Shortening ribbing: K1, p1 (part 1 of 3)

Suppose you have a sweater which you have worked bottom-up, and you decide you want to shorten the ribbing. Suppose further that the ribbing is K1, P1 (1/1) ribbing. You're in the right place: that's what this post is about.  (Iif you have K2, P2 ribbing, check out the second post in this series.)

Shortening ribbing, overview sketch.
This is the cartoon version.
** 📺😺📺 **
In real life you don't actually hack off
many columns of ribbing with a scissors!  Read on...

If this were stockinette you wanted to shorten, this would be easy to do.  You'd simply snip a stitch free, then unravel that row, catching each now-loose stitch from the row above onto a knitting needle.  You'd then bind off these new loops.

The conventional way to shorten 1/1 ribbing

The conventional way to shorten ribbing is nearly the same, but with a few variations. Here's the illustrated how-to for 1/1 ribbing (K1, P1). 

Suppose, on this two-tone fabric sample, that the maroon-colored fabric is the excess length to be removed. 

Like the opening sketch, the bottom ribbing is shown in a darker color--maroon. The seed stitch represents the first few rows of the garment-body.  The maroon-colored ribbing is the excess to be removed. When we are done, the ribbing will be all oatmeal-colored, and much shorter (5 rows only).

Close up of above, with the fabric stretched out

Here's the removal in four steps

Step 1: Somewhere along the target row, and at least a few stitches away from any edge, carefully snip a stitch.  Although the opening sketch showed the scissors cutting off a bunch of ribbing, that was only the cartoon version. In fact, after snipping this one stitch, put away your scissors, you won't need them any more.  Instead, the fabric is going to be separated by picking the cut end of the yarn out of the fabric--unraveling-- using the pointed end of a slim knitting needle. 

One stitch in the target row being carefully snipped 

After snipping, there will be a cut end.  Locate the loop adjacent to the cut end in the row above the snipped stitch.  This is the first loop to catch.

Step 2: Once you've identified the loop to catch, insert a slim, pointy needle into the loop. Best to use is double-pointed needle (dpn) or a circular needle. 

The loop identified in the previous step has been caught by inserting a slim pointy dpn.

Once the loop is caught, begin to remove the cut yarn.  The easiest way to do this is to fish around with a second dpn, teasing and picking the cut end out of the fabric. 

Step 3: As you tease and pick out the cut end, and as further loops pop loose, catch them on the needle. Pretty soon, you'll see the waste fabric coming away from the loops caught on the needle.

A short-cut way to accomplish the same thing, especially with 1/1 (k1, p1) ribbing, is to pick up the entire row at once, by inserting a slim needle along the row.  Below is what that trick looks like. 

Instead of picking the cut ends loose and picking up the loops one-by-one, you can choose to insert a needle all the way down the row, and only then cut loose a single stitch.

Once the needle is inserted, the process is the same as stitch-by stitch: you carefully snip free one loop of the row below, then remove the excess by picking. 

Regardless of how you caught the loops--whether as they popped free, one-by-one, or whether you took the short cut and inserted a needle down the whole row--once the cut end has been picked loose all the way down the row, the result is the same. The waste length of fabric is separated, and the stitches at the bottom of the ribbing are on the needle, waiting to be bound off.

The final result before bind off: the loops are all caught, the waste fabric has been removed.

The picked-out loops of 1/1 ribbing do not sit on the needle in the normal configuration of right-arm forward.  Instead, the right stitch of each pair  lays left arm forward, while the left stitch lays right arm forward.  This is a normal artifact of picking out 1/1 ribbing: the topology (path of the yarn) is complex. (There will be more about the topology of the yarn in the second post of this series...stay tuned!) Further, even if your stitches lie in some other configuration, all will still be well as long as there is no obvious twist at the loop-top where the needle meets the yarn, per below photos.

The ordinary way that picked-out 1/1 ribbing sits on the needle is as shown in the above closeup: the right and left loops of each stitch-pair lie with different arms forward.  However, even if yours looks different, just as long as there is no twist where the loop meets the needle (blue arrow), you're fine to go on to the next step.

Step 4: the final step is to bind off the stitches on the needle.  Below is the bind-off in progress. 

Note that this is ordinary chain bind off, NOT in pattern.  "Binding off in pattern" means knit the knits & purl the purls as part of the bind-off process.  This makes a nicer edge for binding off ribbing.  Unfortunately, here you can't actually do that.  The reason is that the unraveled loops sitting on your needle are the tails of the stitches, not their heads, and the tails of stitches are offset 1/2 stitch from the heads.

As to where to get the yarn for the bind off, that's easy. I knit my ribbing in two colors for illustration purposes, but your ribbing is almost certainly one-color.  This means the waste fabric which you've separated off will contain all the yarn needed to unravel and re-use for the bind off. Note that when you go to unravel ribbing in the OPPOSITE direction from that in which it was knit (which you will be doing with the waste fabric) it readily unravels: one tug and out it comes, easy peasy. 

* * *

The second post in this series illustrates shortening 2/2 ribbing (K2,P2). The third and final post in this series shows alternatives for binding off, with a new trick which doesn't even require any bnding off at all! 

Until next time...

--TK

PS: To shorten ordinary knitting (non-ribbed) check out this post:

• Length reassignment surgery: lengthening and shortening knitwear

Announcement about mailing list

 TECHknitting readers—hello!

TECHknitting blog is getting an updated e-mail notification service.  The new service is set to overlap with the old service for one or two posts.  After that, the old service will end as the new service takes over.

Tomorrow, TECHknitting blog debuts part 1 of a multi-part series on shortening ribbing.  

If you've signed up for e-mail notifications in the past, you should get TWO notifications about that new post: the last (or almost the last) from the old service and the first from the new.  

If you only get ONE notification tomorrow, hunt around in your spam or promotions folder to see where the second one is.  If the second notification is in your spam or promotions folder, then move it to your regular inbox: this tells your computer’s little brain not to send future new notifications to spam. 

In short, if you’re already signed up, then supposedly you'll seamlessly continue to get notifications, just from the new service, not the old--the only thing you might have to do is rescue them from your spam or promotions folder. 

 

However, if you're not sure whether you’re signed up, or if you want to sign up for the first time, or if you just want to be sure not to miss a post, use the NEW e-mail notification widget in the right sidebar—>  This puts you on the new e-mailing list for sure.

There are also other ways to never miss a post, see the PS below. 

One way or another, see you tomorrow with a new post on shortening ribbing.

—TK

PS:

—e-mail notifications:

the new notification service is SUBSTACK. The notifications will re-direct you to the posts published on TECHknitting.blogspot.com (which is the same thing as TECHknitting.com).  Again, to be sure of being on the new service, consider signing up via the new e-mail notification widget—> in the right sidebar.

—Twitter notifications:

Also, there’s a new tweet sent when new posts are published—follow https://twitter.com/TECHknitter  on twitter to get notifications that way.  

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Again--see you tomorrow, one way or another. 

Hole in my knitting! Help!

"How did I make this hole in my knitting?"  "Where did this hole come from?" These are common questions on knitting forums.  If you have a mystery hole in your knitting and don't know how it got there, perhaps your problem is shown below.

A Rogues' Gallery of Mystery Knitting Holes

Going around clockwise, and starting from the upper left, 

• At 11 o'clock in magenta, a very common error, an enlarged stitch. 
• At 12 o'clock, in bright blue, one of the larger types of holes: a compound error made of a dropped stitch combined with an inadvertent yarn over. 
• At 1 o'clock in yellow, this is an inadvertent yarn over, another very common error, generally a roundish hole, but wider at the top than the bottom.  
• Along the bottom, in the 5 o'clock position in red, we have a dropped stitch, also relatively common, sometimes showing as a triangle-shaped hole.
• And finally, at 7 o'clock in bright green, we have a kind of vertical hole which results from a partial short row, a relatively rare error, perhaps the most mysterious of all when it happens. 

You can see the relative size of these typical errors on the background fabric, and the typical shape of each error in its close-up overlay portrait. To inspect more closely, click on any picture, above or below. 

Below is more about each error, taken in reverse order.

Partial short row

In this illustration, the two extra (short) rows appear on the left side of this vertical-looking mystery hole

How it happened: This error can happen only with flat (back-and-forth) knitting.  What happens is, the knitting gets put down in the middle of a row.  Then, when it's picked back up again, you set off knitting in the wrong direction. So let's say you were knitting stockinette fabric and were working down a knit row on the smooth (knit) fabric face when you put the project down.  Then when you started up the work again, you mistakenly turned the fabric and set off purling.  In other words, you mistakenly set off going back in the direction from which you came,  instead of working further along the original row. 

This error is actually a species of short-row, so, besides making a hole, it also makes one side of the fabric two rows higher than the other side. Note that the stitch count does not change, only the row count, and that, only on one side of the hole. In the above illustration, the two extra rows appear on the left side of the hole. 

To avoid: If you always work to the end of the row before putting the work down, this mistake is unlikely to happen. If you can't do that, then make sure your running yarn is coming from the skein into the fabric onto the right needle when you pick up your work after setting it down, and this is true regardless of whether you knit continental, English-style or combo-method. (Mirror-image knitters: your running yarn comes into the fabric on the left needle when you pick up a project previously set down.) 

To diagnose: count your rows on both sides of the hole. If you're knitting flat, if the hole is mostly vertical,  if the stitch count is unchanged, and if the row-count is off by two between the opposite sides of the hole, this error is your culprit.  

To correct: There is no trick to correct this error so it is structurally identical to no-error fabric. If you're a perfectionist, you must pull out and re-do. On the other hand, if you're way past the spot where the hole appears and/or are discouraged by the idea of pulling out, take heart: in plain knitting, this is not a very noticeable error. Unless your yarn and gauge are both mirror-smooth, this sort of error will pass unnoticed by any eyes but yours if you simply close the hole by duplicate stitching over it. 

Miscellaneous--relationship to buttonholes: this error looks like a vertical buttonhole because it was created the same as the first half of a vertical buttonhole.  If you fear your front edge will flare or ruffle, and you need vertical buttonholes for a small button (pearl buttons on a baby-sweater, say) you can choose to make this "error" on purpose.  Work to within two or three stitches of the front edge, then turn the work and go back to the opposite seam. On the next row, work all the way through to the front-edge.  Voilà. You've created a semi-vertical buttonhole, while at the same time, the edge of the garment has been kept tight via the missing rows.  This works very well for a few buttons spaced some distance apart. But for a fancy garment with many buttonholes close together, this trick might make the front edge too tight due to too many missed rows at the front edge--if so, use the YO buttonhole described below, instead.

Dropped Stitch

Dropped stitch.  This one has the typical triangular shape, while the unmistakable dropped stitch sits atop a now-dead-end column.

How it happened: When a stitch falls off the (left) holding needle and lays there, unknit, but then the following stitch is knit normally, the stitch which fell off is called a dropped stitch.  If the error is not corrected before the next row is knit, the entire column of knitting headed by the dropped stitch dead-ends, the stitch count is reduced by one and a hole forms in the fabric over the top of the lost column. At the head of the lost column, there appears the dropped loop of yarn. Because the loop is not fastened into the fabric, then when the fabric is stressed, the loop may run out, forming a ladder, as in a nylon stocking with a laddered run. 

To avoid: I find it pays to count the stitches every few rows, to catch this sort of thing before it gets too far along. 

The diagnostic tell-tale:
the dropped stitch itself

To diagnose: if your stitch count is one (or more) off, check your fabric for the tell-tale loop and hole. It's certainly a dropped stitch if the loop of the stitch is sitting there, sticking out of the fabric. 

To correct: If you are only a row or so above the dropped stitch, consider ripping back. If reluctant to rip back because of the yarn you're working with (mohair perhaps?) you can try to wiggle some excess yarn out of the fabric above the error, then latch up. (Video link to latching up)

If you're not going to rip back (perhaps it would be discouraging because the error is too far down?) then try one of these tricks:

--Thread a large-eyed, sharp-pointed (crewel) needle with matching yarn. Anchor the yarn on one side of the dropped stitch by skimming the needle through the fabric leading up to the loose stitch.  Draw the yarn through the loose loop, then anchor the yarn on the other side of the loose loop. This fastens the loop into the fabric so it cannot run out.  

--An alternative is to anchor the yarn, then work a duplicate stitch binding the dropped stitch BEHIND a neighbor-stitch, as if you had worked a k2tog decrease at that spot. Then re-anchor the yarn on the other side of the duplicate stitch. This looks neater from the front but you get a three-stitch stack (the duplicate stitch, the neighbor stitch and the dropped stitch) so things might get a bit lumpy. If your yarn is plied, maybe duplicate stitch using just one or two plies instead of the whole thick yarn if you want to go this route. 

If the stitch count is very important for the pattern you are working, use the twisted-loop method or the nearly-invisible increase to add another stitch to your work in some inconspicuous spot, such as near the side seam. 

Inadvertent yarn over

Inadvertent yarn over: a roundish hole, wider at the top than the bottom, and giving rise to a new column of stitches

How it happened: This common error happens when you mistakenly catch the tail of yarn connecting two stitches over your knitting needle, so as to make a yarn over where you don't want one. A yarn over is shown in this linked post--the link shows how to make a yarn over when you forgot to do so in the row below, but the mistake we're talking about here is created in the same manner except that the yarn got caught over the needle by accident, rather than on purpose. As you can see from the above photo, the inadvertent yarn over gives rise to a new column of stitches, arising from a round-shaped hole.

To avoid: As with the previous error--the dropped stitch, which causes the stitch count to decrease by one, this error--the inadvertent yarn over also influences the stitch count, but this time, by increasing the count by one. I find it pays to count the stitches every few rows, to catch both of these sorts of errors before they get too far along. 

To diagnose: The shape of the hole is one clue, and the extra stitch in your stitch count is the tell-tale confirmation.

To correct: This error amounts to an increase, meaning more yarn has been put into the fabric on every round or row, by being knit into the new column. The best way to fix this is to go back and rip out. 

One alternative is to duplicate-stitch the hole shut, then correct the stitch count by decreasing away one stitch in an inconspicuous spot. 

If you're knitting flat, and the error is quite near one edge of the work or another, you could perhaps try to fix this by dropping the extra column (it will not run out past where the yarn over mistake arose). This leaves you with a ladder of slack yarn which you could try to pick, as best as possible, through the fabric to park it over by the side seam, where you can eventually lose the slack in the seam itself at seaming-up time. 

Alternatively, you could work all the slack to one spot, then cut the ends free and use a sewing needle or a knit-picker latch hook to work in the very short tails. However, doing this in the middle of a fabric is likely to show as a lumpy disturbance in the tension, especially if there are stacks of work-ins running up a column of knitting. on the other hand, if there's just one giant accidental YO in the fabric (perhaps the yarn was twisted onto itself, or knotted by accident, or snagged?) then cutting the yarn and working in the slack as ends is a good solution. 

Miscellaneous--relationship to buttonholes: A YO buttonhole is a well-known knitting trick, sometimes called a sheeps-eye. As stated, the YO increases the stitch count by one, which must be counteracted by a matching decrease. This link shows the YO buttonhole with the decrease worked first, then the stitch count is corrected by the YO, but you can just as well work this the other way around, making the YO first, then correct via a decrease on the following row.

Miscellaneous--relationship to increases: Sometimes a YO hole may appear where you aren't expecting one because you knit wrong into a planned increase based on a twisted tail (M1, backwards loop, e-loop, yanked increase, twisted YO or the like). In other words, instead of keeping the tail twisted so as to form the basis of a column of stitches, the twist was inadvertently untwisted by knitting into it "open," (from the wrong direction) thus making a YO where you meant to knit into the twist. You'll know this is your problem if you have a hole where you meant to have a twisted-base increase, and if your stitch count is what it should be AFTER the planned increase. The solution is to drop the column to where the YO appears, then twist the tail where the YO was, then latch back up again, basing the new column on the now-twisted tail. 

Compound Error: Dropped Stitch combined with Inadvertent YO

Combo hole: dropped stitch + inadvertent yarn over

How it happened: This is a combo error. There are three ways I know of that this one happens. 

• When you go to grab a stitch, you knock the stitch off by accident, but still perform the knitting action.  This action places an inadvertent YO in the column directly over the dropped stitch.  On subsequent rows or rounds, you knit into the YO or the column based on the YO. 
• Another way this could happen is if you accidentally knit or purl through the halo or fluff of a fuzzy-yarned stitch instead of through the stitch itself. Then, as you keep knitting along, the fluff gives way and the hole appears. 
• A third way is that you dropped a stitch on one round, but on the next round, your brain subconsciously notes there should be a stitch there. This is especially likely in a patterned fabric like seed stitch, basket-weave, double-moss or the like. The I-am-silently-counting part of your brain then tells your hands to create a knitted stitch onto a tail of yarn just above the dropped stitch, while the I-am-enjoying-myself part of your brain keeps watching TV. 

How to avoid: once you've knitted a round or row into the YO above the dropped stitch, this compound error doesn't change the overall stitch count, so you usually don't notice this one until you inspect your fabric. The good news is, it's a fairly evident hole--probably the biggest inadvertent hole of all--so you'll notice it fairly soon.  The other good news is that, unlike any of the errors above, this one's easy to fix perfectly. 

How to diagnose: A big hole with a dropped stitch at its base, while the overall stitch count has not changed? This is your problem! 

How to correct: Because the stitch count has not changed, the correct amount of yarn has been supplied to the fabric.  In effect, this is merely an interrupted column. Therefore,  ladder down to where the YO starts, then latch up from the dropped stitch. If you need to latch back up in pattern (seed stitch, etc.) this link has some tricks for you. 

Alternatively, our old friend the duplicate stitch will fix this without having to drop anything. Duplicate stitch through the base of the dropped stitch into the base of the YO. Use a sharp-pointed needle and pierce through the fibers of the dropped stitch so as to prevent it from becoming loose in the fabric, turning into an enlarged stitch over time due to fabric-stretching and wear. 

Enlarged stitch

Hole in knitting due to enlarged stitch

How it happened: This is a fairly common error. It can result from an inadvertent yarn over made in one row, and then dropped off the needle in the next row. The stitches on either side of the dropped-off YO soak up the extra yarn and become enlarged. Another cause is distraction, sometimes because you put down the work in the middle or a row or round, then pick it up again without adjusting your tension. Finally, another common cause of this error is "bunching," being an inconsistent way of knitting with too-long runs, meaning the fabric is not repositioned often enough. Here is a whole post about bunching.  

How to diagnose: If you have the occasional enlarged stitch, that's generally down to distraction or an inadvertent yarn over, subsequently dropped off. If you have lots of enlarged stitches, consider reading the above linked article on bunching.

How to correct: Enlarged stitches are a tension problem. You can correct it by picking the excess yarn away from the enlarged stitch with the pointy tip of a small knitting needle and distributing this slack evenly within the surrounding fabric. 

--Good knitting, TK

PS: If you're puzzled by mystery holes which don't fit into any of these descriptions, send me a description of what you think you did plus a photo via Ravelry (where I'm TECHknitter)  or via e-mail--TECHknitting at Hotmail dot com, replacing "at" with "@" and "dot" with "." (Facebook isn't a good way to contact me.) 

Knitting crossword (by TECHknitter)

Solvable knitting crossword

What's is this, you ask?  It's the answer-board for a knit-themed crossword!  

For April Fools, 2021, I've constructed you a crossword and knitted the board! (There's a conventional plain-background version, too, below the clues)

TO SOLVE...

• click here for a one-page plain-background printer-friendly grid (this is the grid reproduced below ▼ the clues).  Print selection, work from the clue lists below, then check your answers by clicking here for the on-line completed grid.

        OR

• click here for a four-page printer-ready google-drive PDF featuring plain (no background) grid, clue lists in larger type, + filled-in answer grid.

CLUES

ACROSS 1. Breakfast, lunch, dinner or corn 5.   The first thing you might knit to start an afghan, or a kind of 29-down 10. “___ Fi Fo Fum” 13. Madrid’s other 14. Not a soul, or Chaucer’s lunchtime 15. Sicknesses 16. St. John’s most iconic knitted garment 17. An unusual word for unusual 18. Joseph’s ____ of many colors 19. It’d be a good name for a gleaming harmonica, but it’s actually a knitting machine brand 21. Shallowest of the Great Lakes 22. Rage 23. A knitted shape between pencil and full-circle 24. An attachment for 19-across, or the Ravelry feature which scrolls FO’s 27. Ship’s emergency 30. Country of the Hunger Games, or “_____ et circenses” (bread and circuses, Latin) 31. Handy item for steam blocking 32. -ware or wall, it’s usually brown 34. Regard 35. What the knitter does who puts her work down for the night, or the wheels on the bus 36. Designed for two to play together 40. “Filato” is yarn and “maglieria” is knitting, in this langage of times new Roman 42. “____ Thin Air” (1997 Everest bestseller) 43.  The ball of yarn emoji is a _____-gram 46 A left leaning decrease 47. More slippery 48. Splice yarn ends together 49. Where cowboys often take to the air (inits.) 50. Interest, heart, currency exchange: they all have one 51. They start (or end) just above the heel, and end (or start) at the toe 58. 5-across + 29-down = this “tender” cut of beef 59. A different-looking juvenile 60. Kent State state 61. B&B’s 62. Broadcasting now 63. Laze 64. Two years old and never been shorn 65. Often a form of 51-across, you knit them with a separate toe 66. Drunks

DOWN 1. A woodsy stitch 2.  Queen Victoria probably stored her crochet hook in one 3. Pomegranate seed 4. Amazingly, 4500 pairs were hand-knit for a 2006 NATO conference in Riga 5. If you do this, you might need a CPAP machine 6. What a group of knitters may go on to get to Shetland 7.  Knitting by ____ (autopilot) 8. As to (Latin) 9.  Micturated 10. 2-shilling coin 11.  Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s most famous role 12.  Value highly 15. Lettlopi, plötulopi, bulky lopi…ALL the lopi’s 20. What you do before you frog 23. Gorilla or orangutan 24. “Get ___ of” (destash) 25. “You ___ here”  26. Anonymous Jane 27. A schooner has a suit of them 28. Fragrant iris root, a base for potpourri 29.  See 5-across and 58-across; you’d eat it at a 1-across 32. Anticipation of journey’s end (inits.) 33  QVC competitor 37. Where a Liverpudlian might head after upper sixth 38. Parisian summer 39. Rocky crag or underground network 41. You might Kitchener stitch this closed 43.  What you’d do to make a “backwards” garter stitch fabric 44. “__ _ ___ horse open sleigh” 45. Historians are doing it with their sources 47 “No ___, ands or buts” 49. “My _____, you are all certainly knitworthy!” 51. How much yarn you’d have if 24-down applied to you 52. Granny 53. Krusty ____ (an undersea dive) 54. 57 in times old Roman 55. Say it twice and you’re a train 56. Och aye, knitted hose sets this off 57. Martian days

PLAIN GRID (printer-friendly)

Select above image and print.  If you can't select, go to https://bit.ly/3roNzP6 for a printable version of the grid, or click here for four-page google-drive printable PDF with grid + clues (in larger type) + answers included.

 For more info on the creation of this project + comments re: some of the more obscure clues, go to the project page on Ravelry. That page also hosts alternative links to the board, clues, and answer grid, just in case the links in this post aren't working for you. 

Many thanks to ESA, ESA, EB, MM, CR + Anons, who "test knit:" straighted out numbering, improved clues, offered suggestions, explained the British educational system, and even caught a spelling error in the first version (oops!)

--TK

PS: It became a pillow with a hot pink back!  More info on the pillow-ing process at the Ravelry project page.

Missed yarn over! Help!

Did you forget to make a yarn over (YO) in the row below? No problem, and no need to rip back your knitting. Your forgotten yarn-over can be added in the next row. 

Step 1:Work to the exact spot where the YO is missing. At this point, in the row below the one you're in, there will be a stitch tail (tail = yarn which connects two stitches). This is the tail which, if you hadn't forgotten to lift it over the needle, would have been the YO. 

With your right needle, lift this tail (blue in below illustration) in the direction of the red arrow, and put it on your left (holding) needle.  

Step 1: find the tail (blue) and put it on the holding needle, following the direction of the red arrow.

Result: you've made a mini-YO, just where the original YO should have been. Next, work into the mini-YO in the ordinary way, as shown in the below illustrations.  Make sure which arm ought to be forward by comparing to the other YO's in your work and to the illustrations below. 

Step 2: This newly-made YO is now on the holding (left) needle, with its left arm forward.  Knit into it following the path of the red arrow.

In contrast to the previous illustration, here the newly-made yarn-over lays on the holding (left) needle with its right arm forward.  Knit into this new YO by following the path of the red arrow.

The finishing step takes place once you are a few rows or rounds past the error.  Using the tip of a knitting needle, ease some spare yarn from the neighboring stitches into the mini-YO.  This enlarges the hole to better match other YO's which may appear in your work.  This "I forgot" YO may look smaller to you, but no one else will ever notice (and not even yourself, once a few days have passed). 

--TK

PS: If these illustrations look familiar, they are, being highly related to a previous post about knitted increases. Part of that post illustrates how to go back and fix a missing twist-base increase, often called an M1.  I mentioned (but didn't illustrate) that a missing YO could be added after-the-fact in almost the same way. Well, oops--my lovely readers let me know the lack of an illo was an oversight.  All fixed now, though.

Knitted increases based on a twisted tail: Backwards loop, Yanked Increase, & Twisted Yarn-Over

Knitted increases form the foundation for a new column of knitting to appear. Where two columns lay, side-by-side, there are now three: two originals with a new column between.  

The most simple foundation for the new column is a twist of yarn--a loop twisted shut, and that's (mostly) what this post is about. 

Stockinette fabric with an increase--the base of the increase column (pink) is a twisted loop of yarn. The red highlighting picks out where the actual twist of the loop occurs, and that twisted loop is considered the first stitch in the increase column.

In the above illustration, the twisted loop (red) is the foundational stitch for the new column (pink). 

Depending which way the twist is made, the top arm of the twist can "sweep up" either to left or right. This makes little difference structurally, However, if the twist is made where it can be seen, like on a raglan increase, being consistent and selective about this sort of decorative detail adds a finished appearance--handmade rather than home-made.

Top arm sweeps left

Top arm sweeps right

All the foundational twists in the red circles, regardless which way they sweep, could have been made by three different methods: 

    * Backwards loop
    * Yanked increase
    * Twisted YO (yarn-over)

Although the final path of the yarn in the fabric is identical between all three methods, their tightness is not. One is loose (backwards loop), one tight (yanked increase), and one medium (the twisted YO). Each shines in certain situations & there's more about tightness at the end of this post. 

Each method shares many (but not all!) operational steps, so the illustrations also look similar.

.Backwards loop

Like all three twisted-loop increases, this increase can be called an M1 (for Make-1). Another name for this type of M1 increase is "e-loop." To avoid confusion, I'll call it a backwards loop increase.

 

A backwards loop is worked in a two-round (or -row) operation. First, a loop of yarn is twisted up and laid over the needle. On the following round, when you encounter the loop, you work into it while keeping it twisted shut.  This two-round operation is illustrated in four steps. 

Step 1: in the first round, work to where the increase column should start

Step 2: Pinch up a loop of the running yarn, twist it shut, and place it on the right needle.  As shown, you can mount the twist either left- or right-arm forward, and this determines which way the increase appears to slant in the work.  Mounting right arm in front translates to a left sweep in the fabric; whereas mounting left arm in front translates to a right sweep. As you see, the little loop looks like a lower-case "e" which gives this the alternative name of e-loop. If using the M1 designation for this increase, the sweep distinguishes whether this is called M1L (make-one-left) or M1R (make-one-right).

Steps 3 and 4: In the following round, when you come to the spot where the loop was parked (left illustration) then knit into the loop (right illustration) making sure that the loop remains twisted shut

The above assumes you're working stockinette in the round. If working stockinette flat (back-and-forth) the instructions for steps 1 and 2 remain the same. Step 3 is almost the same, except you'd purl to the spot where the increase was made in the previous row. In step 4, you'd purl into the twisted loop, again taking care that the loop does not untwist, then purl the rest of the row.  

Although this is a two-round (or -row) operation, the actual base of the column--the twist which is considered the first stitch of the increase column -- is created in the first go-round, and that is the round / row in which the increase appears. The second round (or row) is actually the second stitch of the column.

.Yanked Increase

As far as I know, this increase made from the tail of an existing stitch has no common name to distinguish that it is a one-row operation, although it can also be called "make one" (M1). To avoid confusion let's call this variation "yanked increase." 

To make this increase, yank the tail of the stitch below out of the fabric with the right needle, lay that tail over the left needle, and then knit into it so as to twist it shut. Unlike the backwards-loop method, the yanked increase is done all in one row: the tail yanked up, then parked on the left needle, then twisted shut in the knitting process. Which way you place the tail yarn on the left needle, and which way you knit into it determines the sweep of the top arm.

Step 1: knit to where the increase column should start.  With your right needle, fish up the underlying tail (red) and place it on the left needle (blue arrow)

Step 2 (left sweep): Again, which arm you mount forward determines which way the twisted increase "sweeps."  Here, the right arm of the yanked tail has been placed forward on the left needle, making what looks like a mini-yarn-over.  When this mini YO is "knit shut" (twisted) by following the path of the blue arrow, what was a loop mounted right arm forward becomes an increase with the left arm on top, and this now-top arm of the increase appears to sweep left (per close-up). The working needle passes over the running yarn, then catches around the back leg of the loop (knit through the back loop); and then catches around the standing yarn as for an ordinary knit stitch. The running yarn is then pulled through, twisting the loop shut. If using this M1 designation for this increase, this sweep is called M1L (make-one-left).

Step 2: (right sweep): Here, the mini YO is mounted on the holding (left) needle with left arm forward.  When it is "knit shut" (path of blue arrow) what was the left arm becomes the right arm, and this arm now will appear on top, sweeping upwards and to the right (per close-up).  The needle passes over the running yarn, catches around the front arm of the stitch, and then catches around the standing yarn as for a knit stitch. If using this M1 designation for this increase, this sweep is called M1R (make-one-right).

 

Although the yanked increase is created in a one-row operation, it actually spans two rows, with the beginning of the column "exported" down a row. See, even though you're doing the work in this row, you're operating on the tail of a stitch in the row below. Specifically, the stitch knit into that twisted tail is in this row, but the twist made in the tail is located below the new stitch, meaning, in the row below.

Yanked increases and forgotten Yarn-Overs

A bit off-topic, but, you can knit into a yanked increase WITHOUT twisting it shut. This forms a tight sort of a yarn over--a hole in the fabric. You can knit into this hole as into any YO. Therefore, this is an excellent trick when you've forgotten to make a YO in the row below. Which arm lays forward on the left needle dictates whether the YO slants one way or another. ( Edited to add : per reader request, there is now an illustrated post on forgotten yarn-overs.)

To make an "I forgot" YO look as big as a planned YO, then, once you've gotten a few rows or rounds past the spot, pick some slack yarn from the neighboring stitches into the YO. It will look smaller to you, but no one else will ever see the difference.

.Twisted Yarn-over

The twisted YO (also sometimes called M1) combines elements from backwards loop and yanked increase. Like backwards loop, the twisted YO increase is a two-row operation: first row = yarn parked, second row = yarn worked. The difference is that in the first row, instead of parking a twisted loop on the left needle, you park a YO.

The twisted YO increase row 1: form a YO over the right needle.  The YO can have its LEFT arm forward (upper left close-up) or its RIGHT arm forward (upper right close-up). Depending which way the YO was formed, for the rest of the first row, it sits in the fabric with that arm forward (lower close-ups).

When you encounter the YO on the second round, it now looks an awful lot like the yanked-up tail from the yanked increase, and you treat it the same way. Like the yanked-up tail, the YO is put on the needles open, then twisted shut in the knitting process. 

The little round close-up shows what the increase should look like on your right needle, once you've knit shut the YO on the left needle, following the direction of the blue arrow. Note again: because you twist the stitch shut, what was the back arm becomes the top arm, dictating the direction of sweep. If using M1 designation, these two variants are sometimes called M1L (make-one-left) and M1R (make-one-right).

These illustrations of the twisted YO increase assume you're knitting stockinette circularly, so you're operating from the front fabric face on both rounds. If working flat (back and forth) or making the base of a purl column, the second step is done by purling into the base, rather than knitting. The close-up illos are your friends--take a look from the front and make sure of the arm sweep before you move on. 

"After-knitting" and tightness

"After-knitting" (intro'ed in the structure of ribbing) means knitting on a yarn strand it after it is off the needles. Two of the increases in this post--the yanked increase and the twisted YO--are forms of after-knitting because the twisted loop forming their base isn't fully formed at the time of creation. Instead, some, but not all, of the yarn for the increase is parked in the fabric, to be worked up afterwards, in the following row.  

Tightest. In yanked increase, a tail parked in the fabric is worked up in the next row. The tail of a knitted stitch is small, so when you twist it up to make an increase, that increase is tight: all the rest of the yarn in the twist has to be yanked out of the arms of the neighbor stitches. (This is similar to tightening ribbing by slipped-strand after-knitting.)

Despite being tight, in some circumstances, the yanked increase really shines.  

--First, if you forgot to plant the base for your increase column in the row below, this trick plants the base and knits the first stitch all at once (one operation). 

--In flat knitting (back-and-forth), the two-rows-in-one-operation means you can do the entire increase on the stockinette side where it's quite obvious.  No need to scan all those loopy purl-heads on the lookout for your previously parked strand. This is the only increase of the three in this post with this advantage. 

--Because this is a nice, obvious increase which requires no advance set up, it's perfect for TV-knitting. Bonus: you get a mindless row or round to catch up with the on-screen action.

Geek note: the yanked increase is a one-stitch analog of the long-tail cast on: each stitch of a LTCO is formed at the same time as its twisted-loop base.  

Medium tight. In twisted YO, some yarn for the increase is parked--that being the YO--but not enough to create an entire loop. So, when the YO is twisted up in the following row, some of the yarn also comes from the adjoining stitches. A YO is longer than a stitch-tail, so not quite as much of the neighbors' arm-yarn gets yanked up as with the yanked increase, and this makes the twisted YO only medium-tight. 

Loosest. In backwards loop, the entire loop is formed over the barrel of the needle just like forming an ordinary stitch. When worked up in the following row, the yarn of the adjoining stitches isn't pulled into the loop: no "after-knitting" occurs. Putting enough yarn for a whole stitch into a column-bottom (not anchored to anything below) hmmm ... well, that's a lot of unsecured yarn. So this increase is the loosest of all. But! In tight knitting, or with bulky yarn, having some extra slack might be quite useful. 

Geek note: this increase is a one-stitch version of the looped cast on (also called the e-cast on) and shares its "loose yarn" problems. 

Short rows and "short columns:" anchoring to the neighbor stitches

Another way to think about tight vs. loose increases: if you're familiar with short rows, you can think of an increase as giving rise to a "short column."  So just as with short rows, we'd like to avoid holes. Making a twisted increase as the base of a column is like working a short-row without doing any connecting tricks (wrap and turn, lifted increase, etc.) This is because, like an unconnected short row, the column is not anchored.  Tightening the twisted increase by after-knitting (yanked increase, twisted YO) doesn't actually anchor the increase column at the bottom, but the tightening does anchor the base-twist sideways into the adjoining columns more snugly, making less slack available to get up to hole-forming tricks.

Other increases which are anchored at the bottom of the column

If sideways tightening isn't enough, so you do want to actually physically connect the bottom of the increase column to your knitted fabric, here are two options.

First, the nearly invisible increase (also a species of after-knitting).  The only reason the nearly-invisible isn't more used is that it doesn't work well in a line of increases, like on a top-down raglan.  This is because, like the yanked increase, it tightens the fabric significantly, and even more so. However, for non-linear increases, like on a top-down yoked sweater, the nearly-invisible is a great choice. Full directions are at the linked post.

The second anchored-at-the-bottom increase is a KFB (knit front and back). KFB is also a kind of a twisted-stitch increase, but the twist is made in the head of the stitch, instead of its tail.  First, the stitch is knit into in the perfectly ordinary way. Then, that same stitch is knit into again through the back leg, with a twist separating the first- and second-knitting, per above linked post. (Like the nearly invisible, the yanked increase and the twisted YO, KFB is also a species of after-knitting. There's a trend here...) 

--TK