Help with Seed Stitch Please

#1

Hello - I am a new knitter and I cannot understand the seed stitch on odd # of stitches. The pattern says to start every row with K1. I do not understand how this cannot result in a rib instead of a seed.

Please help - this is driving me crazy!!!

#2

With an odd number of sts you k1 p1 across, but will end with k1. If you have an even number of sts, you end with the p1.

The basic key to it would be to learn what your knit and purl sts look like. Then you can knit either ribbing or seed stitch on an even or odd number of sts and have them come out right. For ribbing you knit what look like knits and purl what looks like purl sts. For seed stitch, it’s the opposite - knit what looks like purls and purl what looks like knits.

There’s a stitcky at the top of this forum called knit the knits and purl the purls which has some pictures and a video which may help you understand.

#3

Sue,

After reading the sticky, it helped me understand. In order to get it correct, you have to look at the back of the work and do the opposite. Is this right? You cannot look at it from the perspective of a grid as I was trying to do, because the grid only shows you one side of the work. Everything becomes the opposite.

This is more complicated than I thought it would be!!

Thanks for your help.

#4

It is opposite and it isn’t. The back of a knit is a purl, the back of a purl is a knit - that’s the opposite part. You don’t try to knit the opposite of how you did a stitch on the previous row, trying to figure that out does overcomplicate it. You knit a stitch the way it looks on the row you’re doing, forget what you did to it before.

So for ribbing, if it looks like a V knit st, knit it, if it looks like a purl bump, purl it. For seed stitch though, if it looks like a V, purl it and if it looks like a bump, knit it. Cast on about 15 sts and try it out.