If there’s one thing that knitters can appreciate, it’s nifty tips and tricks that make life easier. One of our favorites is borrowed from Joelle’s book More Last Minute Knitted Gifts, a little technique we like to call Join As You Knit! This no-sew technique uses a simple slip stitch trick to connect garter stitch pieces as you work, eliminating the need to seam smaller pieces together later on. We join as you knit in our Prism Blanket, Library Blanket, and Four Points Blanket, to name a few. Know how to slip a stitch and pass a slipped stitch over? Then you our Join As You Knit Tutorial will be a breeze! 

Follow along with our video or step-by-step instructions, both below!

NOTE: The video demonstrates this technique as we’re knitting the Prism Blanket, and the still photos show our Four Points Blanket. There are slight differences between these projects, but the general technique and outcome are the same!

Click To See Video Transcript

Hi, this is Laura from Purl Soho, and I’m going to demonstrate how we like to join as you knit. This technique uses a simple slip stitch trick that allows you to join something that you’re currently working to something that you’ve previously worked. And it eliminates the need for seaming later. We use this in our Library Blanket, our Four Points Blanket, and our Prism Blanket. And this right here is the start of a Prism Blanket. 

I’m using the Prism Blanket pattern for demonstration today. As you can see, I have one square of fabric ready to go, ready to be joined to. In the Prism Blanket pattern this is called square A. As you can see, it’s knit from corner to corner, and the square that I’m going to be adjoining to this square is also knit corner to corner, and I’ve already cast on for it.

Alright, let’s get going. When you are joining as you knit, all of the action happens at the end of your row. So the first thing I’m going to do is knit up to this last stitch.

Next, I’m going to slip one purlwise off my left needle onto my right needle. You’re going to be working into the outermost bump of each garter ridge. For the Prism Blanket, I want to point out that the first place you pick up is the very last stitch. Bump in the contrast color. So this red color here.

So take the tip of your right needle, find that last bump of your garter ridge, insert your needle into it, wrap your working yarn around your needle, pull it through, picked up and knit one stitch now. I’m going to find that left needle I abandoned a second ago. Identify the slipped stitch, so that’s your second stitch in.

Use the tip of your left needle to pick it up and pass it over your new stitch and off the needle. There we go. I’m going to work a wrong side row and I’ll be back to demonstrate that on the next right side row. Okay, I’m back. I’ve worked up to the last stitch of my next right side row. Once again, the three steps.

First, slip the last stitch purlwise off the left needle onto the right needle. Next, identify your next garter ridge. Find the outermost bump. Insert your right needle right into it. Knit into that newly picked up stitch. Oh, excuse me. And by that I mean wrap your yarn around your needle as if you would to knit. There we go. Then use the tip of your left needle for the last step to pick up that slip stitch and pass it over that new stitch. We’re doing it. We’re joining as we knit.

JOIN AS YOU KNIT: STEP-BY-STEP

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Knit to last stitch, then slip last stitch to right needle, either knitwise or purlwise, as indicated in your pattern…

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… pick up and knit 1 stitch from the edge you are connecting (NOTE: In this example from the Four Points Blanket, you’re picking up from the adjacent cast-on edge of Triangle 1) …

Join As You Knit | Purl Soho

…and pass the slipped stitch over. Continue picking up and knitting, as usual, according to the pattern. And that’s Joining As You Knit!

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