The Knitting Fiend

Since writing my ridiculously detailed three part series ^{1, 2 & 3}on “How to read knitting charts?”, I have noticed google sends tons of people to my pages asking that precise question. So, I think I’d better answer the question that motivated me to write about charting in the first place. The question posted at the knittyboard was:

Question about increasing in Pattern

You make increases in the middle of the row, two on either side of a “seam stitch”. And while increasing you’re supposed to keep the increases in pattern. I understand that this is pretty easy to do when they’re at the end (for the first half of the row) but then you start the repeat after the seam stitch and you have to figure out where to start. Or maybe not - in the picture it looks like the partial pattern rows are at the front.

Problem is if I just start after the stitch with the beginning of the pattern each time the partial rows will be in the back for one and the front for the other. AHHHHHHH!

Now, I entirely understand why this knitter is confused. First, increasing in pattern is more difficult than decreasing in pattern. The knitter asking the question was knitting a poncho, but you would be instructed to do the exact same thing if you knit a raglan top down.

To understand what you are supposed to do, I’m going to explain both “decreasing in pattern” and “increasing in pattern”, beginning with “decreasing in pattern.” Because pictures sometimes say more than words, I’m going to explain using charts. My guess is this: If you’ve learned how to read charts, just looking at the chart will clarify the whole idea. I’ll include text, but some readers will want to skip it, look at the chart and say “a ha!”

Ok for the lesson! Suppose you are knitting some small item back and forth; an instruction tells you to cast on 11. Then, for a while, you are supposed to, knit 1 selvage stitch, then work 9 stitches in “seed stitch” and finish by knitting a selvedge stitch. (Recall, I discussed charting seed stitch in part III.)

The specific text directions say:

• Row 1: k1 (selvedge stitch, not shown on chart) [*k1, p1* repeat from *4 times, end k1], then k1 (selvedge stitch)
• Row 2: p1 (selvedge stitch) [*k1, p1* repeat from * 4 times, end k1,] then p1 (selvedge stitch)
• Repeat rows 1 and 2 pattern.

(I’m using slightly unusual notation. Specifically, I placed the instructions for the seed stitch inside square brackets to set this stitch pattern off from the selvedge stitch .)

You’re instructed to repeat this for a while. Then, all of a sudden, you are instructed to begin decreasing 1 stitch at the beginning and end of every other row “in pattern”. What do you do?

Well, the designer’s intention is for you to continue knitting seed stitch between the selvedge stitches. They don’t want you to suddenly change to ribbing or something even more mysterious.

Now, if you read the text instructions, it can be a bit confusing to figure out what to do.

But, let’s say you read my lesson on charting, and you chart out the seed stitch; to save ink, you decide to leave the selvedge stitches off the chart. (That is, just chart out the pattern for the 9 interior stitches, which is described inside the [] of the text directions.) When charting, to figure out how to “decrease in pattern”, blot out the edge stitches every two rows. The chart will look something like the one to the left.

Now, I would normally not bother to write the words out, but if you need text directions for rows 3 and 4, they are:

• Row 3: SSK (a decrease) [ p1, *k1, p1* repeat from * 3 times], then k2 tog (a decrease)
• Row 4: p1 (selvedge stitch) [p1, *k1, p1* repeat from * 3 times] then p1 (selvedge stitch)

Now, go back and read the note about the “SSK”. This operation is a “slip, slip, knit” and, in this example, involves the selvedge stitch (which is not shown on the chart) and the stitch you are eliminating from the chart. Two stitches became one — and this new stitch is a selvedge stitch.

Ok, so why SSK? Well, when the designer told you to “decrease in pattern”, they weren’t specific. You could also have used a “k2tog” to decrease, or an “SSK” and you’d still be following the designer’s directions. Different people can pick different decrease methods; so the precise text directions for row 3 would depend on how you decide to decrease.

How do I decide which to pick? I decide based on the appearance. I nearly always “SSK” at the beginning and “K2tog” at the end. Sometimes I would “k2tog” at the beginning and “SSK” at the end. These two decreases look like mirror images and I like my two edges to look like mirror images. But, that’s just what I do. You can try either one and decide what looks best to you.

I’m going to break my promise! I’m not going to supply text to describe how to increase in pattern! Which is odd, since that was the question the person asked at knittyboard. But, I bet you “get it” right? You could just flip the chart upside down and “make 1″ before and after the first charted stitch in the row; (that is, between the selvedge stitch and the edge stitch on the chart).

That’s all for the lesson. Just remember, if you get confused trying to increase or decrease in pattern, try charting out the pattern. Then, blot out the stitches you are supposed to “decrease”; that clarifies which stitches are added or subtracted in the pattern sequence. Chances are, you’ll learn to look at your knitting, and visualize the chart in your head. You often won’t need to actually plot out the chart, and you will almost never feel the need to write the directions out as text.

Hey, the designer didn’t write out the text, why should you?

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If you want to see more examples of charts, you can click the word “more” to the right:
Appendix A: (To pretend this is some sort of scholarly work or something.

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Decrease or increase in ribbing, above left and right.

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Increase in seed stitch when you need to increase at the beginning and end of odd rows.

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Decrease in seed stitch when the instruction tell you to do it at the beginning of rows only.