Or pull your face into a stitch again, I shall be angry.
   --Marston.

6. Any least part of a fabric or dress; as, to wet every stitch of clothes. [Colloq.]

7. A furrow.
   --Chapman.

8. An arrangement of stitches, or method of stitching in some particular way or style; as, cross-stitch; herringbone stitch, etc.

   Chain stitch, Lock stitch. See in the Vocabulary.

   Pearl stitch, or Purl stitch. See 2nd Purl, 2.

Purl \Purl\, n.

1. An embroidered and puckered border; a hem or fringe, often of gold or silver twist; also, a pleat or fold, as of a band.

   A triumphant chariot made of carnation velvet, enriched withpurl and pearl.
   --Sir P. Sidney.

2. An inversion of stitches in knitting, which gives to the work a ribbed or waved appearance.

   Purl stitch. Same as Purl, n., 2.

1. n. a basic knitting stitch [syn: purl]

2. v. make with purl stitches