Granny's Knit Stitch and Purl Stitch
Beginner Knitting Lessons, Part 7.
A classic way for making knit stitches and purl stitches is not the only one. There's one more method, it is called "granny's" knitting method. This method has several names, but we'll stick to name accepted in Russia, namely the "granny’s". It is used not so often as a classic one (in our next lessons, you'll know the reason why), but sometimes it is necessary for knitting some patterns and elements.
Important! The "granny's" knitting method is exactly the method but not a kind of stitch. We say "granny's" stitch for the sake of brevity. The result of knitting in this way we get both classic and twisted stitches.
For your sample, cast on 30 stitches. Let's make stockinette stitch by the "granny's" method. The first row and all the odd stitches shall be knit stitches.
Granny’s Knit Stitch
This stitch is also called “knit stitch through the back loop” or the “second method knit stitch”.
Cast on stitches and slip on the edge stitch, as usual. Place your working yarn in back. Insert the needle through the back loop of the next stitch.
Catch the working yarn from up to down, draw it through the stitch.
Drop a new stitch off on the right needle.
We’ve made a knit stitch in the "granny's" method. Please, note – now we have a stitch with a right loop on the front, i.e. it is a classic knit stick.
Now turn your knitting. Continue knitting your sample, but make the side edge in a somewhat different way. In classic knitting, we slipped stitches through the front (knit) or back (purl) loops, but now we just have to throw edge stitches from the left needle to the right one - insert the right needle into the middle of the stitch.
The knit stitch through the back loop is shown on the scheme below:
Granny's Purl Stitch
This stitch is also called the "second method purl stitch". Insert the right needle into the stitch from left to the right, place your working yarn in front of the left needle.
Catch the working yarn with your right needle (the right needle shall move counterclockwise).
Pull a new stitch into the stitch on the right needle in a bottom-up motion.
We've made a "granny's" purl stitch.
The second method purl stitch is given on the scheme below:
Look close. For a purl stitch knitted in a "granny's" way, the left loop of the stitch comes to the front, while in the classic method we'll get the right loop of the stitch in the front. In other words, we'll have a twisted stitch.
Work your sample in stockinette stitch using "granny's" method and make sure that it is almost the same as the sample made in classic stitches. Maybe, the cloth comes out a little more dense.
Picture: only classic stitches are used at the bottom (up to the marker), only "granny's" stitches are used at the top.
Have you noticed the transit area between classic and "granny's" stitches to become looking as broken? In the next lesson, we'll learn what is the reason for that to happen and what sad mistakes may occur if mixing up classic and "granny's" stitches and using them improperly.
