It’s not often that we make short row shaping in garter stitch. But when we do need it, there is always a question – How do we work short rows without disrupting the pattern too much?
When we actually start to work short rows in garter stitch, we get even more questions – Shall we work stitches as purls or as knits? Do we bring the yarn to the front or to the back of the work? And what do we do with the first and last stitches of each short row when the shaping is finished?
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to resolve all these issues when we work short rows using the shadow wraps technique.
To make things easier, I’ll break down the process of making this kind of shaping into clear step-by-step instructions. Believe it or not, this seemingly complicated task boils down to five very simple steps.
QUICK NOTE
Because in most cases, we form the garter stitch texture by knitting stitches in every row, and not by purling them (which is also a great way to work in garter stitch pattern, just not as common), in this tutorial, I assume that this is the way you use to create garter stitch in your project.
STEP 1
Knit all stitches to a spot where the pattern tells you to make a wrap and turn your work or to use any other short-row technique.
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If your pattern suggests using German short rows technique, knit to the turning point and then knit one more stitch.
STEP 2
Bring the yarn to the front of the work and slip one stitch from the left needle to the right needle. Do it purlwise, without twisting the stitch.
STEP 3
Insert the tip of the left needle from the bottom up under the strand that is at the bottom of the slipped stitch.
STEP 4
Purl the strand that we’ve just picked up with the left needle.
To do that, first, insert the tip of the right needle from right to left into the picked-up strand so that the tip of the right needle is at the front of the left needle.
Wrap the tip of the right needle with the yarn (it is now conveniently sitting at the front of the work), pull the wrap through and slip the picked-up strand off the left needle.
In this step, we added a shadow stitch to the stitch that we slipped in step 2, turning this stitch into a “double stitch”.
STEP 5
Bring the yarn to the back of the work and slip the double stitch purlwise from the right needle to the left needle.
Then turn the work and bring the yarn to the back to get ready to knit.
Repeat these five steps every time you need to work a short row in the classic garter stitch pattern.
In the next row or round, treat two strands of each double stitch as one stitch – knit them together if you are working back and forth, and purl them together if you are working in the round.
This is a very clean way to make short rows – no holes, no added bulk and no twisted stitches. The garter ridges added by the shadow wrap short row shaping flow seamlessly into the main garter stitch pattern forming beautiful waves that we’d rather highlight than hide.
The fabric shaped using this method looks exactly the same on both sides of the work. This feature makes shadow wrap short row technique a perfect choice for shaping shawls, scarves, blankets and other reversible projects.
SAVE IT FOR LATER
This and 44 other in-depth tutorials are part of Knitting Collection #5.
