The body of my Eyelet Chemise is knit in an eyelet rib pattern, which has reminded me of a technique I find invaluable when knitting ribbing of more than 1×1 stitches. The technique is the same for any number of stitches in the rib, but for the sake of clarity I will describe it for 2×2 ribbing, as demonstrated on this cute little pink swatch:
If you knit ribbing in the ‘normal’ way, in other words [k2, p2] repeated, you might find that the last knit stitch before a purl is much looser than the other knit stitch. The top half of my swatch is knitted in this way.
I’ve read various theories as to why this might be the case but, whatever the reason, the gap between knit and purl stitches appears bigger when going from knit to purl than when changing from purl to knit.
I’ve tried various methods for minimising this gap. The one that works best for me (I knit continental, by the way) is to knit the first purl stitch eastern style, by wrapping the yarn clockwise around the needle instead of the normal anti-clockwise. When that stitch is encountered on the next row, it will be twisted, so you will need to knit into the back of it.
This method means that instead of repeating the same two stitches, you are actually repeating four different stitches. Here’s how it would look in a pattern; I’ll assume one where the right side begins and ends with k2.
Row 1: [K2, p1 clockwise (c), p1 anti-clockwise (ac)] to last 2 sts, k2.
Row 2: P2, [k1, k1 to back of loop (tbl), p1 c, p1 ac] to end.
Row 3: [K1, k1 tbl, p1 c, p1 ac] to last 2 sts, k2.
Repeat rows 2 & 3.
The ‘normal’ method is on the left in the pictures below, and the clockwise method is on the right. Better, no?
That’s a great tip – I once read that one should wrap the last purl clockwise, but it didn’t work for me, so I’ll definitely try this out! Getting neat, tight ribbing is one of my big knitting Quests.
Thanks for this great tip! I always have this problem – except when knitting very tightly, like socks – although maybe I still do then, and it’s just too small to notice!
Wow!..you are a knitting goddess! Great tip!
I will have to try this sometime. Thanks!
I always have knit the last knit stitch through the back loop and that also works well. Sometimes I’ll knit all knit stitches through the back loop and that will make the knit stitches really look emphasized.
Lovely work!
That is a great tip – you really can see the difference!!
i’m printing out this page and trying it next time i do this rib–never would have thought of this, so thanks!
Fabulous tip! Thank you for the clear illustration with the swatch.
Wow, that looks so much better!