How do I purl into the back of a stitch?

How-to Questions
1

Hi guys,

I know how to do it into a knit stitch, but have been wrestling with how to do it into a purl stitch - I keep ending up with one very twisted knit stitch! HELP!!

2

It’s hard to visualize, and sounds difficult or impossible, but when you do it a few times, you realize it’s fairly easy and simple. You insert your needle into the back loop [I]from left to right[/I]. Even doing that, you can still bring your needle point to the same position as a regular purl.

3

That’s right. Think about it… when you purl a stitch, you get the lump on your side of your work.

And whenever you “knit” through the back loop of a stitch, you get… a lump on your side of your work. In other words, it’s identical to a purl stitch.

And that’s what you want, right?

Hope this helps,
Dot

4

I believe you can find a video for it on the Glossary page - p-b, purl through the back loop.

5

I always remind myself that knit stitches ALWAYS have the yarn in the back while purl stitches ALWAYS have the yarn in the front.

So first I make sure my yarn is positioned correctly.

Then the only thing that changes in a thru-the-back-loop stitch is the direction you insert your working needle.

In a normal knit stitch (yarn in back) you insert your working needle from left-to-right. A thru-the-back-loop means insert the needle from right-to-left, snag the yarn at the back and pull it forward thru the loop.

In a normal purl stitch (yarn in front) you insert your working needle from right-to-left. A thru-the-back-loop means insert the needle from left-to-right, snag the yarn in the front and pull it back thru the loop.

The tricky thing in the purl-thru-the-back-loop is the awkwardness of the angles. You have to start from behind the needle holding your stitches in order to get the needle to pass from right-to-left and then come forward in order to snag the yarn. I usually have to twist my wrists a bit to get it to happen.

6

Dorothy Dot,

And whenever you “knit” through the back loop of a stitch, you get… a lump on your side of your work. In other words, it’s identical to a purl stitch.

I’m not sure what you are saying here. When you knit in the back loop of a normal stitch it twists the stitch, but it is still a flat, vee like stitch, not a purl.

When I put stitches back on the needle after ripping out a few rows (and I’ve ripped back to a knit row) I don’t take a lot of care in how I seat them on the needle. Then as I knit that first row if the stitch is seated correctly I knit it regular, but if it is seated backwards I knit it into the back loop and that straightens it out to a regular knit. It doesn’t become a purl.

In the quote you have the word knit in " " marks, so maybe you meant something a little different than what I got out of what you said. Any clarification?

Merigold

7

You’re all wonderful, thank you! I’ll give that a go and let you know how I get on!
I do have another question, but I should probably start a new thread for that…

Thanks again!

:mrgreen: