Seed stitch VS. Moss stitch VS. other stuff.

Over on Twitter this morning, we were discussing, well, seed stitch and related stuff. And, I don't know if it's a US to UK to Australia terminology thing, or if it's a two week migraine melting my brain, but I thought I'd clarify in more than 140 characters. With illustrations!

For the purposes of this discussion, I is a knit stitch, * is a purl stitch. AS YOU LOOK AT THE FABRIC. Not necessarily according to direction knit, but what type of stitch is facing you when you look at it.

This is the scarf I'm knitting. It's, gods help me, seed stitch:

It's K1, P1 across with some slipped stitches on the ends. BUT. The stitches look like this:

I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*
*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I
I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*
*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I

It's like a grid, every other stitch in all directions.

For comparison, K1 P1 rib, which we all know, would look like this:

I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*
I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*
I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*
I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*

See?

Moss stitch, on the other hand - this is where it gets weird - is also K1P1, but it's offset a bit:

I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*
I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*
*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I
*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I

Three different patterns, all K1P1. Knitting is a trip.

THEN! We can get into K2P2 fun!

K2P2 rib:

II**II**II**II**
II**II**II**II**
II**II**II**II**
II**II**II**II**

Broken rib (there are twenty billion variations, but this is a common one), ALSO known in some worlds as Irish Moss stitch, which is not ALWAYS the same as the Moss stitch above, but sometimes is:

II**II**II**II**
II**II**II**II**
**II**II**II**II
**II**II**II**II

Maybe we should start specifying American Seed, or Australian Seed, or WTF, but I'm not sure it would clarify things a damn bit.