Reading your knitting

The ability to read your knitting includes things as simple as being able to identify a particular knitted fabric and as complicated as being able to find a mistake in a pattern with cables and lace.

We'll start at the very beginning, and you may be surprised by what you learn in this basic lesson\

Identifying stitches - knit and purl

A knit stitch is the stitch we create when we insert the right hand needle from front to back through the right leg of the stitch on the left hand needle and draw the yarn through.

The Knit stitch looks like a V snugged just below the stitch above

A purl stitch is the stitch we create when we insert the right hand needle from back to front through the right leg of the stitch on the left hand needle and draw the yarn through.The purl stitch looks like a little downward curving bump snugged just below the stitch above it.

The anatomy of a stitch

A stitch is just a loop of yarn. I like to think of it as having three body parts: a head, a right leg, and a left leg.

What will make this little loop of yarn into a knit stitch or a purl stitch is where its head is relative to the stitch just above it.

What makes a stitch knit or purl?

Now the loop we just looked at has another stitch above it, and the head of the original stitch is behind the legs of the stitch above it.

With it's head behind the top stitch, our original stitch has become a knit stitch

In the image below, the original loop also has another stitch above it, but in this case, the head of the original stitch is in front of the legs of the stitch above it.

With it's head in front of the top stitch, our original stitch has become a purl stitch

How do knit and purls look in the fabric?

Our course on reading your knitting always begins by asking students to place their needle underneath a knit stich. This is what we're looking for. how to identify a knit stitch.

You see the legs angling down to the V shape and the head hiding behind the stitch above.

It't trickier to put your needle underneath a purl stitch, but understanding this concept is crucial.

Can you see that the purl stitch has legs pointing down to a V as well? But what you notice is the purl stitch's head in front of the stitch above it creating that bump that we recognize as a purl stitch

Whenever a knitter has a problem seaming, picking up stitches, or doing any kind of finishing, it's typically a lack of understanding of this kind of information, which is why I focus on it so heavily in the foundational stage of Club Crazy for Ewe where you learn to knit sweaters that you're proud to wear!

This mini lesson is an excerpt from the Stage One Workbook inside Club Crazy for Ewe.  The club is closed to new members while we give it a redesign and a whole new look, but if you're interested, you can get on the wait list here and start making sweaters that are Fun to Knit and Fabulous to Wear.

Warmly,

Ellen