Stockinette Stitch, plain, crossed and twisted

I have a beef with most stitch glossaries because I find them a bit cold. The entries often are just a bunch of k's and p's with some asteriks. You'll see a lovely little swatch of a stitch and think, 'how lovely that would be as a sweater' and then realize that it has this horrible tendency to snag on every door handle in your house.

Not with Barbara. She gives you these little tidbits of advice.

(You thought I was going to say 'purls of wisdom' didn't you. Well, just so you know, this is also a writing experiment for me and I feel like if someone is taking the time to read my little stitch journal, I have a responsibility not to make her throw up in pun agony.)

Also, right off the bat, Barbara is mixing it up. You would think she would start where everyone starts, with Garter Stitch. But she starts with Stockinette. And she gives you a variations.

So stitch observations for today...
1:) I didn't realize there were variations of a stitch, I thought there would just be different stitches.

2:) When I started knitting the swatches, I recognized the end product as that weird twist I would get in some of my previous knitting because I tried to pick up stitches that got knocked off my needles because I'm too lazy to use the needle protectors that prevent aforementioned lost stitches.

3:) I never knew you could purl through the back loop.

Oh, and Barbara's factoids on stockinette stitch - it has a tendency to curl and the crossed and twisted versions are from ancient Arabic methods of knitting.