Easy Ways to Increase Stitches in Knitting

While many knitters will make a scarf or a washcloth as their first knitting project, once you have the basics down you might want to add some shaping. There are lots of different ways to increase (and decrease!) stitches in knitting.

Usually a pattern will tell you which increase you should use, and the designer will have chosen that one for an aesthetic reason. For example: yarn overs make holes. Make 1 looks different from knit in the front and the back, which looks different from just casting on an additional stitch.

So, if the pattern you’re knitting calls for a particular increase, be sure to use that one.

If the pattern doesn’t give you a specific increase to use, you can use the one that you prefer. Knit in the front and back is usually a good choice, but it does leave a little bump so it’s not as invisible as a make 1 stitch.

I wrote an overview of all the most basic increase methods and why you (or a designer, which could also be you) might choose one over another, which you can read over at Our Daily Craft.

If you’re just learning how to knit and how to do these increases, working through each of them in a swatch like I did for the photos in that post can be helpful because you can get practice and see how the different increase compare visually to each other.

I admit it in that post but if a designer doesn’t specify what increase to use or if I’m just making something for myself and I don’t want to put too much thought into it, I’ll use a backward loop cast on stitch in place of a regular increase. They’re relatively invisible, totally easy to do, and you can do it anywhere it a row or round with no problems.

Do you have a favorite increase method? I’d love to hear about it!

Not too long ago I did a test knit for another designer that was for a cabled cardigan. It’s really cozy and nice but it just about broke me in a ton of different ways. I couldn’t get gauge, which I suppose is my own problem, but mainly I was somehow both bored and forced to pay attention at the same time.

Because it used the same cable all over, I always had to know what row I was on, but nine out of ten of those rows, nothing in particular was going on. So I couldn’t stop paying attention, but what I needed to attend to was boring.

It may have ruined me for knitting cabled sweaters, but maybe I just need something that’s more engaging. Like this Modern Aran Cardigan pattern from Lion Brand Yarn.

This is a reworking of an old pattern from their archives, and you can tell that form the classic look of the cables and the oversized feel (nothing cropped about this one!). It has allover cables, but like a classic Aran sweater it’s not the same cable, so you’ll have to pay attention to what row you’re on and what cable turns happen for which cables on that row.

Because of this, it’s considered an intermediate knitting pattern, but if you’re comfortable working from multiple charts at once it shouldn’t be a problem for you. There are three different charts and seven different cable moves.

Also because the pattern is so big and boxy there are only two sizes available, with a finished chest measurement of either 49 or 63 inches (that’s 124.5 or 160 cm). It’s up to you to decide how much ease you would like and whether that will work for your body.

The pattern uses worsted weight yarn (and calls for another classic, Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool). It calls for six buttons and includes pockets to make it extra cozy.

This one looks like a great winter project to make and to wear if you’re up for a bit of a challenge. You can grab the free pattern or buy a kit with the yarn needed direct from Lion Brand Yarn.

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]

Have you read?