This is a beautiful stitch pattern with an all-over texture that alludes to a classic herringbone tweed. It involves working every other stitch twice, perhaps a complicated sounding maneuver, but not so hard once you get the hang of it! Here’s our Mini Herringbone Stitch tutorial, where we show you how we do it.

Click To See Video Transcript

I am going to show you how to work a few key steps of the Mini Herringbone Stitch. Here I am in the midst of a wrong-side row and I’m going to show you the repeat of the wrong-side row of Mini Herringbone Stitch. You want to purl two together, leaving these two stitches on your left needle. Then take the tip of your right needle and insert it back into that first stitch to purl it. Once you’ve pulled that first stitch, you can then let both of those stitches fall off the left needle. Let me show you again: Purl two together, leaving these two stitches on the left needle purl into that first stitch, and let them both fall off. One more time: Purl two together, purl into the first one and let them fall off. That’s the repeat for the wrong-side row. 

Here I am in the middle of a right-side row and I’m going to show you the repeat. The first thing you do is slip one stitch, purlwise, next knit one stitch. Then use the tip of your left needle to pick up that slipped stitch, and as you’re pulling it off the needle, knit it. Let me show you again: Slip one purlwise, knit one, pick up the slipped stitch with your left needle, and as you bind it off, kind of pulling it off and over, knit it. Show you one more time: Slip one, knit one, pick up the slip stitch and knit it as you pull it up and over and off that right needle. That’s the repeat for the right side row.

And because we love a video tutorial, we’ve also created this useful tip for the final step in this project: The Bind Off for Mini Herringbone Stitch!

Click To See Video Transcript

I am going to show you how to bind off for the Mini Herringbone Scarf project. You bind off on the right side and you bind off in pattern. So you’re going to work across the stitches similar to how you would if you were just working a right-side row. With the yarn and back, first thing you do is slip one purlwise. You knit one, and then you bind that first stitch off and purl one bind off. Now we’re going to begin binding off for the mini herringbone portion. So slip one, bind off knit one, and usually what we would do is pick this stitch up and knit it as we bound off. But for the bind off row, you just slip it over. So then let’s do that again. We’re going to slip one, bind off. Knit one, bind off. Slip one, bind off. Knit one, bind off. Slip one, bind off. Knit one, bind off. Slip one, bind off. Knit one, bind off. Keep doing this until you have four stitches left on your left needle. 

Have four stitches left on our needle and then knit one. bind off. We have our three salvage stitches left. There’s a purl one, bind off. Knit one, bind off. Knit one, bind off. Pull your loop. Cut it. Here we are. Now you have a bound-off edge for the Mini Herringbone Scarf in pattern.

We used it for our free Mini Herringbone Scarf pattern in Understory, so you can try it out yourself! You’ll love how the stitch pattern lays flat, making it perfect for a scarf. You can also work this stitch in the round! Learn how in our free Big Herringbone Cowl pattern.

Mini Herringbone | Purl Soho

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