Easy Ways to Increase Knitting Stitches

How many different ways to increase knitting stitches do you know?

I feel like most knitters start out with the simple knit in the front and back, also known as kfb, because if you know how to make the knit stitch it’s not that hard to wrap your brain around knitting in the back loop of the same stitch. Kfb is quick and easy, but the bar of that stitch knit through the back loop makes it quite visible when worked on stockinette stitch. It’s less visible on garter stitch.

Using a backward loop cast on to increase stitches is another common way for new knitters to increase, especially if you started knitting by learning this cast on. I don’t actually love backward loop as a cast on for a full project because it’s really loose and floppy and can be hard to work into. (I much prefer the knit cast on for beginners because it’s easy to learn, more stable and once yo know how to do it you know how to knit.)

And then there’s yarn overs. If you want your increase to not only be visible but decorative, yarn overs are the way to go. I love a raglan seam shaped with yarn overs, which offer a little ventilation and decoration. Of course yarn overs can be used for strictly decorative purposes coupled with decreases, but they can also be used to add stitches.

How about make one? These increases are made by working into the yarn that sits between two stitches, and they can be made to lean to the left or the right. (I always, ALWAYS forget which is which and have to look it up every time.)

You’d think that would be enough, but there are actually even more options for increasing knitting stitches you might want to know about. This post from Nimble Needles provides an overview of more than a dozen different kinds of increases. Some of them are used in very particular situations like brioche knitting or stacked stitches, but there are plenty of them that you can use in your everyday knitting.

I’m definitely going to try the make two (pictured above) soon; I’d never heard of that one!

See any new to you increase options?

[Photo: Nimble Needle.]

Increases and Decreases for Lace Knitting

Your Quick Reference Guide to Common Increases and Decreases

How Do You Read a Knitting Pattern?

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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