The Knitting Fiend

Amazingly enough, I somehow forgot to write up the tutorial on knitting and purling stitches together with their wraps. This is done when working the increasing short rows for the short row heel of my sock-u-lator sock pattern. I’ll show it now!

The “generic” instructions for working increasing short rows are:

• Slip first stitch.¹ Knit up to first wrapped stitch. Knit together with wrap.²
• Purl up to first wrapped stitch. Purl together with wrap.
• Repeat the previous two steps until you are knitting all stitches on needle.

As you work this, the heel will fold over as shown above and to the right.

The purpose working stitches with their wraps is to hide the wrap, which otherwise encircle each stitch. The wraps don’t necessarily look bad, and many people don’t mind them on socks. If you don’t mind them, then don’t even bother with this fiddly technique!

If you do mind them here’s how to hide them.

Knit until you reach the wrapped stitch. Slip the wrapped stitch to the right needle tip. Insert the left tip into the wrap. Slip it up and over the right stitch. Slip both the stitch and it’s wrap to the left needle tip.

Insert right tip into both stitches knitwise; k2tog.

The wrap will be hidden behind the knit stitch.

Because this is a single wrap, there was only one stitch wrapped around the stitch. If this had been a double wrap, there would have been two wraps. You would basically do the same thing; just lift both wraps. Nifty, huh?

How do you purl a stitch with its wrap? The process is very similar. Purl until you reach the first wrapped stitch. Slip the stitch knitwise to the right needle tip. Insert the left tip and lift the wrap over the stitch. (See above left.)

Slip both stitches back to the left needle tip, then insert the right tip through the back loop. (See photo above right. Notice the right needle tip goes into the center of the stitch from behind the stitch leg on the right side. Now, notice this leg is behind the left needle– that’s why it’s called “the back loop”. Notice also that normally when knitting using the western style, the left leg is behind the needle. You switched the “seat” when you slipped knitwise. )

When you turn the knitting around, you will notice the wrap is hidden behind the stitch, and the stitch looks like a “normal” stitch.

One tip: If you want the holes to be as small as possible, wrap quite tightly if you are going to pick up the wraps. If you wrap loosely, the wrap strands will be long and they won’t hold the two adjacent stitches together firmly. Since the whole purpose of these wraps is to hold the stitches together, it’s much better if they are fairly short.³ I didn’t wrap firmly when knitting this sock because I wanted to be able to take photos that actually show the wrap strands. That means my heels won’t be as beautiful as they could be. (I may show a photo!)

Ok. That’s the end of the series on this particular sock.

I’ll try to think of a project for tomorrow driving through the deep snow to Chicago on my way to watch “The Magic Flute” at the Lyric Opera tonight!

1. All stitches are slipped purlwise unless otherwise stated. This is a knitting convention. On the first row or increasing short rows, the first stitch is the wrapped stitch from the previous turn. All others are slipped stitches are the stitches you knit together with their wraps.

2. If you were working double wraps you’d wrap and turn the next stitch.

3. There is a method called “Japanese short rows” that makes the wraps very, very short. In that case, the wraps may end up too short to be attractive when turning heels. (But, you could try it.) I tried the yarn over method. That’s less fiddly, but I found the wraps were too long, and I couldn’t shorten the length.