Teach Yourself Visually Knitting

Here are a few basic stitch patterns
that you can try. For some of them,
you knit or purl different rows, and
for others, you knit and purl in the
same row. Many of these patterns are
good for allover designs as well as
for edgings and borders. Learning
new stitch patterns will improve your
ability to recognize which stitch is a
knit and which stitch is a purl.

GARTER STITCH

Garter stitch is the easiest stitch pattern, and what’s great about it is that it always
lies perfectly flat. It looks exactly the same on both the front and the back.

1 Row 1: Knit.

2 Repeat row 1 for garter stitch.

After you knit several rows, you see horizontal ridges appear. Two knit rows

form one ridge.

Simple Stitch Patterns

Start with Simple Stitch Patterns.

STOCKINETTE STITCH AND
REVERSE STOCKINETTE STITCH

Stockinette stitch is the pattern you see most
often used for sweaters. It looks like rows of
flat V’s on the front, called the right side, and
rows of bumps on the back, called the wrong
side. Reverse stockinette stitch is the same as
regular stockinette, only the bumpy side is
considered the right side, and the smooth side
is the wrong side.

1 Row 1 (right side): Knit.

2 Row 2 (wrong side): Purl.

3 Repeat rows 1 and 2 for stockinette stitch.

Stockininette stitch Reverse Stockinette stitch