knitting tutorial Archives - Page 3 of 3

tutorial – knit the knits and purl the purls

Sometimes in patterns you may encounter the phrase “knit the knits, and purl the purls”. Besides the abbreviated versions of this, you may also encounter “work the stitches as they appear”. Especially if you’re a new knitter, it may be confusing what is exactly meant with this. No stress though! In this tutorial I’ll tell you all about it.

What it all comes down to, is being able to “read” your knitting. If you can correctly determine whether a certain stitch on your needle is a knit or a purl stitch, the instruction tells you exactly what to do next:

When you identify a knit stitch, it is to be knitted.
If you identify a purl stitch it is to be purled.

The important thing here is to remember is this: You only have to look at what the stitches look like on the left-hand needle while you’re working the new row or round. This can be confusing. What looks as a knit stitch on one side of the fabric, looks like a purl stitch on the other side. Ignore the side of the fabric facing away from you and focus only on the side facing you.

Below I’ll show you how to go about identifying your stitches, with the help of a swatch in 2×2 rib. (Ribbing formed by repeating (k2, p2) across your piece.)

Materials used

Yarn: * Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color 155 Vintage Pink.

Needles: * KnitPro Zing Fixed Circular Needles. In this tutorial, I used the 4 mm (US 6) size with a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches).

Identifying a knit stitch

In the picture above the next 2 stitches on the left-hand needle are knit stitches. Do you see how they form little V-shapes? Therefore, if the first stitch on the left-hand needle has a V hugging the base of it, then it is a knit stitch and you knit it.

Identifying a purl stitch

In this picture the next 2 stitches on the left-hand needle are purl stitches. The characteristic to identify it, is the little horizontal bar or bump just below where the stitch joins the needle. Therefore, if the first stitch on the left-hand needle has a horizontal bar hugging the base of it, then it is a purl stitch and you are to purl it.

And that’s all there is to “knit the knits and purl the purls”!

Thanks to my Patreon supporters for bringing you this freebie! Creating quality patterns and tutorials is a lot of work and resource-intensive. However, I find it important to give you free content like this tutorial. Thanks to the generous support of my Patreon supporters, I can make it happen. Thank you, patrons! Click here to join, or click here to read more about La Visch Designs on Patreon.

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tutorial – working a bobble from 3 rows below

Bobbles are a lovely way to add texture to a knitting project. I’ve used them myself to add interest to an otherwise rather plain stockinette shawl body in my Moerbei shawl. They’re also rather popular as an extra design element on cabled sweaters.

In the basis a bobble is nothing more than a single stitch that is increased to a collection of stitches (usually 3, 5, or 7 stitches), worked back and forth and then decreased back again to a single stitch. There are, however, many ways to go about this.

In this tutorial I’m focusing on a specific kind of bobble that is described in the Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible by Hitomi Shida. It’s worked in stockinette stitch on a background of reverse stockinette by working in a stitch 3 rows down. Read on for more details!

Materials used

Yarn: Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color 142 Tea Rose.

Needles: KnitPro Zing Fixed Circular Needles. In this tutorial, I used the 4 mm (US 6) size with a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches).

Working a bobble from 3 rows below step by step

1. First, work in your piece of knitting to the point where you want to make the bobble. Remember, this bobble is worked on a background of reverse stockinette, so the purl side is the right side of the work.

2. Next we have to insert the right-hand needle into the center of the stitch, 3 rows down from the next stitch on the needle. I’ve indicated it with the yarn needle.

3. Move the working yarn to the back of the work (we’re working the bobble itself in stockinette, not in reverse stockinette!) ….

4. … and insert the right-hand needle right through the stitch to the back of the work!

Working a bobble from 3 rows below step 4

5. Now wrap the yarn around the needle and pull up a loop through the fabric.

Working a bobble from 3 rows below step 5

6. Wrap the yarn around the needle to form a yarn over.

Working a bobble from 3 rows below step 6

7. Repeat steps 4 and 5 once to make a 3 stitch bobble, or repeat steps 4 to 6 followed by steps 4 and 5 once again for a 5 stitch bobble. Pictured below is how it looks after working these steps for a 5 stitch bobble.

8. Next, drop the next stitch on the left-hand needle. It won’t ladder down below the bobble, because the stitch is secured by pulling the yarn through the fabric in the steps above.

9. Now work in pattern to the end of the row. You can see in the picture below, that I worked a 5 stitch bobble on the right and a 3 stitch bobble on the left.

Onwards to the next row

10. Turn the work and again work in pattern (knit) until you reach the bobble loops. Those we work in purl, because we’re looking at the wrong side of the work here.

11. This is how it looks after working this row. You can see the bobble stitches more easily now, because they are purled.

12. Again work in pattern to the bobble stitches. Now we have to decrease these 5 stitches back to 1 stitch. To do so, I have slipped the first 3 stitches together knit wise to the right-hand needle, worked a k2tog, and then passed the 3 slipped stitches over the result of the k2tog. This is the result of that decrease:

14. For the 3 stitch bobble I worked a sl2-k1-p2sso decrease. This is the result:

15. And this is how these bobbles look after 2 more rows in reverse stockinette have been worked. See how much fatter the 5 stitch bobble is when compared with the other one? You can, of course, work even fatter bobbles this way. Just repeat steps 4-6 twice or thrice instead of only once.

And this how to do it!

Found this tutorial useful? Tag me with @la_visch on Instagram or @lavischdesigns on Facebook if you’ve used it in a project!

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tutorial – working an Estonian 3-into-3 star stitch

Estonian knitting, especially the lace knitting, is quite a bit different from other types of lace knitting. This is in a large part due to combination of openwork and texture that is the most prominent feature of Estonian lace knitting. You may have heard of the book * Pitsilised Koekirjad by Leili Riemann, for those interested in Estonian lace knitting, it’s a true treasure trove!

Anyway, often-used design elements include nupps and gathers. Another type of stitch that’s often used is the star stitch. This is the generic name for the type of stitch where interesting patterns are created by making 3 stitches out of 3; or 5 stitches out of 5 and then purling all stitches on the next row.

It’s also possible to decrease or increase stitches this way, by, for example, making 3 stitches out of 5, or 9 out of 5. Increasing with the star technique can be used to start flower-like lace shapes by first increasing 5 stitches to 9 (or 11) and over the next couple of rows gently decreasing the extra stitches away again.

Focus of this tutorial

In this tutorial I will focus on a basic 3-into-3 star stitch on a stockinette background. A 3-into-3 star stitch is made by knitting 3 stitches together without dropping stitches from left-hand needle; yarn over, knit the same 3 stitches together again before dropping it all from the left-hand needle.

When worked in the yarn-needle combination shown here, the results will be a nicely textured fabric. When worked with relatively large needles for the yarn chosen, a more lacy effect will be the result.

Materials used

Yarn: * Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color 155 Vintage Pink.

Needles: * KnitPro Zing Fixed Circular Needles. In this tutorial, I used the 4 mm (US 6) size with a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches).

Working an Estonian 3-into-3 star stitch step by step

1. First, work your way across the row until you’ve reached the point where you want to make the star stitch.

2. Next, insert the tip of the right-hand needle into the first 3 stitches at the same time as if to knit.

Step 2 in working an Estonian star stitch

3. Wrap the yarn around the needle and pull it through the stitches you inserted the right-hand needle in. Don’t drop the stitches off the left-hand needle yet!

Step 3 in working an Estonian star stitch

4. Wrap the yarn around the right-hand needle to form a yarn over.

5. Again, insert the tip of the right-hand needle into the 3 stitches at the same time as if to knit.

Step 5 in working an Estonian star stitch

6. Again, wrap the yarn around the needle and pull it through the stitches you inserted the right-hand needle in.

7. Now you can drop the stitches off the left-hand needle to finish the star stitch.

And this is how it looks after 3 more rows in stockinette have been worked, with 2 star stitches in a single row. Pretty, isn’t it?!

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tutorial – working a purl-side left-leaning lifted increase

In previous tutorials I already showed you how to work a Right Leaning Lifted Increase on both knit– and purl-side of your project. The knit-side version of the Left Leaning Lifted Increase, we’ve also covered. This one is usually named Left Lifted Increase with the abbreviation LLI. So, now it’s time to focus on the purl-side Left Leaning counterpart! The purl-side version is called the same, only with “purl” added after it. Left Lifted Increase (Purl) with the abbreviation LLIP.

You may remember it from before: A lifted increase is an increase that you work from a stitch below the one next on the needle. To work this stitch, lift it to work into it.

Materials used

Yarn: * Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color 128 Lime Green.

Needles: * KnitPro Zing Fixed Circular Needles. In this tutorial, I used the 4 mm (US 6) size with a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches).

Working a purl-side Left-Leaning Lifted Increase step by step

I’ve made a little swatch, continuing the same one from the previous tutorial. And since this increase is worked on the purl-side, I’m knitting this bit in reverse stockinette.

1. To make the increase a left-leaning one, we have to lift the left-side of a stitch unto to the needle to work into it. This means we will work the increase 2 stitches below the last stitch knit. In other words: You’re not looking at the stitch below the loop on the right-hand needle, but the one below it. I’ve indicated this stitch with the tip of the third needle pictured below.

2. To start, insert your left-hand needle from bottom to top into the second horizontal purl bump below the last worked stitch on the right-hand needle.

Step 2 in working a purl-side left-leaning lifted increase

3. Next, place the lifted stitch on the left-hand needle…

Step 3 in working a purl-side left-leaning lifted increase

4. …. wrap the yarn around the needle as you usually would to make a purl stitch …

5. … pull the yarn through the stitch …

6. … and complete the stitch by slipping the worked stitch off the needle. You have now increased one stitch.

That's how to work the left-leaning lifted increase!

The below picture shows how the left-leaning lifted increase looks after 2 more increase rows. The first picture shows the purl-side, the second the knit-side. Increases are worked 2 stitches in from both garter stitch edges.

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tutorial – the k3tog right-leaning double decrease

Tutorial on working the k3tog right-leaning double decrease

In a previous post, I showed you how to work the sl1-k2tog-psso left-leaning double decrease. In this tutorial, I will tell you all about the matching right-leaning double decrease, the one abbreviated with “k3tog”. This stands for “knit 3 stitches together”. It’s a common way to reduce the number of stitches in your project and make it narrower. With its matching left-leaning decrease it’s often found in lace patterning. Also not unimportant: the k3tog is a very easy to work double decrease which gives a lovely texture to your knitting.

Below you can find how to work this decrease, so get your materials and follow along!

Materials

Yarn: * Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color 128 Lime Green.

Needles: * KnitPro Zing Fixed Circular Needles. In this tutorial, I used the 4 mm (US 6) size with a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches).

Working a k3tog step by step

1. First, work your way across the row until you’ve reached the point where you want to make the decrease. In this case, I want to work the double decrease over the 3 stitches in the middle of the swatch.

2. Next, insert the tip of the right-hand needle into the first 3 stitches at the same time as if to knit.

3. Wrap the yarn around the needle…

4. …and pull it through the stitches you inserted the right-hand needle in.

5. To finish the k3tog decrease, slip the original stitches of the left-hand needle.

The below picture shows how it looks after 2 more decrease rows have been worked. Please note that the bottom half of the swatch pictured shows the sl2-k1-p2sso centered double decrease I showed you in a previous tutorial.

The k3tog right-leaning double decrease used in several rows.

And that’s all there is to it!

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tutorial – working a knit-side left-leaning lifted increase

Tutorial on working a knit-side left-leaning lifted increase or LLI for short

In a previous tutorial, I already showed you how to work a Right Leaning Lifted Increase on both knit- and purl-side of your project. That means it’s now time to focus on the Left-Leaning counterparts! The knit-side version of the Left-Leaning Lifted Increase is usually named the somewhat shorter Left Lifted Increase. This is abbreviated as LLI. The purl-side version is called the same, only with “purl” added after it: Left Lifted Increase (Purl) with the abbreviation LLIP. I will focus on the latter in another tutorial.

With left-leaning I mean that the increase leans to the right, relative to the surrounding “normal” stitches. Pair it together with its right-leaning companion to symmetrically increase the number of stitches on your project.

What is a lifted increase?

Basically, it’s exactly how it’s called: an increase that is worked from a stitch below the one just worked on the right-hand needle. This stitch is lifted to be able to work into it.

Materials

Yarn: * Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color 128 Lime Green.

Needles: * KnitPro Zing Fixed Circular Needles. In this tutorial, I used the 4 mm (US 6) size with a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches).

Working a knit-side Left-Leaning Lifted Increase step by step

1. First, work your way across the row until you’ve reached the point where you want to make the increase. In this case, I want the increase 2 sts in from the garter stitch border on the right.

2. To make the increase a left-leaning one, we have to lift the left-side of a stitch unto to the needle to work into it. This means we will work the increase 2 stitches below the last stitch knit. In other words: You’re not looking at the stitch below the loop on the needle, but the one below it. I’ve indicated this stitch with the tip of the third needle pictured below.

3. To start the decrease, insert your left-hand needle from back to front into the left leg of the stitch as identified above. Note that the stitch mount is different from usual. The right leg of the stitch is not in front of the needle but in the back.

4. We don’t want to have a twisted result. So, we now untwist the stitch by inserting the right-hand needle into the back loop.

5. Wrap the yarn around the needle…

6. … and pull it through the stitch.

7. Complete the new stitch by slipping the worked stitch off the needle as usual. You have now increased one stitch.

The below picture shows how it looks after 2 more increase rows have been worked. Increases are worked 2 stitches in from both garter stitch edges.

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tutorial – working a yo

A yarn over (abbreviated as “yo”) is a simple way to increase stitches and deliberately make a little hole in your knitting. On its own, it can be used to add shaping to your knitting project. When combined with strategically placed decreases it makes lace, either as a single design element or as all-over patterning. Yarn overs also have other applications. Think for example off simple buttonholes, when paired with a k2tog decrease.

This tutorial will give you step by step instructions on how to work the “yarn over” increase.

Materials used

Yarn: * Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color 128 Lime Green.

Needles: * KnitPro Zing Fixed Circular Needles. In this tutorial, I used the 4 mm (US 6) size with a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches).

Working a yo step by step

I’ve continued with the little swatch I used with my previous tutorial on working the sl2-k1-p2sso centered double decrease.

1. First, work your way across the row until you’ve reached the point where you want to make the increase. In this case, I will be making the yo increase 2 sts in from each of the garter stitch borders.

2. To make the yo, move the working yarn from the back to the front between the needles and then over the right-hand needle back to the back of the work.

If you’d be wanting to make the yo in reverse stockinette, the working yarn would already be at the front of the work, So, in that case, it would just be a matter of wrapping the yarn over and around the needle, and back to the front of the work.

When wanting to make a yarn over between a knit and a purl stitch or vice versa, you’d have to make adjustments regarding where you’re moving the yarn from and to. The main thing to remember is that you want to wrap the working yarn over and around the needle, before bringing it to the correct position for continuing your knit.

3. And below, you can see how it looks when 2 more rows with yarn over increases have been worked.

And that’s all there is to it!

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tutorial – working a kfb

There are lots of ways to increase the number of stitches on your needle. Knitting in the front and back of the same stitch, also known as the kfb increase, is a relatively easy one. The kfb increase is also known as a “bar increase” because it forms a little horizontal bar in your work.

Due to this little bar, this increase is virtually invisible in garter stitch. When used in stockinette, as shown in this tutorial, it forms a series of decorative bars along the increase line. This how-to will give you step by step instructions on how to work the “knit front and back” increase.

Materials used

Yarn: * Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color 128 Lime Green.

Needles: * KnitPro Zing Fixed Circular Needles. In this tutorial, I used the 4 mm (US 6) size with a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches).

Working a kfb step by step

I’ve made a little swatch and will be making the increases 2 sts in from each of the garter stitch borders.

1. First, work your way across the row until you’ve reached the point where you want to make the increase. In this case, I want the increase 2 sts in from the garter stitch border on the right. A kfb first makes a knit stitch, followed by the extra “bar” stitch on the left of it. Because of this, I start working the kfb over the second stitch.

2. To start, insert the right-hand needle knitwise into the front loop of the stitch.

3. Wrap the yarn around the needle…

4. … and pull it through the stitch. Do not let the original stitch slide of the left-hand needle yet!

5. Now we insert the right-hand needle knitwise into the back loop of the stitch.

6. Wrap the yarn around the needle…

7. … and pull it through the stitch.

8. To complete the kfb increase you can now let the original stitch slide from the needle. This is how it looks now: a knit stitch with an extra “bar stitch” to the left of it.

9. In this swatch, I’m also making an increase on the left side of the fabric. Because I want the bar stitch to be 2 sts in from the garter stitch, I now have to work the increase over the 3rd stitch from the right of the garter stitch edge stitches.

This is how it looks after the entire row with its 2 increases has been worked:

And here again, after 3 increase rows total have been worked, each with 2 kfb increases.

And that’s all there is to it!

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tutorial – fixing a dropped stitch in garter stitch

Fixing a dropped stitch in garter stitch by La Visch Designs

When I finished my Sirac stole, blocking was, of course, needed to let that cable & lace panel shine. And that was when I saw it… A dropped stitch, smack in the middle of one of the garter stitch panels. I must have knit through part of the strand, breaking it when brought under tension with the blocking. Or I just missed it. Whatever the cause, I needed to fix this!

To start, I just secured the dropped stitch with a locking stitch marker to prevent it from laddering down. I worked this particular project in a sticky kind of wool, but under tension, all yarn will ladder down in knitting. So, better safe than sorry and use that stitch marker!

After the project was completely dry, I could remove it from the blocking mats and fix the stitch. If the project was still on the needles, I would just have worked it back up with a crochet hook. This project was already bound off and blocked. Therefore I went with a duplicate stitch approach instead. For this you need some of the yarn remaining from your project, a darning needle (I like the blunt tipped kind best for this kind of work), and some scissors:

Fixing a dropped stitch in garter stitch step-by-step

Normally I would use a contrasting yarn in a tutorial, so you can see better what I’m doing. In this case, however, I used the project yarn for the repair. To make it a tad better to see, I’ve held it double with some white crochet cotton and I’ve added some coloring during photo editing.

1. Start with threading a length of the yarn through the darning needle. Approx. 60 cm (24 inches) should be enough for single dropped stitches like this one.

2. First, thread your needle through the dropped stitch to secure it. Make sure you pull about half the length of yarn through the stitch.

3. Now, with half the length of the yarn, I’m going to follow the route of the yarn in the stitches on the row the dropped stitch should have been worked in. I’ve made these stitches turquoise in the picture below, to make it a tad easier to see.

4. In this picture, the side left of the dropped stitch is all done, on the far left you see the little bit of yarn tail that remains.

5. Next, repeat threading the yarn through the stitches on the right of the dropped stitch, using the other end of the piece of yarn. Below you see the result, with the yarn needle indicating the place of the dropped stitch.

And this is how it looks on the other side of the work:

After removing the contrasting cotton thread, this is how it looks like from the right side of the work:

And yes, I know that I should have threaded the new yarn over the dropped stitch as well, to imitate the purl bar of garter stitch fabric. Now it looks a bit like a single stockinette stitch in all that garter stitch. Learn from my mistake! I know I will with any future dropped stitches in garter stitch fabric.

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