I am knitting an afghan that has an “ssp” decrease. The instructions say to "slip 2 stitches knitwise 1 at a time to RH needle, place sts back on LH needle in this reversed position, p2tog-tbl."
How on earth do you purl through the back loop of a stitch? I can’t get my fingers and needles to work it that way–the resulting stitch looks like a knit stitch instead of a purl stitch because I can’t figure out how to wrap the yarn around the needle when it’s in the back of the stitch like I’m purling. Especially since I’m trying to purl 2 together. It’s very awkward.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
You have to kind of twist the left needle a bit to angle it, and it’s awkward at first. You might knit up a practice piece and do a single ptbl for a bit until you get the motions down, then try practicings p2togtbl.
Make sure your sts are loose enough otherwise it’ll be just that much more difficult. If you think of it as a scooping motion coming up from underneath it’s actually easy.
cam
I guess I didn’t explain effectively enough. The problem is that when putting the right hand needle through the back of the stitch, I’m not sure how to hold the working yarn so that it is effectively still in front of the needles so it makes a purl stitch instead of a knit stitch and how to wrap it properly around the right hand needle (that’s in the back of the stitch on the left hand needle) so that it makes a purl stitch.
Sorry to make this so complicated–that’s why I wish I had a knitting store close by so that I could have an experienced knitter show me. Right now, I’ve sort of managed by using a crochet hook to help me get the stitches off the left hand needle after I’ve wrapped the working yarn around the RH needle to make the new stitch, but I just want to make sure I’m doing it correctly and inserting the RH needle properly to begin with.
Check out the video.
As was said, bring the right needle around and insert it from left to right through the back of the loop. Then bring your needle into position in front of the left tip, as you would for a regular purl, having the yarn in front. At that point you can sort of forget that it’s through the back loop. Wrap the stitch and bring it through the loop the same way as if you were purling in the regular way.
<nods> You could think of it as twisting the stitch around and purl like usual.
I didn’t even think of looking in the glossary of terms on this site–it wasn’t that I was unfamiliar with the term, it was that I’d never done it and also wasn’t aware that there was an accompanying video.
I am so grateful for everyone’s response. I was doing it the wrong way–slipping the RH needle through the back of the stitch properly, but the needle tip was ending up on the back side of the LH needle, not the front.
I am so happy now! Now I don’t have to dread those 30-some-odd rows of my afghan block pattern that have the ssp decrease. :woot:
OK now I have a question. The two videos show 2 opposite things. Which one is better or are they both OK?
Thanks,
The second one looks like K2togTBL to me, so I’ll be interested to hear what others have to say. Glad you brought this P2togTBL up b/c I’ve seen it in instructions before and couldn’t figure out how to do it either.
How do you mean `shows 2 opposite things’?
Well on the KH video she puts the needle throught the back from the left side, but the other video she puts the needle through the back from the right side.
On the knittingwisdom video…? That’s not how you purl 2togtbl. Follow the KH vid.
Thanks again for all your help–that KH video was really useful.
It is still a bit tricky because with the “ssp” my pattern says to slip each of the two stitches to the RH needle then put them back on the LH needle IN THIS REVERSE POSITION, so I have to be careful that I put the RH needle tip through the reversed stitches properly. To make it even trickier, there is a yarn over at the beginning of each row of the pattern, so I really have to make sure I don’t end up with extra stitches if I get the working yarn in the way.
But without all of your guidance, I would still be doing it wrong. So I am grateful. And I’m glad that I could help WandaT by asking my question–I guess that’s the point of these forums, so answers to questions are helpful to everyone.
I’m on my 4th square, and I have 20 more squares to go. At least they go fairly quickly.
Thank you for posting the video. I didn’t see it when I was looking for it. But now I know how to do the stitch.
I watched the video and it seems simple enough but i’m using the Purl into the back of the next stitch after a knit 1 and i get three stitches on teh needle??? Guess that’s what i get for trying to teach myself the ribbed cable (15-stitch Panel) from a book. (it’s very good becuasee it teaches it visually by showing you what it SHOULD looke like when finiehed but not how to do all the knith thru back, purl thru back etc. I use the English method that my Nana taught me. is there a special secret to knit then purl into the back of the next stitch??:wall: :hair: :waah:
I watched the video and it seems simple enough but i’m using the Purl into the back of the next stitch after a knit 1 and i get three stitches on teh needle??? Guess that’s what i get for trying to teach myself the ribbed cable (15-stitch Panel) from a book. (it’s very good becuasee it teaches it visually by showing you what it SHOULD looke like when finiehed but not how to do all the knith thru back, purl thru back etc. I use the English method that my Nana taught me. is there a special secret to knit then purl into the back of the next stitch??:wall: :hair: :waah:
You could be making an inadvertent yarn over. Whether you knit in front or back be sure you have the yarn behind the right needle before you insert your needle to knit. Then be sure you bring the yarn to the front between the needle tips so that you can purl next (if you have a purl next) no matter if it is a regular purl or one through the back loop. If you have another knit stitch after a purl be sure to take the needle to the back again between the needle tips before you do your next knit. Failing to move the yarn back and forth between knits and purls will mess things up. 
The yarn always needs to be in back to knit and in front to purl.
Merigold, that was a VERY helpful comment – thanks!!