Purl help

I just recently started teaching myself to knit. I think I have figured out the basic knit stitch, but the purl is beyond me! I have watched video after video and read numerous how-tos, but it ends up looking just like my regular knit stitch. Any idea what I may be doing wrong?

Thanks!

Are you doing it as a whole row, multiple rows, or within one roe like k2, p2?

If you knit every row you get garter stitch. If you purl every row you also get garter stitch. If that is what you’re doing it will be harder to tell the difference.

If you knit a row, then purl a row you get stockinette which looks like the smooth knit v’s on one side and bumpy on the other.

Each stitch has a purl side and a knit side and they do look different at the top.

The back of a knit stitch is a purl and the back of a purl is a knit. When you knit every row you get garter stitch with purl ridges between the knit Vs - stretch your work down a little and you can see them. When purl every row you get garter stitch too - purl ridges with knit Vs between them. If you alternate a knit row with a purl row, all the knit Vs will be on one side, and the purl bumps/ridges will be on the other side.

My sanity is saved! I knew I was doing the stitch properly, but I had no idea I was supposed to switch back and forth between the two. Thank you so much!

If you do all purl stitches, then it will look just like when you did all knit stitches. If you want to be able to tell the difference between them, then you need to do 1 whole row of knit stitches and then a whole row of purl stitches. Alternate those 2 rows – 1 row K, 1 row P, etc…

Fortunately, there only 2 basic stitches to learn - Knit and Purl. So once you’ve got those down pat, the rest is simpler!!!

knitcindy

it’s all fun from here!

Yeah, but you got the knit and purl thing down already. LOL The fun can’t start till you pay your dues and learn the 2 sts!