Would someone please explain the difference between picking up stitches and picking up and knitting stitches? Do you use a third needle and knit each stitch as it is picked up? Thanks for any help.
If you’re picking up gusset stitches for a sock, you pick up the stitches AS IF TO KNIT. Then on the next round you knit them.
I think it’s just 2 different ways of saying “pick up stitches”.
Although, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone more talented and experienced might tell me different. 
It’s the same thing.You insert your needle through an edge stitch, loop the yarn over, and pull it through, creating a live stitch on the needle. Then you continue knitting.
explain the difference between picking up stitches and picking up and knitting stitches?
What I have found out in all my searching is what Sunshine’s Mom said.
There is no difference.
“Pick up AND knit” is not a very good way of saying it.
This confused the heck out of me when I first started Tinker, there is not just one way of saying a lot of these instructions.
Thanks to all! I suspected it was something simple but I kept encountering it and thought I must be missing something.
It’s a common misunderstanding. On [I]rare[/I] occasion, you just pick up stitches without knitting them, but the pattern will tell you so.
Sometimes you are told to pick up purlwise, which is just pulling the loop through from the back.