Cording Stitch
Cording Stitch is a technique that creates a tidy fold in the fabric, handy for decorative pleats and tucks, tidy edging at cuffs, collars, and hems, or even as a drawstring channel. You might recognize this stitch from the edges of our Lightweight Raglan Pullover and the pleats of our Tiny Tucks Top! Here’s our Cording Stitch tutorial, where we show you how it’s done.
Here’s how to work a basic Cording Stitch…
Use the tip of the right needle to pick up the purl bump from the wrong side of the fabric, four rows directly below the next stitch. (Your pattern may indicate a different number of rows, but here, we’re picking up four rows below.)
NOTE: If you anticipate having trouble identifying the stitches you need to pick up, scroll down for tips on adding a “lifeline.” This is a step you do before you work the Cording Stitch that helps indicate which round you’re picking up!
Next, place the picked-up purl bump onto the left needle, then knit the next stitch on the left needle and the picked-up stitch together.
Repeat these steps to end of row, round, or as directed by your pattern. As you continue, you’ll see that you’re creating a round fold in the fabric, like a cord!
ADDING A LIFELINE
A “lifeline” is a length of yarn you weave into your knitting to help you later pick up stitches consistently across the same row or round. You have to plan ahead a little to add one. Here’s how!
You add the lifeline just before knitting the row or round into which you’ll pick up for the Cording Stitch. For example, we worked the Cording Stitch four rows below, so here, we place the lifeline just before knitting those four rows. At that point…
Thread a tapestry needle with a strand of yarn about 1.5 times the length of your piece, and orient the piece with the wrong side facing you.
Beginning at the first stitch of the last row worked, insert the tip of the tapestry needle from top to bottom through the purl bump and pull through, leaving a long tail.
Repeat this step on all the stitches to the end of the row.
That’s it! Work the required number of rows or rounds until you’re ready to work the Cording Stitch, then when you go to pick up the first purl bump, it’ll be right there on the lifeline waiting for you, along with all the other purl bumps in that row. Once you’ve worked the Cording Stitch, just unpick the lifeline and save it for next time!
We hope you find plenty of uses for this clever technique, and if you’re making our Lightweight Raglan Pullover or Tiny Tucks Top, that you find the Cording Stitch adds a little something extra!
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Cording stitch …pick up this bump with the right needle entering from the top of the work downward or pick it up from the underside of the bump, pointing the right needle towards the sky. I’ve done my sleeves already but not sure I’ve done them correctly
Hi Lisa,
Thanks so much for your question! You would pick up the purl bump with the needle pointing downwards, going in from the top of the bump. Hope this helps!
Have a great day!
All the best,
Cat
For me, it is difficult and time consuming to tell which is the 4th row down. Any tricks?
Hi Molly,
Thanks for reaching out. I think it may be helpful to keep in mind that the next stitch you’ll need to pick up for the cording stitch is always directly to the left of the previous one you picked up! So visualizing the wrong side of your fabric, the previous stitch you picked up will now appear as a larger loop that stretches up to your right needle. And if you follow the left leg of this loop down to the bottom, that will point you directly to the next stitch you’ll need to pick up–it’s the “frowny face” loop just to the left. I hope this helps and doesn’t make things even more confusing!
All the best,
Lili
Downwards and upwards can be interpreted differently. Does the right needle tip go under the purl bump starting furthest from the live stitches? When I did it that way, the slant of the picked up stitch matched the slant of the live stitches. Thank you for the clarification. Also, adding a note that you’re picking up the fifth purl bump on the back could reduce confusion about the “four rounds under the working round.” I see that first purl bump as belonging to the round under the working round, which may or may not be correct, but it’s probably something others would think. Thanks!
Hi Stacie,
Thanks for reaching out. The main thing that matters for this stitch is that the purl bump goes on your left needle with the tip starting closer to the live stitches! You can pick it up with your right needle any way that’s comfortable (I find that it’s easiest for me to pick it up with my right needle starting further away from the live stitches, and then transfer it to my left needle in the correct orientation).
And thanks for your suggestion! I think that for now, the pictures offer some very good clarification about which bump to pick up, but we’ll absolutely your idea in mind for the future.
All the best,
Lili
With the silk it’s so hard to see the purl bumps. Any suggestions for me. I’m an experienced knitter, but have a little trouble with my eyes. Will the pattern still work if I leave this step off?
Hi Suzanne,
Thanks for writing in. I’m sorry to hear that you’re having trouble seeing the purl bumps! You can absolutely leave out this step, but I’d recommend doing a different sort of edge treatment, so that the stockinette stitch doesn’t roll up too much. In particular, you could do a row of purl stitches, like in our Timeless Hat + Handwarmers. This will come out looking fairly similar to the cording stitch, but it will save you all the frustration of looking for the purl bumps! I hope this helps.
All the best,
Lili
Thank you so much. I think I will try the purl stitches.
Hi Lili,
I think this is a good option for me as I am having difficulty seeing the purl bumps. I am a newer knitter and this is my first sweater. Looking at the timeless hat pattern it indicates that the purl row comes after three rows of stockinette. Should I stick with that or do the purl row as my 9th row for the sleeve of the sweater. Also, with the neckband of the sweater, should I do the purl row 2 rows before I bind-off?
Thanks!
Hi Gwen,
Interestingly, doing your purl row as the 4th row of the sleeve (and not as the 9th row) will result in it being in the same position as the cording stitch! This is because working the cording stitch essentially brings the length of the sleeve back down to just 4 rows by folding over the bit of fabric. So I would recommend working the purl row after 3 rows of stockinette on the sleeves and then 2 rows before bind-off around the neckline.
All the best,
Lili
Thanks, Lili!
I found it helpful to count the knit stitches (on the right side) and then to poke an extra double-pointed needle into the fourth knit down. Turning the knitting over, I then picked up the purl bump just above the poked-through needle. I hope this is clear.
Looking closely at the pictures of the sweater, I cannot see that there is a cording stitch! Was one done ? I am considering skipping the cording stitch, will it impact the pattern in some way that I’m missing?
Thanks
Hi Linda,
Thanks for reaching out. Are you wondering about the Lightweight Raglan Pullover? If so, the cording stitch is used around the cuffs of the sleeves, the bottom edge of the body, and also around the neckline. The main purpose of the cording stitch here (other than to look interesting and fun!) is to keep the stockinette fabric from rolling up too much. If you skip the cording stitch, the edges of your sweater will curl in on themselves. I hope this helps!
All the best,
Lili
Thanks Lili. Taking your suggestions!
Hi, First time sweater knitter. With Linen Quill I find it too difficult to do the cording stitch. Can I just do a purl row and on the sleeves would i do the purl row after the 4th knitting row and then carry on with the increases . And can I do the same on the bottom and neckline. Will it look OK? Thank you.!
Hi Marion!
Thank you for your question. You can certainly work a purl row in place of the cording stitch if you would prefer! The cording stitch detail at the ends of the sleeves and along the hem helps to smooth out the stockinette stitch fabric so it does not roll. If you replace this with a purl row, I would work a couple series of alternating knit and purl rows to help prevent the stockinette stitch from curling at the bottom ends of the sweater! For the neckline, you can work as many or as few purl rows as you would like.
I hope this helps, and happy knitting!
All the best,
Margaret
Sorry -one more question. I just saw the Timeless Hat and Handwarmers pattern. Love the edging. Can you tell me how to do that and is it OK for the raglan sleeve, hem and neck finishing?
Thanks again!
Hi Marion!
Thanks for asking! The edge design for the Timeless Hat and Handwarmers pattern involves knitting three rounds, purling one round, and then continuing on in even knitting for the rest of the section. I would suggest making a quick swatch of this edge design and blocking it to see if you like the results for your sweater!
All the best,
Margaret
Thank you again- I will do that. Really appreciate your speedy reply!
One more question please – at what point can I switch to a16inch circular needle. I keep losing stitches on my double pointed needles.
thanks again!
Hi Marion,
You can switch to a 16 inch circular needle as soon as you have enough stitches to span the length of the cord on your circular needles! This point will be different for each size. In the meantime, I recommend taking a look at Addi’s Flexi Flips or a 10″ circular needle to help maintain your stitches!
All the best,
Margaret
Hi Margaret,
Thanks for your help!
I’m sorry if this has been asked, but I’m a visual learner, I wanted to ask if there is a video tutorial of the cording stitch? I live and learn from purl soho videos yet I can’t find this one! I found a knit a long where it says there’s a link, but can’t find a link?
Thank you so much, dell
Hi Dell,
Thanks for reaching out. We do not have a video tutorial for the cording stitch, but we did demonstrate it over Zoom at our Zoom + Knit meetings for the Lightweight Raglan Pullover knit along. You can find the playlist of those recordings on our YouTube channel!
All the best,
Lili
I would like to do the cording stitch on a hat that I am knitting in the round. Is there a way? Would I do the pickup round by purling into the back of the knitting and then stitching closed the little hole that is left? Or is there a way to do it on the knit side? Thanks for any help.
Hi Bernadette,
Thank you for writing in! We recommend you pick up the purl bump from a consistent # of rows down and just knit as usual. It will feel like a k2tog because you are knitting into two loops, thus making a cord from permanently bunching up the fabric. You can see a visual of how this is done on one of our Knit + Zoom videos where we covered the technique. I recommend skipping to the 15.53 timestamp and watching the demo from there! I hope this helps!
Happy knitting,
Gavriella