M1L & M1R: knitting stitch structure

M1 is a good, basic increase, but it leaves a visible hole. There’s a slight modification of the technique that mostly hides this hole. The two versions of this are M1L (make one left) and M1R (make one right), which are mirrors of each other. This post is about the paths the yarn takes while forming the stitches, not how to make them. Here are some good illustrated instructions showing how to make m1 L and m1R.

My other stitch structure posts can be found in my stitch structure tag.

M1: knitting stitch structure

Earlier this year I wrote up a series of blog posts about the structures of plain knitting (part one, part two), slip stitches, and brioche (part one, part two). I had some requests to do more structural posts about knitting, and so here is the next one. I’ve added a tag to all my structure posts so far so you can find them all in one place: stitch structure

I had a specific request to do one for kfb (knit in the front and back of a stitch to make two stitches), but I’m not going to start with that. I’m going to go through a whole sequence of basic increases, starting with M1.

M1 (short for “make one”) is actually a tricky abbreviation, as it sometimes gets used for all kinds of increases. (The Mon Tricot books, for instance, use m1 as the abbreviation for any increase throughout, and define it within the instructions for each stitch pattern.) However, there is one increase called m1 which has no other name that I’ve ever seen*. So I’ll start with its most basic form.

*I haven’t seen every knitting guide in the world by a long shot, so I’m guessing someone has probably called it a “lifted increase”, which would be confusing given that there’s a different increase I know with that name.

How to figure out if a chart can be used for mosaic knitting

I shared a needlework image on twitter last month (it was a blooper chart for Sunrise), and a twitter friend asked if it could be used for mosaic knitting. I said no, and then I realized that it might be interesting to provide some guidance for people about how to tell.

Say you find a cross stitch chart, a stranded knitting chart, or a pattern made from square tiles on a bathroom floor (a literal mosaic!). Can it be worked as mosaic knitting? Here’s some ways to figure that out.

Brioche knitting stitch structure, part 2

So far I’ve written a series of blog posts about knitting stitch structure, and the three paths the yarn can take between two stitches if it isn’t pulled through a stitch that is between them.

• Basic knitting stitch structure, part one
• Basic knitting stitch structure, part two
• Knitted slip stitch structure
• Brioche knitting stitch structure, part one

This post is going to be different, and it starts with a story.

Brioche stitch structure

I’ve talked about basic knit stitch construction in two parts:

• Basic knitting stitch part 1
• Basic knitting stitch part 2

I’ve talked about knitted slipped stitch structure, where when a stitch is slipped, the yarn that would otherwise be pulled through the knitted stitch below forms a horizontal bar that can either sit in front of or behind the slipped stitch.

There’s one major remaining straightforward place for that strand of yarn to go when a stitch is slipped, and that’s to sit immediately on top of the slipped stitch. In hand knitting, this structure is called brioche.

Linkety-link, part 23

I didn’t quite manage to finish writing the post about brioche knitting I wanted to post this week, so I’m going to do something I haven’t done in a long time: a link post! (Click on the links tag at the bottom of the post to visit my other link posts. No guarantees that all sites linked in my older posts still exist, alas.)

Here’s five things elseweb I think are particularly interesting:

• The TECHknitting blog is back (this is big news by itself), and here’s a great article about some of why gauge varies from knitter to knitter.
• How to keep knitted hems from flipping up.
• A Kate Atherley article about different kinds of short rows: Short Row Basics, part 2. Part 1 is linked at the beginning of the article, so make sure to read it too if you’re new to short rows.
• A feature comparison of fourteen different interchangeable knitting needle sets.
• Here is a delightful video from an embroiderer, Charlie of the Stitchery channel on YouTube, who came up with a method for embroidering words using binary code and lattice stitching. This is right up my alley, and if you’re interested in my kind of knitting codes, you’ll like this too.

Basic knitting stitch structure, part 2

Last week I wrote about how the basic knit stitch is formed. This week I want to talk a little bit more about basic knit fabric.

Basic knitting stitch structure

I’ve got a knitting technique structure thing I want to talk about, but I think it will be easier if I do it in stages, both to write and to read. So this time I’m going to write about basic knitting stitch structure.

Knitting is about final results, regardless of the method used to get there. So finger knitting, loom knitting, knitting on needles, and machine knitting are all different ways to produce knitting stitches. In this series of posts, I’m going to leave the tools used out of the picture entirely, and just show the stitch structures involved.

Bunny Ears Yarnover

Back when I unvented* the bunny ears back decrease (I’m using the name that another unventor came up with because it seems to be somewhat standard by now), I thought about trying a variant with a yarnover in the middle, but never got around to it.

However, I finally had reason to try it out with the regular bunny ears decrease variant, for my Smile lace. I thought it would be good to write up the result in more detail in a blog post by itself, because I know myself well enough to know that I’m about to embark on playing with it to make other stitch patterns. (There are already ideas lurking in the back of my head.)

Posts in this series of stitch patterns based on Bunny Ears Yarnover

• Scattered Tulips
• Flying Birds
• Train Tracks
• Leafy Blocks
• Leafy columns, version 1 & 2

Long-tail cast on for tight knitters

A while back, I wrote about a method to make the bottom loopy edge of long-tail cast-on looser. I haven’t ended up using it much, though I do think there are circumstances where it might be the best option. But a little while afterward, someone taught me a trick: after casting on each stitch, set your right fingertip down on the needle to ensure that there will be plenty of space between each stitch. The further apart the stitches are cast on, the stretchier the cast on will be.

Here’s why: