I’m following a pattern for a ribbed shawl that says:
Row 1: k1 p1 k1 p1 k4 (some other stuff here) k4 k1 p1 k1 p1
Row 2: p1 k1 p1 k1 p4 (some other stuff here) p4 p1 k1 p1 k1
My question: isn’t the k1 p1 part of the pattern going to make a garter stich? If I purl my last stitch on the row, turn the scarf over, purl the first stitch, knit the second (having knitted the next-to-last stich on the other side) isn’t that just the same as if I had knit every stitch to begin with?
Is this a mistake in the pattern? Do you think it is supposed to be k1 p1 on both rows?
Or does k1 p1 on one side followed by p1 k1 on the other side do something else that I just do not know about yet?
Thanks!
To get ribbing you knit the knits and purl the purls. The backside of a knit is a purl which is why you start with a purl on the other side.
If you don’t know now learn what the stitches look like and it’ll help you a lot. :happydance:
If you end with a purl and start with a purl you will get seed stitch, not ribbing.
Oh, okay. I get that it’s a seed stich. That makes sense. I was wondering why they’d have us doing all this work of switching the stitches if all they wanted was a plain old garter! Lol!
And now that you mention it, the sample FO they have does look like a seed stitch. Why they titled the pattern “ribbed shawl,” though, I have no idea!
Thanks for you help. Every time I post in this forum, I have an answer within 10 minutes. You guys are truly amazing. I’ve only been knitting 2 months, but I hope that eventually I will know enough that I will be able to answer some questions, too, instead of just asking them all the time!
What does the middle section of the scarf look like?? Perhaps that’s where the ‘ribbing’ part of the title comes into play. It seems like it just has a seed stitch border.
I don’t think so. It’s (k1 p1) 4 times + k4. That combo you repeat 3 times total and then do 4 more (k1 p1). The next side is the reverse–(p1 k1)x4 + p4, etc. So it looks like it’s alternating 8 stitches of seed stitch with 4 stockinette.
It’s a mohair pattern, so it’s fuzzy and kind of hard to see the stitch detail in the sample FO, but that seems like it could be right.
This is very weird “ribbing,” that’s for sure!