Knitting

Patterns, projects and techniques

Have You Tried This? Ribbing with No Purling

by

No Purl ribbed scarf from Purl Soho.There are a lot of knitters out there who dislike purling. It’s why knitting Stockinette Stitch in the round is so popular. Elizabeth Zimmermann basically built her career on her dislike of purling, and she’s not the only one who dislikes the interruption in the fluid rhythm of a project that’s caused by having to purl.

So I was intrigued when I saw a pattern on social media for a ribbed scarf made without purling.

The pattern is from Purl Soho, and the trick is a stitch pattern called Cartridge Belt Rib. It’s a 4 plus 3 stitch repeat worked by slipping the stitches that might otherwise be purled in a ribbing pattern. The only hitch is that they are slipped with the yarn in front, so there’s still some yarn manipulation that has to happen to pull off this fun rib-like texture, but once you get it down it probably is a little faster than a regular knit-purl rib.

The result is lovely in any case and would be fun to try (I’m thinking about doing this for my washcloth pattern this month).

What do you think? Have you ever tried this stitch pattern? Would you give it a go-to avoid purling? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

[Photo via Purl Soho.]

Looking for Ribbed scarf patterns? Check these out on Etsy.

Next Pattern:

Comments

  1. I’m working this up right now, using Three Irish Girls Springdale Worsted in Yucatan. I love this rib, it’s easy & fun & creates a lovely fabric, kind of half-way between ribbing & Brioche. (Tried to include a pic, but failed…)

Have you read?

Make Your Knitting Machine Scarves Better

I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve shared any patterns for our circular knitting machine users. I know these devices aren’t for everyone but even though I much prefer knitting by hand, it is kind of fun to crank things out on these machines.

One of the most common early projects for a circular knitting machine is a scarf. Which makes sense, because it’s just one long tube and you can make it as long as you like.

One problem that comes from knitting scarves on the circular knitting machine, though, is that it can be hard to know how to finish the ends of the tube so that it looks like a finished scarf and not a tube of knitting.

If you’re not a knitter or crocheter, the most basic way to finish a circular knitting machine scarf is just by cinching up the ends and maybe adding a pompom to each end to cover up any hole that might still be visible at the end.

But if you have a little knitting or crochet skill or are willing to learn, there are a lot of different options for closing up the ends of a scarf. And this would also be true if you hand knit a tube scarf!

I recently wrote a post over at Our Daily Craft that includes five different ways to close up the ends of a tube scarf:

  • the simple cinching method mentioned above
  • sewing the stitches together
  • three needle bind off
  • grafting
  • crochet bind off

Grafting is my favorite because I feel like it gives the cleanest, closest to a seamless look. If you’re a knitter you may already know how to do it but even if you don’t it’s not that hard to learn.

Do you knit tube scarves by hand or machine? I’d love to know how you like to finish them!