How To Read Your Stitches ~ Knit For Crocheters Series

Hey everyone, it's Deja from Knit and Crochet Ever After, and today we are going to talk about reading your knit stitches. Why do we need to read knit stitches? Unlike crochet, where you may make an entire, say, a shawl out of double crochet, and maybe some chains, with knit, there are so many more options for creating fabric, Using Variations of your knit and purl stitch. So to be able to understand your stitches when you're doing them, you need to know what a knit and purl stitch look like so that if you encounter problems, maybe a twisted stitch which we'll talk about, you'll know how to fix it, you'll know how to spot it, you'll know how to make your work the best it can look. So if you've been following along with my Knit for Crochet tutorials, Knit 4 Crocheters tutorials, you will recognize these two stitch patterns. So at the very bottom, we have the garter stitch, and then right above it, we have stockinette So the garter stitch is there mostly just to make this lay flat so that we can see our stockinette a little bit better because that's where we want to focus on learning how to read these stitches. With garter you're just doing a basic knit stitch so you know that you're just going to go ahead and knit. We want to look at the stockinette so you can see not only how the stitches look but Up here is where we need to focus when we're doing our stitches because the orientation of our loops is actually important to our knitting. So in crochet, we don't have to worry about our loops. They're, when we make our stitch, they're always pointing to the side in a V just like this. But in knitting, you can actually twist your stitches and twist your loops. So right now I have a twisted loop on here that I placed on purpose. I don't know if you can tell just by looking at it. If you keep staring at it, you might notice which loop looks different, but I'm going I'm going to point it out and I'm going to show you how to fix it, why you want to fix it. Okay, so when we're looking at stockinette stitch, there's obviously a front and a back. It's not necessarily the wrong side or the right side, because they also have what's called reverse stockinette. So the reason you might want to do a reverse stockinette, which is basically your backside or the purl side is going to be your right side, is because you want the purls in front. Either you have a stockinette or a reverse stockinette stitch, but they're going to look identical. It's just which one you want to be your right side and your wrong side. So we're just going to say front and back right now. So the front has the knit stitches on this one, and we know knit stitches are the little V's. If you think about it in crochet terms, it's kind of like a foundation chain. All of these foundation chains are woven together. And then on the back side, just like a bottom bump in a foundation chain, we get those little dashes, except these are horizontal instead of vertical. So if this was an actual foundation chain in crochet, you would see the dashes going this way. So how do these little purl bumps get formed? As you are working your knit stitch, the little loop that's there gets pushed to the back as you interlock the next loop. So those little purl bumps are the loop from the knit stitch getting pushed to the back of the work. Why do we see it on both sides for garter stitch? Because we're going knit, we're knitting back and forth, so it's constantly pushing those loops to whichever side you're on, so that's why you get bumps on both sides. So depending on what your fabric, what you want your fabric to look like, that's how you choose, you know, what stitch pattern you're going to use. So knowing what your stitch should look like when you're working other stitches besides stockinette, because it's pretty easy to see that I should knit on this side and I should purl on this side, you need to know what a purl looks like and what a knit looks So when we're working our knit stitch, we'll see right below that we have a V. So when we're reading our stitches to figure out what stitch goes next, which is going to make more sense when I show you a different stitch pattern in a second, we need to look at what we did before so we know what to do next. So here we can see right below our loop we have a V, so we know that we did a knit stitch the previous row. Same thing on the back. If we look right below our loop, we have our little purl bumps, so we know that this side we did purling. So when we look at a ribbing pattern in just a second, when you're working it, you need to know, should I be knitting or should I be purling next? But seeing this very clearly right here with these purl bumps can help you understand what your stitch should look like. So we have purl bumps right below our loop for purling. And we have knit stitch right below our loop when we should be knitting. So one other thing that I want you to look at before we move on to a ribbing example is the way that our loops are situated on our needle. When we are working our stitches there is a way that the loop should be on our needle that is the correct way. Now, there are some instances where it's going to be backwards when you want a twisted stitch, but for most patterns, your loops need to be situated the correct way to get the correct look. So one of these is actually backwards right now, and I made it backwards on purpose so that we can see the difference as we go. So when you're looking at your loop, so if I take this loop that's on the end here off, and we just pull it straight up it's like a little foundation chain you know that we make in crochet so it's got the right and the left so the right side of the loop should always be facing you it should be on the needle in the front the left side should be away from you it should be on the back side of the needle if i have it reverse That is a twisted stitch. If I knit that, it's going to twist it and it's going to look different than all the rest of the stitches. So it's important to know that when you're coming with your stitches, that that right side of the loop should be facing you. So I have one of these twisted. So when I go to knit it, you'll see that one is right in the front. This one, the right loop is in the front. Right in the front. And then we have one with the left in the front, so this one, when I knit it, it's going to be twisted. And you can see it's hard to get into because it doesn't give me as much space as the right. So one thing that you might notice is all of a sudden it's hard to get into a stitch. Oh, you have a twisted stitch, so that's something to look out for, but I'm going to knit this on purpose twisted so you can see what it looks like. Sometimes it's not very noticeable, like if you're in garter stitch, you're not going to really notice that you have a twisted stitch. I'll finish this off real quick so we can look at it. But sometimes it'll be very noticeable, at least to you. You know, if this was gigantic scarf, it's going to be hard, you know, to see that one stitch, but if you continue to do it, you'll have little interesting kind of stitches going on. So when we look here, so remember it was the fourth one. You can see it's not super noticeable. You'll notice that here that the stitch is just kind of a little crooked looking. But let me go back one more row and show you what it looks like when there's another row of stitches on top of it. Okay, I did one row of purling to come back. So if you look, here is our twisted stitch. It's not super noticeable, but if you constantly are doing, you know, one stitch that is backwards if it's not fixing itself or you're getting it over and over, you're going to start to see those twists throughout your work. So you can kind of tell there's a little bit of a difference, you can kind of see how it's Um, a little bit over the top here when it's coming into the next stitch, but it's not super bad, so don't worry if you accidentally knit a twisted stitch and you don't fix it. Um, but if it bothers you, you know, if you want to make sure that it's absolutely perfect in certain instances, it's going to be more visible than others. There's an easy, easy way to fix that. So we are going to do a couple of here and I'm going to twist this stitch. So I'm putting the left in the front. So now we are twisted on here, it's backwards. There are two ways you can fix it. You can either just slide it and fix it like this, but if you're on a roll and you want to really get going, all you need to do is knit it through the back. So you put your I'm going to pull the needle behind instead of in the front here and it's a lot easier to enter in there and then you're just going to pull through just like a regular knit stitch and now your orientation is correct and the stitch is not twisted at all. Now that's just kind of a quick tutorial on twisted stitches. Sometimes the pattern calls for it to be twisted on purpose, you know, and... The way that it can get twisted, in case you're wondering, it could be for a number of reasons, especially when you start doing increases and decreases and yarn overs and all kinds of stuff. You just might do something backwards, you know, your yarn over might, you might do like a crochet yarn over instead of a knit yarn over, and then all of a sudden your stitch is backwards. So if I do a, if I do a yarn over like a regular crochet yarn over, if I forget which way my yarn over should be, all of a sudden I'm going to have a twisted, you know, a So when I come back to work it this way, it's got the left side on the front instead of the right side. So different ways that can happen. It's not a big deal, though, so don't worry if you suddenly have the wrong loop in front. You'll realize it when you go to work into it. It's going to feel weird. It's not going to have as much space, and then you're going to go, oh, it's the left is in front and not the right, and you'll know how to fix it. So just something to look out for. It's not, you know, it's not going to ruin your project, so don't worry. Now you know how to fix it if you see it, and you know which way that your loop should be facing. And that's kind of one other important thing to know which way it's facing because if you If you lose some stitches like this, you know, you suddenly pop some stitches off accidentally if you're just trying out the nickel-plated needles, you need to know which way to put them back on. You need to know that the right loop should be in front, so that way you can put them on correctly so you don't have a whole row of twisted stitches, because if you put them on backwards and knit them, then you're definitely going to notice the difference from that row from the rest of them. So let me show you the ribbing so that you can understand what I mean when I say that you need to know what stitch comes next so that you don't mess up your pattern. Okay, so here I have a 2x2 rib, which means that I have two knits and two purls and two knits and two purls and over and over again. I like to use this on beanies because it's nice and stretchy and it's pleasing to look at. But if you're brand new and you put your knitting down, you may not know what you should be knitting. So when I start going... Especially in the round, because when you're working in rows, you can kind of just work backwards and go, oh, okay, here's knit, knit, purl, purl, knit, knit. You know, you can figure it out by counting, but in the round, it could take a lot more time to figure it out. So being able to read your stitches, you're going to know what comes next. So when we look at our stitch, we're looking right below that loop. What is here? Oh, I see a V right here. And I see a V right here, so I know I have two knit stitches. And then I look and I see, oh, purl bump, purl bump, two purls. Then again, I can pull on it a little bit if I need to really see what's going on. I can see my knit stitch and my knit stitch, so I know, okay, next is a knit, and then another knit. And then, oh, there's some purl bumps. So if you're looking for your knit stitches, sometimes it looks a little strange on that first one. So right here where this knit is, it's kind of pulled and weird, but you definitely don't see the purl bumps, so you know it's a knit stitch. You know there's no bump right here, so it's a knit stitch. So I'm going to do some off-camera real quick, and I'm going to come back. because we're going to pretend like we put our work down and figure out what we should be doing next. Okay, so I put my work down, went got a drink, whatever it may be, now I'm ready to start working again. So the first thing I need to do is figure out which hand should I be working with. So what you need to do is you look at where your working yarn is coming from. Your working yarn should be in your working hand. So whichever hand you're making your stitches with, That's the hand that this portion of your needle with the yarn attached to should be in. So right now I'm backwards. I need to flip this guy around and now I have my working yarn in my working hand. So we have unworked stitches over here that have no yarn attached in my non-dominant hand. And then I'm going to do my tension, and then I'm going to look at what I need to do next. So do I do a knit, or do I do a purl? What do you think? This is our next stitch. Here's our loop, and here's what's below it. We see... So we know that we need to do a purl. So I put my yarn in the front, I do my purl, and I'm ready for my next stitch. What comes next? Did I only do one purl already, or did I already do both of my purls? Well, look at my loop. Oh, I see a V. I have already done both of my purls. If I look over here, I see two purls. So I know that my next stitch should be a knit stitch. So this is where it becomes very important to know What comes next? Because if I'm not paying attention and I start knitting into my purls, I'm going to mess up my rib. You'll notice it eventually, but it'll be too late, and then you're going to have to unknit or frog all the way back. Unknitting means that we are going to go backwards, so I'm going to have a video on that. I'm going to put his own name on. I will have a video on that. It may not be up by the time this goes up, but it will be eventually, so stay tuned for that. Or search in my videos to see if it's up yet. But I'll show you how to unknit or tink it back to where your problem is. Unlike crochet, where you can just rip it out nice and easy and not lose your stitches, knit's a little bit more difficult, because if I just pull this out and start ripping back, I could lose all of my loops which is not fun. So again you need to learn to read your stitches. That is why this fat yarn comes in handy because you can see them so much easier. So until you get very familiar with what a stitch looks like, stick with the bigger yarn. It's just a lot easier to see, a lot easier to read. So learning Your stitches, paying attention if you're twisted or not, that's all a part of just kind of, oops, getting used to, you know, knitting and just keep on practicing and soon you'll be ready for your very first project. So that is all for now. Go check out some more videos. Subscribe so you can make sure you get all the new ones right away. And thank you for watching.