I need to increase stitches evenly, which I’ve found the calculator for. How is the best way to increase when you are ribbing k2p2?
Are you still going to be ribbing after the increase? Usually you aren’t, that is, you’ve come to the end of a ribbed section, are going to switch to stockinette stitch and are also going to increase. If this is the case, I do it in the purl 2 instead of the knit 2 parts of the rib, because it’s hidden a little more, because the purling recesses a little more. Even if this makes your increases not precisely evenly spaced, it’s okay. (I also tried to clear up your circular switch question-- check on that forum as well :).)
And P.S.-- don’t apologize for asking so many questions! No one is born knitting, we all had to learn and I bet most of us asked MUCH dumber questions at some point! 
Or worse, we weren’t as bold about asking and so REALLY messed up
no after the increases, you are correct, I am going to be doing short row knitting (which I’m sure I’ll have questions on that too!! LOL)
My problem is this… I’ve watched the M1L and M1F videos and the purl increasing is just totally not sinking in for me. It’s super confusing and with no audio…
Is that the best increase technique for a newbie to use?
I think it is-- but that’s just my opinion:). Here’s what you’re doing in those increases-- there’s a little piece of yarn between every 2 stitches, a little bridge in the center. You’re lifting that up to the left needle so that you can treat it as if it’s another stitch. And ALSO you are going to twist it once, so that it doesn’t create a hole-- it just tightens the space up to do that twist. If it helps, do that in 2 stages, that is, lift up the “bridge” onto your left needle and twist it as you do, and THEN knit (or purl) it. How did you make out with the circular switch???
haven’t made the switch yet… that’s my next step after increasing. I’m just having a heck of a time making the twist work… looking at the video, I’m confused as to where she’s putting the tip of the right needle AFTER she’s gotten the “bridge” yarn… I’m understanding the concept, just not the application of the twist… UGH!!!
I just checked out the videos for both continental and English, and in one the knitting drops down to the bottom of the screen, and in the other it jumps-- so I can understand your problem! But either way, after she picks up the “bridge”, she’s going into the it with the right needle
okay, seriously, I’ve watched the continental knitting increase video like 50 times and I just can’t get it! I cannot see where she is putting the right needle tip in the back of the left needle to get the twist to happen? I made great progress on the ribbing but am back to practice yarn since I can’t get this to work.
Anyone have any suggestions? I’m so frustrated!! :hair:
Tell me if I’m wrong on any of this:
- You are knitting continental (German) style.
- You can see in the video how she gets the “bridge” up onto the left needle.
- You can’t tell what happens after that, that is, how she then actually knits the stitch she’s just created with the “bridge”.
If all of the above is correct, then this is the answer: she puts the tip of the right needle into the BACK of the stitch (the one created by the bridge, which is now on the left needle). It is hard to see because her hands and the knitting drop to the bottom of the frame of the video picture.
If this isn’t helpful and doesn’t answer your question, yell!
You are correct in all of that information. :yay:
If I look at the work in between the stitches on the row below, there is only one area that can logically be seen as the bridge, correct? So I lift that bridge onto the left needle an it is lying on the needle from left to right. I see her separate (in the back) the area created with the bridge from the stitch on the left needle next to it. It appears when she places the right needle somewhere in the back of the left tip and it appears to sort of pop through, which leads me to believe that is somewhat of a tighter area. Every time I do that, I do not get that piece of yarn that she uses to twist with (from the front side of the left needle now) and through the front of the bridge stitch. Is that making any sense? I’ve tried blindly putting the right needle in various places behind the left needle, and I never get that piece to twist with. Is that making any sense at all?
Is this a technique she’s developed or would someone at my LYS have any idea what I was talking about? I’m just beyond frustrated. I understand the idea but can’t get it to work. I’m obviously doing something wrong!
ETA: and just to clarify to make sure this is also correct, is the working yarn supposed be on the left needle or the right?
Sorry!!!-- I had a call I had to take!!! Didn’t mean to leave you hanging!!! So let’s go through this step by step:
“If I look at the work in between the stitches on the row below, there is only one area that can logically be seen as the bridge, correct?”
Yes.
“So I lift that bridge onto the left needle an it is lying on the needle from left to right.”
The back of the loop is to the left and the front of the loop is to the right-- is that what you mean? Then, yes.
“I see her separate (in the back) the area created with the bridge from the stitch on the left needle next to it. It appears when she places the right needle somewhere in the back of the left tip and it appears to sort of pop through, which leads me to believe that is somewhat of a tighter area. Every time I do that, I do not get that piece of yarn that she uses to twist with (from the front side of the left needle now) and through the front of the bridge stitch. Is that making any sense? I’ve tried blindly putting the right needle in various places behind the left needle, and I never get that piece to twist with. Is that making any sense at all?”
Here’s where I think you’re-- sorry for the pun:wink:-- getting twisted up. This is what to do. . . This is the construction of the *bridge stitch" which is now on your left needle: if you think of it as an upside down U (although a slightly twisted one), there is the front stick of the U, the curved part which goes over the needle, and the back stick of the U. Put the tip of the right needle under the tip of the left and into the back stick of the upside down U. CATCH THE WORKING YARN (which is coming from the right needle) AND PULL IT THROUGH the bridge stitch and let the bridge stitch come off your left needle, just like a regular stitch you would have just knitted. That’s it. Forget about “the area created with the bridge from the stitch on the left needle next to it.”-- you don’t need to deal with that. Okay-- how did it go?
well, now here’s a dumb question and I’m sure I’m just overthinking things… If I’ve been knitting in the round in a ribbing pattern of k2p2, when would I have to use the M1F technique?
Yes-- just use the M1L/M1F (same thing) technique.
So, I’m going into the left/far side of the upside down U when it’s over the left needle. Is the working yarn then in front of the needles as if I’m purling? I tried that and I get a weird looking knot under the right needle and then the yarn is on the right needle, but the yarn is going to my right, not to the left…
I just can’t believe that I can’t get this to work! I’ll see if I can post pictures later…
ETA: if I did ribbing of k2p2 on a circular needle, do I even need to use this method of increasing or should I be using a different method? In other words, is there a purl side?? Maybe I’m fretting for nothing since you use this method only on the purl side???
First-- don’t worry about another increase method. This one is going to work fine.
Now-- you are going to put the right hand needle into the back part of the “bridge” stitch, pushing the needle AWAY from you. The yarn should be in BACK of your work so that you can grab it with the right needle and pull it towards you and through the “bridge” stitch. Once you have done that and now have a new stitch on your right needle, let the old “bridge” stitch come off of your left needle. That’s it-- you’re done.
OMG!! OMG!! OMG!!! I think I got it!!! :woot::cheering::yay:
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! YOU ROCK!!!
Now, to make myself confused again, do I just follow the knit side MIF video to do this on the knit side???
and yet another newbie question… if I’m knitting on my circ needle, will there be a knit side AND a purl side or a right side and a wrong side? How will I know which increase method to use?? I’m still having a hard time differentiating between knit and purl stitches, unless it’s blatantly obvious, like when it’s on the knit side and it’s all v’s. But what if you’re knitting AND purling, say for ribbing? How do I know when to do my knit increase and when to do my purl increase.
BTW, thank you so much for being patient with my novice questions, which I’m sure to an established knitter can seem quite elementary… 
No, YOU rock-- for sticking with it and not giving up!!! Good for you!!! :yay: Now for your other questions:
I would only increase on the knit side, just to keep things easier. As a matter of fact, I can’t remember increasing on the purl side, so it must just work out that way most of the time. The exception would be that if you’re knitting straight (meaning, not circular)) and you’re told to increase at the ends of each side of a sleeve every 7th row (or another odd number-- I just pulled that one out of a hat), and then I would increase in the 6th row, and then the 8th, and then the 6th and then the 8th, etc., so that you’re always doing it on the knit side.
But if you want to/need to sometimes increase purlwise, and you’re doing ribbing, this is what I would do: if ribbing K2 P2, then increase one knitwise between 2 knit stitches, and increase one purlwise between 2 purl stitches. But if ribbing in K1 P1, then it doesn’t matter. Just do the increase stitch you like best. By the way, when you are told to increase evenly, it’s okay if it’s a little unevenly. If you have to increase a number of stitches in K2 P2 ribbing and you want to do all the increases in the knitting parts and that makes when you increase not come out exactly evenly, it’s okay, as long as it’s at reasonably even intervals. What you don’t want to do, is, say, increase 10 stitches in a sweater with 100 stitches and do it all in one place. THAT will look funny. But knitting is by definition somewhat elastic, and so it will work if not perfectly spaced.
You are probably going to be an amazing knitting teacher one day! The people who had to struggle the most are the ones who understand what can go wrong the best and how to fix it. I think you’re just amazing to work through all this frustration!:cheering:
As for the right and wrong side question when knitting circular-- yes, there is a right side and a wrong side. But the right side is always “outside”, facing you, because you are always going in the same direction, like a dog chasing it’s tail. So you’re never coming to the end of the needle and turning the fabric over and then going in the other direction, the way you do when you are knitting “straight”. If you are using the stockinette stitch, then the knit side (Vs) will always be on the outside, facing you, and the purl side (Us) will always be on the inside. So if you increase when knitting circular, you will always do it on the knit side.
so what you taught me was the knit side increase right? So tell me again (and you may have before but with all this information I’m in a bit of a fog). If it says to increase evenly from 84 to 96 stitches (I used a calculator I found a link for here to figure it out), it says to do the following:
K3, M1
(K8, M1) 1 time
(K7, M1) 9 times
(K8, M1) 1 time
K2
so, with a k2p2 ribbing, I’m guessing some of those will fall on a knit stitch and some will fall on a purl stitch… I’m confused what to do when it falls on the purl stitch? I’m afraid to fudge with the formula above for fear of goofing up from that point forward. (I’m such a ninny!! LOL)
I think I was having a hard time understanding because I was trying to follow the purl side M1F video… maybe that was part of my confusion… I STILL don’t know how to do that one, but if you say it’s rare, I’ll work around it and maybe by the time I need it I’ll be a little more experienced…
Is there ever an occasion where one would do all purl stitches? That’s what I was doing when trying to figure out the purl M1F. I was using practice yarn and an extra circ needle (but using them as straights for that). I just don’t think I’ll EVER get that technique. She says it’s harder to work. I say I CAN’T work it!! LOL
Yes-- what we were working on was the knit-side increase. Also remember that if you using circulars and are increasing in the midst of ribbing, but are going to be changing to stockinette stitch in the next row, that even in the purl parts of the rib that you want to use the knit-side increase, because you are going to be knitting from here on out and it will blend in just fine. The goal in increasing stitches is to do it as unobstrusively as possible, unless it’s part of the pattern to make them stand out.
If I were using your pattern and it told me to increase from 84 to 96 stitches, here is what I would do: I would subtract 84 from 96 to find out how many stitches I had to add, and the answer would be 12. Then I would divide 84 by 12 and come up with 7, and so I would make an increase after every 7 stitches. Because 7 is an odd number and most ribbing patterns occur in an even number of stitches, some increases would fall in the knitting part of the ribbing, and some would fall in the purl part of the ribbing. But as I said above, if you’re about to switch to stockinette stitch, that’s just fine! And if not, then I would put an increase in after 6 stitches, and then 8 and then 6, and then 8, etc., so that it would come out at the end. What I do, is about 10 - 20 stitches from the end of the round, I count to see if I’m okay on my increases and then if I’ve done too many, I just don’t do any more, or if I’ve forgotten 1 or 2 somewhere, I just work them in evenly in the stitches I’ve got remaining.
Now, would you ever do all purling? Not commonly. If you are knitting in the round and doing stockinette stitch, you knit every row. If you are knitting flat, with straight needles, and are doing stockinette stitch, you knit one row, purl one row. If you are working flat OR in the round and doing garter stitch, you knit every row. Sometimes, there will be a pattern where you want the purling outside. I personally think that that is, well, fairly ugly:). So I don’t ever do patterns like that. But if you were doing that and working in the round, then yes, you would purl every row. Other than that, you will have little need to increase on the purl side, and even if you do, you can either work around it, or (and I love this idea!–) wait until you are more experienced and comfortable.
So 2 questions: What is it that you are working on right now, and what have you made in the past? Oh, and a 3rd-- how long have you been knitting? Oops, and 4th:-)-- did you ever figure out how to get from one size circular to another?
Wow, you are a wealth of information… I LOVE you!! 
As for your questions, let’s see…
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I am making a pair of knit pants for my son (whom I cloth diaper), so I’m using them as a diaper cover
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what have I made in the past? A REALLY big mess and nothing at all!! LOL I’d keep trying to just practice and give up, rip it out and start over. My kids like to use the few practice squares/rectangles I did finish as coasters in their picnic set!
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I’ve been knitting, technically for a year (YIKES), but I gave up in frustration for about 10 months, so in actuality, a whopping 2-3 months! :happydance:
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Nope, haven’t done the transfer yet, since I have to increase the ribbing (waist of the pants) before I can do that… Then I’ll have a TON more questions since I have to do short rows (ya know anything about those?), gussets and leg splits (heaven help me!)
I’m scared to death since I’ve never attempted any of this stuff coming down the pike… any suggestions?? my next moves are 1) doing the even increases, 2) switching needles and then 3) short rows…