I can't imagine tearing knitted fabric. I have only torn cotton. I know polyester, wool, etc has to be cut.

In the 1960's the material places used to rip our cloth at the amount we wanted. Today, with the new fabrics.. stretch is involved. I would not rip for fear of distorting the fabric.

Just me. I agree with others. Can not beat the roto like a pizza cutter tool !!

Good luck.
Ellen

GREAT POINT!
No such thing as tearing any knitted or felted fabric ... if you could even manage to do it, it would tear horribly crooked ...
woven fabric is the key, I guess, eh?

i agree. it tears straight on the lengthwise grain, but not always on the cross grain. and you cannot force it into square no matter what you do. first washing or wetting, it's right back to off-grain on the crossgrain. i always request cutting and if they won't i can't shop there. too much wastage. that's why you always have to square up fabric on the cutting mat before you start measuring. to get rid of that crooked edge.

I have to rethink something here ....
Is the cross grain going from selvedge to selvedge?
And, which is the grain that is the strongest?

the crossgrain goes from selvedge to selvedge.

the crossgrain has stretch in it. that is, if you pull on it and then relax it, it will 'bounce' back into shape. the lengthwise grain has no stretch and i find is easier to rip..

Well, that would certainly explain why my ripping the fabric for my backing didn't tear straight. Thank you for explaining that for me. Tear parallel to the selvedge, but tearing from selvedge to selvedge will cause the fabric to be more wonky. Works for me! Thank you!

As far as I know, they will not be square.

I actually did a little test because of this tread and ripped the long borders for my latest quilt rather than cutting them. I must admit that the pieces were straight BUT there was a lot of raveling and a lot of annoying strings hanging around. Next time, I'll go back to cutting.

I was with my sister when she bought a lot of wool, some big pieces, some small pieces. She is a rughooker. The shopowner ripped the wool, and I was surprised it even ripped! But both ladies said that is how they always do their wool!