So you wanna knit? Part six: the purl stitch

If you feel good about the knit stitch, you are already half-way to becoming a Knitter (with a capital K).  Pretty good!!  The other half of the Knitting equation is *purling*...which essentially is just inside-out knitting.  The purl stitch can feel a little awkward, especially if you are used to knitting knitting knitting.  But some people LOVE to purl!  Maybe you'll be one of them!

PURLING 101

1.  The first thing to know about purling is that the working yarn must be kept IN FRONT of your needles. This is in contrast to knitting, where the working yarn was always behind.  So before you even start, make sure your yarn is in front.  Now, with your naked needle in your right hand and the stitch-filled needle in your left, insert the tip of the naked needle (x-rated knitting?) into the front of the first stitch, from right to left:

2.  Take the working yarn and wrap it AROUND the tip of the right needle from right to left, or counter clockwise.  Another way to describe this is going over then under the right needle with the yarn:

Hold the working yarn taught, along the length of the right needle:

3.  Now, move the right needle from the front of the left needle to the back, pulling the working yarn along with it.  The right needle will be moving THROUGH the loop on the left hand needle as you do this:

4.  You are almost done!  Pull the right needle to the right, so that the original loop that you went through in step 1 slips off of the left needle.  What you'll have is a new stitch on your right needle. This is a purl stitch!

5. Repeat steps 1-4 until you have purled all stitches off of the left needle.  Voila!!

When you purl every row, your work looks the same as knitting every row - *garter stitch*.  If you alternate knitting an purling, magic happens!  This is called *stockinette stitch* - try it!  I'll post a picture of stockinette stitch soon.  First see if you can discover it on your own!

Questions? Comments?? I've been told that my "comment" button doesn't appear in my posts.  I'm trying to get blogger to help me fix this, but so far - no good.  Please email me!  cygknits@gmail.com - can't wait to hear about your progress!