Types of Knitting Stitches for Every Project Around
Confused about types of knitting stitches? Check this helpful guide!
For a beginning knitter, nothing is as confusing as the different types of knitting stitches. We all handle the knitting well enough, but even someone with a couple good-sized afghans under their belt may stumble over some of the stitches required in many of the free patterns on the net. And free or otherwise, patterns tend to assume you know exactly what they're talking about when they tell you to "proceed in a K1 P3 pattern and yo at alternate stitches!"
The Basics
The first stitch you'll probably learn is the basic knit stitch, usually abbreviated by the letter K. When a pattern tells you to K3, it just means knit 3 stitches. To form a knit stitch, insert the right needle through a stitch on the left needle -- left to right, front to back. Wrap the yarn around the right needle and pull the new loop back through the original stitch, slipping the original stitch off the left needle in the process. Viola -- one knit stitch!
If you're worried about types of knitting stitches, you probably already knew that one. Here's another you've probably heard of: the purl stitch. Purling is the opposite of knitting. Make sure you have the yarn tail at the front of your work. Insert the right needle through the FRONT of a stitch on the left needle -- back to front, right to left. Wrap the yarn around the right needle, pull the new loop back through the original stitch, slipping the original stitch off the left needle. There you have it -- your basic purl.
Knitting and purling are two sides of the same coin. If you knit your entire work, it will have bumpy looking ridges or rows. To get a straight, flat look, you knit one row and purl the next.
Believe it or not, you just learned two new types of knitting stitches: the stockinette stitch and the garter stitch. Knitting every row is stockinette; alternating between knitting and purling is garter. Just to make things more difficult, patterns like to toss up whether they tell you to "K all rows" or "proceed in stockinette." But now you know what they mean!
Basic but Different
Sticking with the basic knit and purl stitches, there are two other abbreviations you might see in a pattern: K2tog or P2tog. Broken down, those terms are knit two together and purl two together, and they're used to reduce the size of your work. To knit or purl two stitches together, you do precisely what it sounds like: insert the right needle through two stitches, wrap the yarn around, pull the new loop through both stitches while slipping both stitches off the left needle. And there you have it: the basic types of knitting stitches you'll need for any simple project!
