I have a pattern that says to knit the knit stiches and purl the purl stitches. What exactly does that mean?
I made a scarf where on every row, I K1 the P1. I had an even number of stitches and each row started over with K. Since I ended with a P st and started over with a K st, did I knit the purl stitches?
If I were to knit the knit stiches and purl the purl stitches, should I have started my second row with P instead of K?
Knit the knit st and purl the purl st?
Yes, that is correct. When you knit the knits and purl the purls you are usually doing some form of ribbing. Each stitch has two sides, one is a knit the other a purl. Learning what they look like will make the process easiest.
Jan thank you for posting that picture! :yay: I tell beginner knitters (not saying that is what this poster is;) ) but I have tried to teach them is to learn what stitches look like. Instead of only learning things by pattern but to learn what the stitches look like because of this very thing. Sometimes people who design patterns just assume everyone knows what these terms or assume people who knit know what a knit stitch or purl stitch looks like. then when you don’t you get left in the dark (thank God for this forum) wish I had it years ago when I was a new knitter specially. :mrgreen:
Anyway I have learned by experiance is to learn the stitches yourself and hey it will help specially with this type of pattern. My grandma always said if you learn what a stitch looks like you will have an easier time following a pattern and seeing mistakes you may have done and correct them before you have gone to far down to with out having to rip it all down. Which any knitter knows hurts to do that :wall: .
So I would personally recommend to this knitter is do some squares. Make different patterns like all knit, or stotckenet and then a purl one and keep them around you until you learn what they look like, cuz once it sticks it will be well worth the effort :happydance:
Mary
I made a scarf where on every row, I K1 the P1. I had an even number of stitches and each row started over with K. Since I ended with a P st and started over with a K st, did I knit the purl stitches?
No, you did not “knit the purl” as this kind of direction means, you DID “knit the knit”.
The directions are telling you to do what you SEE not what you DID on the previous row. IMO, this particular direction is the worst for a newbie (myself included! I spent a lot of time :hair: and :wall: until I figured out with help here, what it really is telling you). So, like Ingrid said, each stitch has 2 sides, and a knit and purl are the reverse of each other. When you end your work with a PURL, and turned your work to start the next row, you now have a KNIT facing you. The instruction to “knit the knits” means that you will now do what you SEE, so since you SEE a knit, you knit it. The next stitch, on the previous row, had been a KNIT, but on the new row, it LOOKS like PURL, so you PURL it.
Thank you all so much. That really helps. I am a new knitter and have been reading all the books, but just couldn’t get my brain around this one. I am getting ready to knit a scarf using a pattern. It will be the first time I have followed a pattern and I wanted to make sure that I understood all the directions.
I think I will knit up a few swatches to see what the different stitches look like. I like that idea.
Thanks again!