Building Blocks of Knitting Stitches

Posted on November 18, 2018 by Tasha

Have you ever wondered where twisted stitches come from, why there are two common ways to decrease a stitch instead of just one, or what the heck is “combination” knitting? Do you get confused when you pick up or transfer stitches and find that they seem somehow different from what you’re used to? Has anyone ever told you that you knit “the wrong way”? If so, keep reading—but let’s get one thing straight right up front—there is no wrong way to knit! (And I am not the only one to say so.) If your way is comfortable for you and produces fabric you like, it’s a good way.

No matter what combination of stitch orientation, wrapping direction, and yarn handling you use, there are certain basic elements of how knitting stitches form that are the same. These influence how you work your stitches as you knit, and how your finished stitches look. Once you understand these basics, you can gain the confidence to handle your stitches however the situation calls for, and maybe even the freedom to try out different ways to knit! If you have your own knitting handy, please get it and follow along looking at the live stitches, I think it will make more sense that way.

Let’s start with the shape of a stitch: when you look at a piece of finished knitting (or the part of in-progress knitting below the needles) each knit stitch looks like a mostly-flat “V” shape, and each purl stitch looks like a horizontal bar. Both stitches are actually just loops of yarn, oriented differently to the ones below. (We’ve talked about that before, and it’s worth mentioning many times—in fact I recommend that you keep thinking about it until you can see it with your eyes closed).

We have knitting needles to hold all the loops we’re still working with until the next row/round, so that they don’t come un-looped. As soon as you put two stitch loops on a needle, they have an orientation, which can be one of only two ways: with the leading side of the stitch (the side which is closest to the tip of the needle holding it) either in front of the needle (closer to you) or in back of the needle (further from you). This is sometimes called stitch “mount,” and the sides of the stitches called “legs,” as if they were riding horses—visualize that if it’s helpful to you.

Leading side in front on the left, leading side in back on the right. We’ll get to the twisted stitches in a minute …

Most American knitters I know expect that the leading side of each stitch will be in front, and most pattern instructions I read assume that it is. With the leading side in front, if you reach the working needle (the needle which is making the stitches, usually the right hand one) into the front of the stitch to knit it, you can see that the stitch is pulled open, and it will make an open, “V” shaped stitch once it is knit. If you reach into the back of the stitch, it feels tighter (this difference is helpful, and noticeable to most knitters even if they’re beginners). If you look closely you can see that the two sides of the stitch are now twisted around each other, and they will remain twisted in the knitted fabric. (Sometimes you want a twisted stitch to tighten up part of your work, but most of the time it’s not the goal.)

Reaching into the front of a stitch with the leading side in front

Reaching into the back of a stitch with the leading side in front

Now look at what happens when the leading side of the stitch is in back. If you reach into the front of the stitch, it feels tight, and the sides of the stitch twist. If you reach into the back, the stitch is open, and will form an open (not twisted) stitch in the fabric. So, it behaves in the opposite way as a stitch with the leading side in front, but the open stitches will be absolutely identical in the fabric. (Side note: twisted stitches formed from these two setups twist in opposite directions.)

Reaching into the back of a stitch with the leading side in back

Reaching into the front of a stitch with the leading side in back

Twisted stitch in the fabric below the needle

We have now discovered a deep truth of knitting: there are only two ways that a stitch can “sit” on the needle, and no matter which way it is, if you knit (or purl) through the leading side, the stitch will be open, and if you knit through the trailing side it will be twisted.

Many knitters first think about these differences when they get to decreases. To Knit Two Together (k2tog),you reach your working needle into two stitches at once, from left to right, through the front of the stitches, and assuming that those stitches have the leading side in front, both stitches will be open,the left one will be on top of the right one, and the decrease will lean to the right.

Knitting two together through the front

If you want a decrease that leans the other way (so that, for example, the shoulders of your sweater will look symmetrical), you could knit two stitches together through the back, so that the right stitch will be on top of the left one. But if your stitches have the leading side in front, that would twist them both and pull the decreasing stitch really tight. This is the reason for the Slip, Slip, Knit (ssk) decrease—if you slip the two stitches (one at a time) to the working needle by reaching into the front (“as if to knit”), it flips them around so that the leading side is in back. Then you can pass them back onto the holding needle with the needles tip to tip (“as if to purl”), and then you are ready to knit them both through the back, so that both stitches will be open, the right one will be on top of the left one, and the decrease will lean to the left. (If you have knitting in front of you right now, you can see this happen before your eyes.)

Slipping a stitch to change its orientation

Knitting two together through the back

All of this works if you are making purl stitches rather than knit, it just may look and feel a little funky if you’re not used to it. You can absolutely purl a stitch through the back side. And you can flip purl stitches around bypassing them between needles. My golden rule for this is: if the needles tips are essentially (or could be) pointing them same way as you are picking up the stitch to transfer it, it will flip the stitch around. If the needle tips are pointing towards each other (tip to tip), you will transfer the stitch without changing its orientation.Note that if you reach into the trailing side of the stitch instead of the leading side to transfer it, you’ll twist it, just like when working it. Play around with it a little bit, you’ll see what I mean.

Setup to work a purl stitch through the back side

Ok, are you with me so far? To review: whether a stitch in knitted fabric is open or twisted depends on these two things: which way the stitch is oriented on the needle, and which way it is knit (through the front or the back). To get an open stitch, always knit or purl through the leading side of the stitch. It’s easy to re-orient the stitches to get the effect you want, by flipping them around with the needles.

Fair enough, you may think, but how do the stitches get to be oriented one way or another in the first place? Don’t they all just appear with the leading side in front? Excellent question. You may have noticed that there are also two (only two) directions in which you can wrap the yarn around the needle as you make a new stitch. If you’re reading this in the US, you were probably taught that the “right” way to knit is to wrap the yarn from under the needle to the front and over the top (counterclockwise if you are looking at the tip of the needle), and the right way to purl is to bring the yarn from the front up over the top of the needle and down (again counterclockwise).

The wrapping direction applies whether you knit by holding the yarn in your right hand and throwing (English style) or by holding it in your left and picking (Continental style). In the photos below, I’m holding the yarn on the left, but it works with either technique. Even in Portuguese knitting, it may look different, but there are still two ways to wrap the yarn!

Setup to knit a stitch, wrapping the yarn counterclockwise

Setup to knit a stitch, wrapping the yarn clockwise

Here is our second deep truth of knitting: if you wrap the yarn counterclockwise, your new stitches will come out with the leading side in front. If you wrap the yarn the other way (clockwise as you look at the needle tip) when knitting or purling, your stitches will come out with the leading side in back.

(If you had rows, or parts of rows, of mysterious twisted stitches as a beginner, inconsistent wrapping direction followed by not noticing that the stitches were different is probably why.)

Here is where combination knitting comes in. If you knit Continental style, by holding the yarn on the left and picking the stitches from the tensioned yarn, you may have noticed that it’s actually a lot easier to form purl stitches by bringing the working needle in front of the yarn and just pushing it away from you through the existing stitch. This wraps the yarn clockwise around the needle tip, meaning that your stitches for the next row will have the leading side in back. Which is no problem now, right? Just knit them through the back, and they will come out open just like you want them to.

Setup for Continental purl stitch, wrapping the yarn counterclockwise

Setup for Continental purl stitch, wrapping the yarn clockwise

I learned about all this not long after I started knitting, from reading the excellent book Knitting in the Old Way by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts and Deborah Robson. There’s an explanation and handy illustration in the Knitting Methods chapter which shows “Western” style (leading side of the stitch in front), “Eastern” style (leading side in back), and a combined style. The combined style made sense to me, so I used it. Later I learned about Annie Modesitt, probably this era’s biggest champion of combination knitting—and a vocal supporter of the fact that there’s no wrong way to knit. (According to Annie’s blog, it sounds like she’s having an awful time lately. I certainly wish her a quick-as-possible recovery and all the best.)

Knitting in the Old Way also gives a fairly elastic bind-off method which I used for just about everything when I started knitting. It’s easy, and I still like it! All you do is knit two stitches together, then pass the resulting one stitch back to the holding needle, knit it together with the next stitch, and repeat. What it took me a while to realize is that I particularly like the look of this bind-off when the stitches are oriented with the leading side in back and knit through the back—that way they lean gracefully in the direction the bind-off is progressing (towards the left, like an ssk decrease) and make a nice series of open “Vs” along the bound-off edge.

Knit-two-together bind-off, worked through the back

Pop quiz: say you are knitting along with the leading side of your stitches in front, and you want to make this bind-off with the leading side in back, what should you do? As usual, there’s more than one correct answer. You could flip the stitches around one by one with the needles as you come to them. Or, you could wrap the yarn clockwise as you work the stitches of the row/round before the bind-off, so that the stitches come out with the leading side in back already!

I’m guessing that all this still seems confusing if you’re new to it, but I promise it gets much more intuitive after you knit with these ideas in mind for a little while. At this point, I can honestly say that I don’t even consciously notice which way a stitch is oriented when I come to it, my hands just put the needle through the front or the back as needed.

Considering all the variations in knitting style that folks use, before we end here I want to put a vote in for patterns to say “twist the stitch” instead of “knit through back of loop” and “work a left-leaning decrease” instead of “ssk.” Really, it would be so much clearer, and more understandable for those who knit in different ways from the American “standard” way. I will try to follow this principle in my own pattern writing.

Speaking of which, have you seen my Cloudscape Hat pattern? It was in part the inspiration for writing this post. I’ve shared my approach to these fundamentals of knitting in various classes, tried unsuccessfully to get a couple of knitting magazines which you’ve heard of to publish it (Really! Can you believe it?), and finally decided just to put it out here.

As Michel Garcia says about natural dye knowledge, are we going to build a wall around what we know and keep it jealously for ourselves, or are we going to share it freely in the belief and hope that it will grow and flourish as more people are exposed to it? Certainly I think this knowledge is incredibly useful to anyone who knits. If you find this post worthwhile, please share it! Wouldn’t it be great if it got more notice here than it would have in a magazine …

Cheers, everybody!

An Interview with Me on ‘So, Zo…’!

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Tasha

I’ve been talking to Zoe of the lovely blog ‘So, Zo…’ about the debut of Hello Sewing Machine. Not only did she agree to feature it, she wanted to interview me! So if you’re curious about what inspired me to make this e-book in the first place, and of course my thoughts about saving the world, check out this post to read all about it! Plus, there’s a discount code for you as well . . . hop on over!

Making Drawstring Bags—Another Option for the Top

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Tasha

Hello! There’s been just a little more radio silence around here lately than normal, but hey, that’s what retreats are for, right? Today let’s jump back in with some thoughts about drawstring casings on bags. In the second part of Hello Sewing Machine, I guide you though making a drawstring bag and leaving a “buttonhole”—a gap in the side seam for the drawstring to pull through. That’s probably my favorite way to finish the casing, and one that helps you think about how a piece of fabric becomes a finished project, which is why I chose it for my beginner e-book. There are lots of other options though, basically any method that encloses the raw edges and leaves a place for the drawstring will work. One of my proofreaders asked about making a little hem on the sides of the bag instead, and I wanted to present that option here. In my example, I’m altering a commercially made bag which doesn’t have much in the way of seam finishing, and is not going to stand the test of time. You can also easily use this technique on DIY bags. Click on any of the pictures to enlarge for a closer look.

On this bag, there’s nothing to keep the raw edges from unraveling. I’m especially concerned about the area where the drawstring emerges from the bag, because it’s likely to get a lot of wear and tear, which will cause the fabric to unravel faster.

My first step was to take apart the seam stitching, down to where I wanted the seam to stop for the new finish. I stitched up to that point and back down (with red thread) to hold all the stitching in place. Then I took apart enough of the seam holding the casing down to let me make a narrow hem on the edges.

If you are making your own bag, just stop sewing the side seam a little ways from the top, and back tack over the seam end. To figure out where to stop, think about the parts of the casing you need to leave room for at the top of the bag.

At the very top is a little extra fabric, usually turned under (or stitched over) so that it won’t unravel. It serves the same purpose as a seam allowance. Then you have the inside and outside of the casing (keep in mind we are looking at the bag from the inside), and you will also need a little more room (about 1-2″ or 3-5 cm) for the transition between the hemmed edges and the seam. Once you figure out where the end of your seam will be, go ahead and overcast the seam edges, continuing a little bit past the point where your seam stops. Then on each edge above the seam, fold over and press down 1/4″ (or .5 cm) with your iron, towards the inside of the casing. Fold over the edge again in same direction, using your first fold as a guide, and press in place again. Then stitch down your hemmed edges, sewing close to the edge with a straight stitch. Sew across the seam as well, below the top where you stopped stitching, so that all the stress from opening the bag is not on just one point.

Next, sew your drawstring casing in place. Normally I would press a small fold at the top edge towards the inside, and then fold and press down the width of the casing. Since the casing here is already sewn in place around the rest of the bag, I opted to replace the original stitching, overlapping it with the red thread. Make a small back tack at each edge, since those ends won’t be held down by any other stitching later. Then I used a mock-serger stitch to go over the small raw edge below the casing, since I don’t want it to unravel and lead to my casing pulling loose.

A quick note about ends: I like to bury them inside the casing or hem, or wherever there’s a double layer of fabric, so that enough thread remains to keep the stitching from pulling out, but it’s hidden. I thread the ends on a hand-sewing needle, pull them between the fabric layers for one long stitch, and snip them off where they come out.

Here’s an another example of a commercially-made drawstring bag using the same concept. I think they hemmed the sides of the drawstring first, and then caught them in the side seam, and finished the seam allowances with a serger. As I said, you have a lot of options!

There’s lots more thorough and friendly beginner-oriented directions for sewing seams, overcasting, using your iron to make a casing, and everything else you need to know to plan and sew a drawstring bag in my e-book, Hello Sewing Machine!

If you have other beginning questions, feel free to let me know, I’m always curious about what’s on your mind. You can also read my answers to others’ questions in this post on Sew,Mama,Sew!

Giveaway and Sewing Tips from Me on Sew,Mama,Sew! Today

Posted on May 27, 2013 by Tasha

I’ve been waiting to see what questions everyone would ask on Sew,Mama,Sew! this week. I admit that I was a little nervous, kind of like when I first started teaching sewing years ago. What if someone asked a question that I totally didn’t know the answer to? Actually, I did get one—but it was a very specific one about piping around corners on a pillow, and since I’ve never done that, I think I can be excused. In general though, all the questions were great! And really relevant for beginners.

If you’re wondering about the tension on your sewing machine, or how to clean and oil it, I talked about that. If you have trouble sewing around curves, or with slippery fabric and knits, I’ve got some tips to help you out. If you’re not clear about when to finish fabric edges and how, I covered that. And at the end, there are a few resources to help with fitting and selecting interfacing. Most of the answers were excerpted or adapted from Hello Sewing Machine, where of course you’ll find a lot more answers to basic sewing questions.

Phew! Thanks to everyone who wrote in with questions, it was great to see what readers were curious about. You can read the answers over on Sew,Mama,Sew! today.

Plus, I’m offering both a chance to win a free copy of my new e-book, and a coupon code for a discount if you order one on Etsy, so go check it out!

Get Your Sewing Questions Answered with Me and Sew,Mama,Sew!

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Tasha

Here is the first exciting event in celebration of the release of my new e-book Hello Sewing Machine – I’ve collaborated with the lovely ladies at Sew, Mama, Sew! to answer your sewing questions! Head on over there and put in any basic questions you have, and I’ll answer some of them in a post coming up soon. I’m curious to see what you want to know!

How to Hem Your Own Jeans, and Keep the Original Hem

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Tasha

Once you get started sewing, I’m guessing one thing you’ll want to tackle is to hem your jeans. You can definitely do it yourself, and keep that distressed hem just as it is. You’ll need just a few more pieces of equipment than for normal sewing.

(If you need to start with some basic instruction about how to use your sewing machine, check out my e-book for beginners!)

A zipper foot lets you stitch with the needle to one side of the foot, right next to the original hem.

Jeans needles for your sewing machine have a sharper point and a longer eye, for sewing through layers of denim. For the most part, you won’t have to stitch through too many layers with this method, but it still helps. If you don’t have jeans needles, use a sharp rather than a universal needle.

It really helps to have a spacer, something you can prop up part of the presser foot with as you sew over thick seams (you’ll see why below). This one came with my sewing machine, but you could also use something not too wide and about 1/8 to 1/4” (3 to 6 mm) thick, like maybe a popsicle stick.

A sturdy hand-sewing needle, and a thimble to push it with, is essential for the finishing of this method (I’ll go over that in the next post).

You’ll also need pins and thread. The ones you use for regular sewing are fine. I didn’t happen to have matching thread, so I used black. It doesn’t show at all on the finished jeans. Darker thread colors usually blend in easier than lighter ones.

Once you gather your equipment, try on your jeans, and fold up the hem to figure out where you would like it to fall.

You can get someone to help measure how much you want to hem your jeans up, while you try them on. Or pin, try them on, and adjust until you get the hem where you would like it.

Figure out how much in total you want to take out of the length. Make a fold that measures half that much, starting at the inside edge of the original hem. You’re going to stitch right next to that original hem, effectively removing the fold of fabric from the length of the jeans. Whether you’re using cm or inches, the principle is the same, your fold should be half the amount you want to take out, since both sides of the fold are removed from the length.

Make sure your fold is on the inside of the jeans, so it won’t show when you’re done.

Pin the fold in place every couple of inches. Put the pins in perpendicular to the fold, or at an angle as shown, to make them easy to pull out as you sew.

Pay special attention at the seams, making sure that the original seam lines and topstitching match on both sides of the fold.

Set up to sew right next to the original hem, using a straight stitch (width 0), length about 2.5 mm. Use your zipper foot so that the foot can sit flat on just the fold of fabric. Move the needle position all the way over to your left, towards the original hem, so that you can stitch right next to it (and not hit the foot with the needle). Let the edge of the foot touch the edge of the hem as you sew.

When you get to the leg seams of the jeans, you’re suddenly sewing through a whole bunch of denim layers, instead of just two. When this happens, the presser foot ends up at a steep angle, which makes it much more likely to skip stitches (resulting in a weak seam). This is where the spacer comes in. When the front of the foot reaches the seam, prop up the back of the foot with the spacer to make it level. Then as you stitch over the seam, move the spacer to the front of the foot, to keep it level until you are past the bulky seam. Be careful to keep the spacer in front of the needle, so that you don’t hit it as you sew!

If your machine still skips a few stitches, try sewing in reverse and then forward again over the part that’s giving you trouble. Going slowly over the bulky parts will also help. You can even use the hand wheel on your machine to make just one stitch at a time. If it’s skipping a bunch of stitches in a row, check to see if the bobbin thread has broken. If so, stop and cut the top thread too, then start again so that you overlap a few of the last stitches before the thread broke, to hold them in place. If the leg seams are giving you a lot of trouble, you can also try flattening them as much as possible using a steam iron, or pounding them with a hammer.

When you get all the way around the leg, sew over the first few stitches that you made, to hold them in place.

Do not skip this step: once you sew around the hem, try on the jeans again to check that the length is where you want it. If not, at this stage all you have to do is pull out this one line of stitching, and start again. If the length looks good, you’re ready to finish off your hem.

If you took out more than about an inch in total, it’s likely that your folded out fabric is long enough to show below the hem if you turn it down. If so, trim it to about 3/8″ (10 mm), or a bit smaller than the original hem (I repeat, try on the jeans and check the length of the new hem before you do this). To keep these cut edges from unraveling, overcast them with a zigzag stitch.

Use a regular sewing foot for this (zigzag and a zipper foot don’t mix). Stitch close to the edge.

This whole process is pretty darn simple once you get the hang of it. You can also use this method to hem other pants, when you want to keep the original hem intact. It will be even easier if you don’t have think layers of denim to sew through.

In the next post I’ll go over my method for tacking down the extra fabric to make the hem look natural. In the meantime, if you have any questions, just leave a comment!