What Is Jacquard Knitwear? Knitted vs Printed Pattern

Jacquard is pattern knitted into the fabric rather than printed on top of it. Two or more coloured yarns are carried along each row, and the machine selects which one shows at every individual stitch. The pattern is part of the structure, which is why it cannot crack, peel or wash off.

Almost every patterned garment you own is printed — ink applied to finished fabric. Jacquard is the opposite approach, and the difference shows up within a few washes.

Printed, embroidered, jacquard

Method	How the pattern gets there	Over time
Printed	Ink or pigment applied to the surface of finished fabric.	Fades, cracks and eventually flakes. The fabric beneath is unpatterned.
Embroidered	Thread stitched onto fabric after it is made.	Durable, but adds weight and stiffness, and can pucker on a stretchy knit.
Jacquard	Coloured yarns knitted into the fabric as it is formed, stitch by stitch.	Cannot fade separately from the fabric, because it is the fabric.

There is a simple way to tell which you are looking at. Turn the garment inside out. A print shows nothing on the reverse. Embroidery shows thread ends and backing. Jacquard shows the pattern again, in reverse colours — because both yarns run through the whole fabric.

How the machine does it

Stitch-by-stitch colour selection

A knitting machine has hundreds of needles in a row. In plain knitting, every needle takes the same yarn. In jacquard, two or more yarns are fed at once, and each needle is instructed which one to pick up for that stitch.

A motif is built row by row from those individual decisions — effectively a grid, where every square is a stitch and every stitch is a colour choice. The design has to be drawn to that grid before anything is knitted, which is why jacquard patterning has its particular geometry: clean blocks and defined edges rather than the soft gradients a print can produce.

The yarn not in use on a given stitch does not disappear. It runs along the back of the fabric until it is needed again. That is why jacquard fabric is denser and slightly heavier than a plain knit of the same gauge — there is more yarn in it.

Yarn beside a knitted swatch showing colourwork structure — Multiple yarns feed the machine at once. Which one shows at any given stitch is decided before a single row is knitted.

Yarn loaded on a knitting machine for jacquard colourwork — Multiple yarns feed the machine at once. Which one shows at any given stitch is decided before a single row is knitted.

Why colour fastness matters so much here

With a printed garment, fading is obvious but tolerable — the print dulls and the fabric stays as it was.

With jacquard, the colours are the garment. If one fades faster than another, the whole design loses its contrast and the motif goes muddy. A two-colour block that started crisp ends up as two similar mid-tones. There is no repairing that.

Which is why the yarn choice matters more for colourwork than for a plain knit. Cotton takes dye beautifully but fades measurably with washing and light. A fibre that holds saturated colour is what keeps the contrast intact over years.

This is the reason our colourwork pieces are knitted in GRS certified 60% recycled cotton, 40% recycled acrylic rather than cotton alone. The cotton majority keeps the fabric breathable and dry against the skin; the recycled acrylic holds saturated colour far better than cotton does, which is what stops a bold jacquard motif going flat after a season. Our plainer styles are knitted in 100% cotton, where fastness matters less. Fibre content is listed on each product page.

Reading a jacquard garment

Four things worth looking at, on ours or anyone's:

Turn it inside out. The reverse should show the design in negative. Floats — the carried yarn — should be neat and not so long that fingers catch in them.
Look at the motif edges. Crisp, defined boundaries mean accurate stitch selection. Blurred or stepped edges mean a coarse gauge or a rushed pattern.
Check colour boundaries for puckering. Where two colours meet, the fabric should lie flat. Puckering means the tensions were not balanced.
Compare front and back of a motif. On a well-made piece the shape is recognisably the same. Distortion means the fabric was pulled off-grain during finishing.

Wearing colourwork without it wearing you

A jacquard knit is a statement piece by construction — it has more visual weight than a plain garment in the same colours.

Let it be the loudest thing. Plain trousers, plain shoes, minimal jewellery.
Pull a colour from the pattern for one other item. It ties the outfit without matching it.
Keep the silhouette simple. Pattern plus volume plus texture is one thing too many.
For work, size the motif down. A small repeating pattern reads as texture; a large block reads as a graphic.

Halfway House knit tshirt showing knitted colour blocking — Halfway House and Homeland. Knitted colour, not printed — visible on both sides of the fabric.

Homeland knit shirt with knitted pattern detail — Halfway House and Homeland. Knitted colour, not printed — visible on both sides of the fabric.

Caring for colourwork

The same routine as any fine knit, with one addition: colour needs protecting from light as much as from heat.

Wash inside out at 30°C or below, gentle cycle, mesh bag.
Wash with similar colours for the first two or three washes.
Dry flat, out of direct sun. Sunlight fades dye faster than washing does, and on a jacquard it fades unevenly wherever the garment is folded.
Store folded and away from light. A knit left on an open shelf near a window will fade along the exposed edge.

Frequently asked questions

What is jacquard knitwear?

Jacquard knitwear has its pattern knitted into the fabric using two or more coloured yarns, with the machine selecting which yarn appears at each individual stitch. The pattern is part of the fabric structure rather than applied to the surface, so it cannot crack, peel or wash off.

What is the difference between jacquard and printed fabric?

A print is ink applied to the surface of finished fabric, so it sits on top and fades or cracks over time. Jacquard is knitted in as the fabric is formed, so the pattern runs through the material and appears in reverse on the inside. Turning a garment inside out will tell you which it is.

How can you tell if a pattern is knitted or printed?

Turn the garment inside out. A printed pattern shows nothing on the reverse. A knitted jacquard shows the same design in reversed colours, because both yarns run through the whole fabric. Embroidery shows thread ends and backing material instead.

Does jacquard knitwear fade?

The dye can fade with washing and sunlight like any coloured fabric, but the pattern itself cannot wear away, because it is knitted rather than applied. Fibres with good colour fastness matter more in jacquard than in plain knits, since uneven fading reduces the contrast the design depends on.

Why is jacquard knitwear heavier than plain knitting?

Because the yarn not in use at a given stitch runs along the back of the fabric until it is needed again. That carried yarn, called a float, means more material per square inch, making jacquard denser and slightly heavier than a plain knit of the same gauge.

How do you style patterned knitwear?

Let the knit be the loudest element and keep everything else plain, including trousers, shoes and jewellery. Picking up one colour from the pattern in a single other item ties the outfit together without matching it. Avoid combining pattern with heavy volume or additional texture.

Why it is worth knowing

Printed and knitted patterns can look similar on a rail and behave completely differently after twenty washes. The inside-out test takes two seconds, costs nothing, and tells you which one you are about to pay for.

More on how knitwear is made, the yarn we use, or browse the knitwear collection.

Jacquard Knitwear: How Colourwork Is Made