I’m hoping someone can help me. I’m knitting a beanie that is alternating k1 p1 for 72 stitches (meaning I start with a K and finish the row with a p) When I did my first row of decreasing the row finishes with 65 stitches. I then started the next row as K1, p1 again, but I now realise it should have been p1 k1 (I don’t have a proper pattern) and my stitches are around the wrong way!!
I have just learnt how to tink knit stitches but am unsure about the purl. If anyone can help me and/or direct me to a video clip or visual instructions on how to do this that would be great. I’m more of the visual person and have basically taught myself to knit from clips on the internet
As you tink stitches, knit or purl, the left leg of the stitch should be to the back left on your needle, correspondingly the right leg is to the front.
Just drop one stitch off, pull it out of the stitch, and put your needle through the old stitch which is now hanging there.
You know how when you tink a knit, you can drop it carefully off the right hand needle, then you pull on the working wool very gently and the wool pops out of the knit stitch, leaving the old stitch to go back on the left needle? Go try it now if you haven’t normally done it that way, look closely.
When you pull the working wool out at the back of your work, it leaves the earlier stitch as a loop. As soon as the wool is pulled out of the loop, stick your needle through, as if the wool is walking through a doorway, and your needle is following from behind. The loop is the old stitch that you will now put on your left needle.
Once that makes sense, do the same with a purl but keep your working wool in front, and pull it gently towards you (rather than behind and pulling away like for a knit). The working wool will pop out toward you.
Imagine the wool coming out is walking through a doorway toward you, your needle will go through the opposite direction to the way the wool came out (like going into the other room that the purl stitch was coming from).
That should show you how the wool goes.
Another way: have the working wool in front. Put your lefthand needle through the purl bump below, lift up that bump, and off the right needle, pull out the wool toward you.
I just coined a new word: ‘lrup’!
Phew! Thanks for those instructions. I’ve just finished tinking that row and also discovered I had to do the row below it to :wall:
It’s hard without a proper pattern (i’ve adapted the pattern I used on my first beanie), but I’m also learning heaps more as I go along. There may be one to two stitches that aren’t quite right but I can live with that.
I admire you folk who can abstract and understand written instructions. Unless I saw that visually I cannot remember it and it feels very foreign, even though your instructions and explanation is excellent! I think I need to spend time regularly experimenting with swatches more.
I too, normally find it hard to follow written instructions, however what redwitch wrote, especially about bring the wool to the front to tink a purl and then having it at the back to tink a knit made complete sense as soon as I started to do it. It really is just like knitting in reverse!
I absolutely agree redwitch offered a great explanation but I’ve always been very bad at picking up dropped stitches correctly and have never ever attempted to correct a wrong stitch (unless I have just directly gone back and removes stitches on that same row) so I need to practice! I also often work with mohairs and that’s awkward to unpick because the fibres get caught up.
