So a while back, I posted having a problem knit and purl stitches after each other (or vice versa) because it was coming out to be a big, knotty mess, and was told to move my yarn front and back like in the seed stitch videos on youtube. I realized I was moving my yarn in the front when purling, but forgetting to move it back while knitting, doh! I’m happy to report that I just worked on this and have now fixed this problem, yay! :woot:
But here’s a new problem of sort - I thought by alternating knits and purls, you get the seed stitch? I don’t know what I’ve been getting, but it is definitely NOT the seed stitch. Don’t get me wrong, this new pattern is pretty - I just have no clue what this is that I’m now making. I don’t know how to describe it except that it looks like rows of little ladders, or a stretched out stockinette-ish looking stitch (except it doesn’t curl, thankfully). I cast on 12 stitches and have just been knitting each row alternating knits and purls (started with knit). Anyone know WHAT this stitch is that I’m making? And how do I make the seed stitch, when what I’ve been doing doesn’t seem to be any different from what the knitter in the seed stitch video was doing?
Any way you can post a photo? But yes, it sounds like you’re ribbing. When you rib, you knit in the knit sts and purl in the purl sts, the way it shows up. When you do seed st, you knit in the purls, and purl in the knits. So if you’re knitting flat, and you have 8 sts, you’d do this for ribbing:
Row 1: K P K P K P K P
Row 2: K P K P K P K P.
Keeping repeating these 2 rows.
If you’re doing seed st, you would do those 8 sts like this:
Row 1: K P K P K P K P
Row 2: P K P K P K P K.
Keep repeating these 2 rows.
Why don’t you take a spare set of needles and yarn and just try that and you’ll see how it works.
Seed stitch and ribbing both alternate knits and purls. For both, k1, p1 on the first row. The next row, for ribbing, knit the sts that look like knit sts and purl the ones that look like purls. For seed st, do the opposite - purl the knits and knit the purls. Another trick - whichever the last st was on the row you just did, do the other one for ribbing on the beg of the next row, do the same one for seed st.
Oh, okay, I think I get it now. So correct me if this is wrong: if you knit the knits and purl the purls, you get ribbing (which is what I’ve been doing), but if you knit the purls and purl the knits, you get seed stitch. Right?
See, it’s hard to tell from the knitting videos on youtube because they only show you one row so you can’t tell whether the stitches they’re knitting were knit or purl in the previous row. I watched the video but didn’t know what stitch to begin the new row on so I just kept going back to KPKP. Thanks much for your help!
Honestly, I’m just relieved I got the knotting mess sorted out - I thought I was condemned to knit garter stitch and stockinette stitch forever. On to more varied projects!
if you knit the knits and purl the purls, you get ribbing (which is what I’ve been doing), but if you knit the purls and purl the knits, you get seed stitch. Right?
You got it! There are videos on ribbing and seed st on the Tips page; maybe they will show it more clearly because I think there’s a couple rows already established.
What helped me remember is that the “guy” in the knit stich is wearing a V-neck sweater, and the “guy” in the purl stitch is wearing tie (or noose!). If you can “read” your stitches (tell whether it is a knit or purl by looking) you will always know what to do, even if you can’t remember what you did in the last row.
