After learning how to cast on, the knit stitch is the next technique to learn. The knit stitch is abbreviated as “k” in patterns. In this step-by-step photo tutorial, we demonstrate the technique using two straight needles. Here, we start with the stitches to be knit on the left-hand needle.
Knitting Styles
There are many different ways to hold your working yarn as you knit. In these tutorial photos, we work the stitches while holding (tensioning) the working yarn in the right hand and “throwing” the working yarn around the needle to create the new stitch. This method is called “English style” knitting.
Please check out this section of our video on “Knitting Speed & Style” where I talk about and show how I knit with “English Style” (working yarn in the right hand) and “Continental” (working yarn in the left hand).
Troubleshooting Stitch Tension
When you pull the yarn through the old stitch using the right-hand needle, make sure that you form the new stitch on the full circumference of the right-hand needle to ensure that the new stitches are a good size. If you form the stitches at the very tips of your knitting needles (where they are sloped down to a point), you’ll find that your stitches will feel very tight and may become increasingly hard to knit.
As well, if your working yarn is held too loosely, the new stitches may be too large and loose, causing your knitted fabric to also be floppy with inconsistent stitch sizes. So, as you create your new stitch on the right-hand needle, just check that your working yarn has gentle tension so that the it wraps around the right needle snug but not tight.
With practice, you’ll be able to get a better feel for how much tension is too much or too little when you form your stitches.
Garter Stitch
This stitch is the basis of all knitting! If you keep working this stitch, over and over, row after row, you will create an overall pattern that is called “garter stitch” (aka garter rows). Garter forms a great fabric that is elastic, reversible, and maintains its shape (the edges of the fabric stay flat and don’t curl in). Keep working these knit stitches and you’ll be able to make your first scarf!
The next step you’ll need is learning to bind off, and after that, learning how to work the purl stitch (p).
Happy knitting!
Knit Stitch (k)
Equipment
Materials
Instructions
- Hold the needle containing stitches in your left hand. Pick up your second needle and prepare to work the first stitch. Insert the right-hand needle into the front leg of the next stitch on the left-hand needle and push it through to the back.
- Make sure the needle point is between the two legs of the stitch.
- Coming from behind, wrap the working yarn around the point of the needle at the back.
- Notice the working yarn is between the two needles, coming from back clockwise.
- Holding a light tension on the working yarn, push the right-hand needle with the wrapped strand through to the front of the left-hand needle.
- Pull the left-hand needle out of the old stitch, leaving the new stitch on the right-hand needle.
- Repeat the above steps until you have knit all the stitches on the left-hand needle. You’ve knit 1 row.
Video
Notes
Link to Pattern
Link to pattern
