The Practical Application of Short Row Shaping

The Practical Application of Short Row Shaping







So now that you’ve survived working short rows, here’s what you can expect to see in a pattern that uses short rows. Most short-row instructions are written in pairs – you go out and come back (sometimes all the way back to the edge, sometimes only partway back if you’re doing shaping on both sides). Some designers and knitting publications number short rows singly (for example: Short Row 1: K25, t&s, purl to end). They consider that the shaping isn’t complete until you get back to where you started, and so in their mind, you’ve only worked one short row. My preference is to write it as two rows (see below), since you’re working one row on the right side, and one row on the wrong side. Sometimes you will start short-row shaping on a right-side row, and sometimes on a wrong-side row; either way, you will work in pairs of rows to work the shaping.

If you are working a piece like a scarf that has a curve along one edge, you will only short a stitch on one row, as follows:

Short Rows 1 and 2: K25, t&s, purl to end.

Here you short a stitch on Short Row 1, but then you just purl to the end of the row on Short Row 2 without shorting a stitch on the purl side.

If you’re working a piece like a sleeve cap that has shaping on either side of the shoulder marker, you will short a stitch on each of two rows, as follows:

Short Rows 1 and 2: K25, t&s, p10, t&s.

Here you’ve shorted a stitch on both rows, and you’re back on the right side again.

When working sleeve cap shaping in one of my top-down patterns, you will begin on a right-side row, and knit to a specified number of stitches past the shoulder marker, t&s, then purl to the same number of stitches past the marker on the other side, t&s. This will be called Short Rows 1 and 2. Then you go on to work Short Rows 3 and 4, which will be as follows:

Short Rows 3 and 4: Work to gap from last row, close gap, work 1 stitch, t&s.

So for Short Row 3, you work to the gap that you created when you worked t&s on the last right-side row (Short Row 1), close the gap, then work one more stitch, before you work t&s. This adds two stitches to the end of the row. Then you will work the exact same thing for Short Row 4, except that you’ll be working it on the wrong side. The text will tell you to repeat these two rows a specified number of times. Then in some cases, you will move on to Short Rows 5 and 6:

Short Rows 5 and 6: Work to gap from last row, close gap, t&s.

These two rows are similar to Short Rows 3 and 4, except that you don’t work an extra stitch after closing the gap; you just t&s right after closing the gap. These rows add one stitch to each end of the row.

Once you have completed all the short-row shaping, you’ll be back on the right side again. You knit across all of the stitches, closing the two remaining gaps as you come to them. If you’re working sleeve cap shaping, you can close the first gap that you come to as you have been doing. However, because the second gap was created when you were working on a wrong-side row (and it would normally be closed on the NEXT wrong-side row), it will have to be worked slightly differently when you close it on a right-side row. If you look at the gap with the right side facing, you will see that the marker, instead of being to the right of the gap, is to the left of the gap. To close this gap, work to one stitch before the gap, then slip the last stitch before the gap knitwise to the right-hand needle. Gently pull on the marker and place the loop of yarn knitwise on the left-hand needle, slip the stitch from the right-hand needle to the left-hand needle purlwise, and knit these two stitches together through the back loops. The final gap is now closed.

That’s all there is to it! It’s much more intimidating to read it through than it is to actually DO it. Don’t overthink it – grab yarn and needles and work up a swatch, then practice until it becomes second nature. Short rows can add so much to a project, so it’s well worth learning how!