Jacob Haller

[Jake's other knitting patterns and links]

Kitchener Stitch with Ribs

Occasionally when you're knitting you'll run into a situation where you have to graft two ends of, say, a cabled or ribbed band together to make a loop. (the quick version)

Unfortunately most of the tutorials on the web only discuss the situation where you're grafting stockinette to stockinette, so if you have to graft two ribbed edges together and you need the ridges to match up you may be in a bit of a fix.

Fortunately, making the leap from grafting stockinette to grafting ribs isn't that difficult. (The hard part is wrapping your head around kitchener stitch at all.) Here's how to do it.

1. Find a kitchener stitch tutorial, e.g. http://www.stitchdiva.com/custom.aspx?id=50, and become comfortable with grafting stockinette to stockinette.
2. Note that (the first stitch aside) you are passing your needles through two stitches on the front needle and two stitches on the back needle with each 'pass'.
3. Look at your needles and see if the next two stitches you're grafting are:
   • both knit:

     On the front knitting needle, pass your tapestry needle through the first stitch as if to knit and drop the stitch off the knitting needle. Then pass the tapestry needle through the second stitch as if to purl, this time leaving the stitch on the front knitting needle.

     On the back knitting needle, pass your tapestry needle through the first stitch as if to purl and drop the stitch off the knitting needle. Then pass the tapestry needle through the second stitch as if to knit, this time leaving the stitch on the front knitting needle.

     (This is the only situation you run into if you're grafting stockinette, and if you look back at the tutorial this is exactly what it says to do.)

   • both purl:

     On the front knitting needle, pass your tapestry needle through the first stitch as if to purl and drop the stitch off the knitting needle. Then pass the tapestry needle through the second stitch as if to knit, this time leaving the stitch on the front knitting needle.

     On the back knitting needle, pass your tapestry needle through the first stitch as if to knit and drop the stitch off the knitting needle. Then pass the tapestry needle through the second stitch as if to purl, this time leaving the stitch on the front knitting needle.

     (This exactly reverses what you do in the 'both knit' situation, which if you think about it sort of makes sense.)

   • a knit stitch followed by a purl stitch:

     On the front knitting needle, pass your tapestry needle through the first stitch as if to purl and drop the stitch off the knitting needle. Then pass the tapestry needle through the second stitch as if to purl, this time leaving the stitch on the front knitting needle.

     On the back knitting needle, pass your tapestry needle through the first stitch as if to knit and drop the stitch off the knitting needle. Then pass the tapestry needle through the second stitch as if to knit, this time leaving the stitch on the front knitting needle.

   • a purl stitch followed by a knit stitch:

     On the front knitting needle, pass your tapestry needle through the first stitch as if to knit and drop the stitch off the knitting needle. Then pass the tapestry needle through the second stitch as if to knit, this time leaving the stitch on the front knitting needle.

     On the back knitting needle, pass your tapestry needle through the first stitch as if to purl and drop the stitch off the knitting needle. Then pass the tapestry needle through the second stitch as if to purl, this time leaving the stitch on the front knitting needle.

4. Repeat the last step until you're at the last stitch on both needles and then finish as in the kitchener stitch tutorial linked to above.

That should do it. If you have questions, feel free to comment with them.

Here's a summarized version of step 3 that might be more useful for a quick lookup:

• Stitches are both knit:

  Front: knitwise, then purlwise
  Back: purlwise, then knitwise

• Stitches are both purl:

  Front: purlwise, then knitwise
  Back: knitwise, then purlwise

• A knit stitch followed by a purl stitch:

  Both knitwise
  Both purlwise

• A purl stitch followed by a knit stitch:

  Both purlwise
  Both knitwise