This increase is a variation of pulled increases, but with more texture and a more decorative look. It is a great way to add stitches to shawls, structured scarves, top-down hats and sweaters with yoke.
Details like diagonal increases give our projects a feel of high-end designer items without too much effort on our part.
In just three simple steps, you will easily decorate your project with these lovely increases, even if you are new to knitting.
WATCH EVERY STEP IN THIS VIDEO TUTORIAL
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SETUP
With the right side of the fabric facing you, work until you get to a spot that is two stitches before the line of increases.
In the swatch featured in the photos, the right side of the fabric is a knit side of stockinette stitch, but this increase has such a strong character that it will look great on any stitch pattern.
STEP 1
With the yarn at the back of the work, insert the tip of the right needle from front to back into a space between the second and the third stitches on the left needle.
Wrap the tip of the right needle with the yarn as we do when we knit a stitch.
Pull this wrap through forming a long pulled stitch.
Don’t make this stitch excessively long. It should be big enough to keep the fabric underneath it relaxed, but it shouldn’t be dangling on top of the project.
STEP 2
Make a reverse yarn over by wrapping the tip of the right needle with the yarn from back to front. Then move the yarn to the back of the work to get ready for the next step.
STEP 3
Knit the first two stitches from the tip of the left needle together.
Then continue to work in the main pattern of you project to the end of the row or round.
These steps are the same for adding diagonal increases to projects worked back and forth, and the ones worked in the round.
The only difference is how we work three stitches that form this increase in the next row or round. If you work flat, purl the stitches of the increase in the next row. If you add these increases to a seamless project, knit the three stitches that form this increase in the next round.
If you make these increases in every other row or round and stack them on top of each other, you will form a beautiful textured line of elongated stitches shooting off it like branches.
Before you ask – I am still working on developing a method that forms a left-leaning increase that will be a mirror version of the increase described in this tutorial.
HERE’S A VIDEO TUTORIAL THAT SHOWS EVERY STEP
Because this increase is so textured, developing a matching method is not easy. It took me a while to figure it out, but I did. Yay!
Here’s a tutorial that describes the left-leaning version of this increase.
Happy knitting, my friends!
This and 31 other in-depth tutorials are part of Knitting Collection #8.
