Braided Ribbing Stitch is a beautiful cable stitch that you work right on the needles, without the fussiness of a cable stitch holder. This stitch creates hearty ribs, alternating delicately entwined cables with a couple of reverse stockinette stitches, surprisingly intricate looking but not at all complicated! We show you all the techniques involved here in our braided ribbing tutorial. For specific instructions on how to bind off the Braided Ribbing Stitch, just skip ahead to 2:53 minutes.

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I am going to show you how to work Braided Ribbing Stitch. As you can see here, I have a small swatch and I’m going to begin with a right-side row. The first thing I’m going to do is purl two stitches: It’s one and that’s two. Now I’m going to jump right into the repeat. The first part of the repeat is to knit one. There we go. Now what you want to do is use your right needle and insert it from back to front between the first and second stitch on your left-hand needle. Swivel your right needle around in order to knit that second stitch like so. And now go ahead and knit that first stitch. At this point, you can let both of those fall off your left needle. The last part of the repeat is to purl two. 

Let’s run through that one more time. So first knit one, then enter your right needle from back to front between the first and second stitch on your left hand needle. So move your needle around and order to knit that second stitch. Then knit the first stitch and let the first and second stitch fall from your left needle. Finish up with purl two. That’s the repeat for the right-side row. 

Now I’m going to show you how to work the wrong-side row of braided ribbing stitch. The first thing I’m going to do is knit two stitches: That’s one, and two. And now I’m going to jump into the repeat. First thing you do is purl one. Here we go. Now you’re going to purl the second stitch skipping over this first stitch. Just like that. Now go ahead and purl that first stitch. At this point, you can let both of those fall off the left needle. Finish up by knitting two. 

Let’s run through that one more time. First purl one, then purl the second stitch on your left needle. Then purl the first stitch, and then let those fall off your left needle. Finish up by knitting too. And that’s it. That’s the repeat for braided ribbing stitch for the wrong-side row. 

Now I’m going to show you how to bind off. The bind off for this stitch has worked across the wrong side row in pattern. I’ll show you how. First knit two, bind one off. Next purl one, bind one off. Now purl the second stitch on your left needle and bind one off. Purl the first stitch. Let both of those gently fall off the left needle and bind one off. And then finish up the repeat by knitting one and binding one off. Knitting one more and binding one off. So that’s the repeat for the bind off. It’s really similar to the repeat of the wrong-side row. 

Let me show you one more time. Purl one, bind off; purl the second stitch, bind off. Purl the first stitch, let those two fall off of the left-hand needle, bind off. Knit one, bind of, and knit one, bind off. So now we’ve done two repeats of the bind off. Just continue that to the end of the row and you will have bound off Braided Ribbing Stitch.

We used this stitch pattern for our Braided Rib Wrap. Get the free pattern to try it out yourself!

Braided Ribbing | Purl Soho

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