How to Knit
Lesson Seven: How to Work the Knit Stitch
Knit Stitch
After casting on, you’re ready to begin working. The design will either ask you to knit (abbreviated k) or purl (abbreviated p) into the loops you made in your cast-on row. Since you are just learning, you should practice the knit stitch until you are very comfortable with it before moving on to the purl stitch.
If you’re making the Building Blocks Cowl & Hood alongside this tutorial, you’ll get plenty of practice knitting before moving on to purling. The pattern also includes a variation that allows you to work the knit stitch even longer if you need the extra practice.
Choose whether you want to try the Continental or American style of holding your yarn, then get to work learning the knit stitch. Remember, the style of knitting you’ll be doing is determined by which hand you want to hold your yarn in.
Continental (or European) style holds the working yarn in the non-dominant hand.
American (or English) style holds the yarn in the dominant hand.
How to do it:
Basic Principle:
With the working yarn in back, you will be using two needles to create a series of loops, which are the foundation for the stretchy properties of knit fabric.
Rules of Formation
Whether you’re working in Continental or American style, the knit stitch has the same rules of formation:
Working yarn (the yarn you’re making new stitches with) goes behind the needles
Working needle (in your dominant hand) is inserted into first stitch on non-working needle from back end to tip end, front to back
Working yarn goes between the needles from the back end of the non-working needle to the tip end, bottom to top
Finished stitch should have the leg of the stitch that’s closest to your dominant hand in front of the working needle
Continental Knit Stitch
Jump to American-Style Tutorial
In Continental (or European) style, the working yarn is held in your non-dominant hand. Holding it in such a way as to achieve correct tension is key. Please see Holding the Yarn.
American Knit Stitch
Jump to Continental-Style Tutorial
In American (or English) style, the working yarn is held in the dominant hand. To create proper tension, pull on the yarn after wrapping. Please see Holding the Yarn.
Application Point
You can either keep hanging tight until we bring all this together in Lesson Nine, or you can try a few practice stitches now. If you want to practice now, cast on 31 stitches using Knit Cast On. Then work the knit stitch back and forth until you are very comfortable and your stitches start to look even. Be sure to count every row to make sure you haven’t accidentally added or lost any stitches.
Then move on to the next lesson.