yarn regions 14 occur at regular wale locations along the course course 1 b of the fabric of fig1 also has a 1 u00d7 2 stitch configuration formed on the needles 10 loops 15 being pulled to face 8 and loops 16 to face 9 of the fabric adjacent loops 16 have yarn regions 17 without knitted loops extending course wise between them but the loop configuration in course 1 b is such that the wale location of the yarn regions 17 is different from the location of the yarn regions 14 the wales in the fabric are indicated by letters a b c etc at the bottom of fig1 and the yarn regions 14 in course 1 a occur in wales c g and k whereas the yarn regions 17 in course 1 b occur in wales a e i and m thus the regions of the fabric represented for example by wale groups d e and f or h i and j which according to the structure of course 1 a would be expected to be relatively extensible in the course wise direction are rendered more rigid that is less extensible because of the presence of the course wise extending yarn regions 17 without knitted loops in the adjacent course 1 b the yarn regions 14 of course 1 a provide rigidity in the wale regions b c.