I saw the horizontal herringbone stitch pattern in the book, “750 Knitting Stitches: The Ultimate Knit Stitch Bible,” and I wanted to use this stitch pattern for a knitting project. I looked online for a tutorial for this stitch pattern and saw a similar yet different stitch pattern with the same name.

Puzzled I decided to knit up two swatches and compare these two stitch patterns.
Yarn used: Yarnspiration™ Patons Classic Wool
For both the swatches I cast on 40 stitches with US #8 knitting needles and knit the two stitch pattern for 28 rows. On the 29th row, I bound off using the knit stitch.

	Swatch 1	Swatch 2
Stitch Pattern	Row 1: Knit 1, * slip one, knit 1 then pass the slipped stitch over but before dropping the stitch off the needle knit through the back of the slipped stitch; repeat from * to last stitch, knit 1 Row 2: *Purl 2 together but purl the first stitch again before dropping it off the needle; repeat from* to end of the row. (1)	Row 1:*Knit 2 together through the back loop but drop only the first stitch off the left hand needle; repeat from * to the last stitch, knit 1 through the back loop, Row 2: *Purl 2 together dropping only the first stitch; repeat from * to last stitch, purl 1. (2)
Stitch type	Slipped and twisted stitch	Twisted stitch
The knitting experience	The twisted and slipped stitch caused more hand fatigue and I had to take breaks before continuing to knit this stitch pattern.	The twisted stitch caused some hand fatigue but not as much as Swatch 1. (I have mentioned the problem of hand fatigue with twisted stitches in a previous blog post)
The Knitted Item	The knitted swatch is not as dense as Swatch 2, it’s has more drape and lays flat. Blocked it’s slightly larger than the Swatch 2. (see images below)	Very dense fabric with compact stitches. It curls up a lot compared to Swatch 1 when unblocked. A bit smaller than Swatch 1. The reverse side looks very different from the Swatch 1. (see images below)

The names for these two stitch patterns are used interchangeably. Swatch 1 is sometimes called an alternate Herringbone stitch and Swatch 2 the Sideways Herringbone stitch. I like both stitch patterns and after comparing the two swatches I know what types of knitting projects I can knit using these stitch patterns. As for the swatches, I added a single crochet edging and will be using them as potholders.