Short rows

short rows

Read ARTICLE from COCOKNITS HERE

I have picked up knitting techniques all over Europe, England and Ireland and somewhere along the way I learned to do short rows this way.

When I eventually learned about the wrap and turn method, it seemed very laborious to me. However, after having taught knitting for nearly 20 years I have learned that if you can’t yet tell the difference between a stitch and a yarn-over when you come to it, you should stick to the wrap and turn method for awhile. In the long run, I find this method faster.

If you are knitting along on the RS and the directions now say w&t for a short row:

Don’t wrap and turn, but instead simply turn your work:

And do a yarn-over onto the right needle:

And now purl back:

Can you see that the third st in on the rt needle is not a st, but a yo?

Okay, now here’s how it looks on a WS purl row.

Here’s where you are supposed to w&t:

Instead, turn your work and do a yo onto the rt needle:

And now knit back:

Again, do you see that the 4th st on the rt needle is just the loop of a yo?

Be careful not to count the yo’s as stitches. If in doubt about whether a “stitch” is really a stitch or a yo, look carefully at the RS of your work:

If it is a stitch, you will be able to follow the v’s down the rows below it. But if it’s a yo, it will be coming out the side of a stitch without a row of v’s below it. If you study the picture above, do you see that the 4th st on the rt needle is really a yo? Another clue will be the big gap…when you come to one, you know that on one side or the other of that gap is a yo which will be used to close that gap. See it just to the right of the yo?

When you come back to those yo’s, you are going to work them together with the st next to them to close the gap you created by turning your work in the middle of a row, same idea as a wrap and turn, but easier to execute. Here’s how you do it:

If on the RS you are knitting along and you come across this:

A yo, followed by the gap you need to close, followed by a knit st, you will perform a knit 2 together, knitting together the yo with the stitch in order to close that gap.

If on the WS you come across this:

The yo, followed by the gap to be closed, followed by a purl st, you will perform a ssp. [slip two sts separately as if to knit, slide those two sts back onto the left needle and purl them together through the back loops]

If on the RS you come across this:

A knit stitch, followed by the gap, followed by the yarn over, you will perform a ssk. [slip two sts separately as if to knit, put your left needle into their fronts and knit them together]

If on the WS you come across this:

The purl stitch, followed by the gap, followed by the yarn over, you will p2tog.

And if you do this, here is what your short rows will look like:

Completely invisible shaping!