Float Stitch

Float stitch, a yarn placed behind a knitting needle so that it does not knit or tuck. Also known as a miss stitch. There are only three types of loops or stitches possible in weft knitting: knit, tuck, and float. 

The third kind of stitch is the float or missed stitch. The drawing on the left is a technical face. On the face in the middle course of yarn and middle of the wale, it looks like the machine has hidden the colored yarn in the back. It is not captured or knit with any other stitch. This is the float or missed stitch. On the technical back, you can see how the missed stitch floats. 

To produce the float stitch, on feed one yarn is laid to rest behind the hook of the needle. The needle remains in the rest position, it is not activated in the float cycle. In the knit cycle, it is activated. When a subsequent yarn is knit at the next feed, the missed yarn floats to the technical back of the fabric. 

Loops can be made to float over a series of wales. To make the structure secure, some float yarns can be tied to the ground with a jersey or tuck stitch. Float loops make the fabric more narrow and less extensible because the floated yarn is in a straight configuration. 

Why would you produce a structure with loops that float? 

Floats are useful for pattern effects where some colors appear on the front and others are hidden on the back. This checkerboard pattern uses gray and white yarns. When the gray yarn knits form a gray square on the front, the white yarn floats to the back. If you turn the fabric over and inspect the back, the colors appear reversed. A second use is to create surface effects or change the performance of the fabric. You can make loops float on one side of the fabric, then nap them to produce a fleece. If not napped, these floats could be used for aesthetics or function. All three of these stitch formations can be produced on warp or weft machines or used for single or double knits.