Picking up stitches is the technique for creating live stitches off a knit edge. Every kind of edge presents its own challenges, and so to clear up any confusion, we’ve made four Picking Up Stitches videos tutorials to show you how to pick up stitches along a horizontal edge, along a vertical stockinette edge, along a vertical garter stitch edge, and also purlwise.

Picking up stitches is as easy as knitting and purling. Once you get acquainted with the edge of your fabric, just pick up your needles and yarn and you’re ready to go!

Along a Horizontal Edge

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I am going to show you how to pick up stitches along a horizontal edge. I have a stockinette stitch swatch here, one needle, and contrast color yarn. This technique I’m going to show you works along both the cast on and bind off edge. 

I’m going to show you along the cast on edge. My goal is to pick up into every stitch along this edge. The first thing I want to do is identify that top row of stitches just under this edge here. So what you’ll do is take the tip of your needle, identify that first stitch, that little V there, insert the tip straight through the fabric. Now I’m going to take my working yarn and wrap it around the needle, as if to knit. Use the tip of the needle to pull that yarn through the fabric to the front. There we go. You may want to use these fingers to tack down the tail just so you don’t lose your stitch. 

So let’s do that again. Insert the needle through the fabric wrap, yarn around as if to knit and pull that yarn back through. Insert, wrap, pull it back through. Try to keep an even tension. I’m working in the same needle size and type of yarn as my fabric here. So the goal is for it to look as similar to that as possible. 

Yeah, just show you a couple more. Take the tip of the needle through that V closest to the edge. Go straight through the fabric. Wrap the yarn around. Pull that yarn through. Once more…Pull it back through. 

So you’ll see. One thing you want to be careful not to do is put your needle halfway through. You really want to take the tip of the needle, stick it into that V, and you’ll see these two strands of gray over your needle right back through. And it’s as easy as that. That’s how you pick up stitches along a horizontal edge.

This Picking Up Stitches tutorial shows you how to pick up stitches knitwise along a cast-on edge. The same technique will also work along a bind-off edge.

Insert your needle, from front to back, into the center of the stitch closest to the cast-on (or bind-off) edge; wrap the working yarn around the needle counter-clockwise as if to knit; use the tip of the needle to pull that yarn through to the front of the fabric. One stitch picked up!

Along a Vertical Edge: Stockinette Stitch

This Picking Up Stitches tutorial shows you how to pick up stitches knitwise along the vertical edge of a stockinette stitch swatch.

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I am going to show you how to pick up stitches along a vertical edge. The first thing I want to mention is that unlike picking up along either like a cast on edge or a bind off edge, in these situations, you pick up into every single stitch along that edge. For a vertical edge, you typically pick up fewer stitches, and that has to do with the proportion between the stitch gauge and the row gauge. Usually it breaks down to either three of every four stitches or two of every three stitches. And I’m going to show you what I mean by that. 

So first I’m going to take my needle and my stockinette swatch. And first, let’s identify this selvage column, this column here, the outermost column of stitches. Then we have a column of stitches next to it. My goal is to take my needle directly through the fabric between this selvage column and this first column. So the first stitch closest to the edge, it can be a little tricky, but just identify it, stick your needle through. I’m going to take my yarn here, wrap it around the needle as if to knit, and pull it back through the fabric to the front side. Now I’m going to use my fingers over here to tack down that tail. 

Alright, let’s do that again. Insert the tip of your needle between that outermost column, and then first column in. Wrap your yarn around. Pull it through, insert your needle, wrap the yarn around. Pull it through. Now I only want to pick up three of every four stitches. So now I’m going to skip this spot right here and jump up a row. So skipping this one, jumping into this one. So that’s 1, 2, 3, and then skip that one. And I start my next set of three of every four. 

Now, some folks have a different way of doing this. Typically when they’re working with really thick yarns, and the reason they do where they pick up is different is to minimize the size of the seam on the inside that you end up getting. So some folks, whereas I’m picking up between the salvage column and the first column, some people will pick up right into the middle of the stitches in that salvage column. And that’s just, that’s knitter choice. I typically stick here, but different scenarios, will call for different measures. But that’s it. It’s as easy as that. That’s how you pick up along a vertical edge.

Insert your needle, from front to back, between the last and second-to-last columns of stitches; wrap the working yarn around the needle counter-clockwise as if to knit; use the tip of the needle to pull that yarn through to the front of the fabric.

TIP: When picking up stitches along a vertical edge, the new stitches will run perpendicular to the existing stitches. And since the stitch and row gauges are typically unequal, you will not pick up a stitch for each row along the vertical edge of the fabric. Often you’ll pick up 2 stitches for every 3 rows or 3 stitches for every 4 rows. Which depends on the gauge of the fabric .

Along a Vertical Edge: Garter Stitch, Between Ridges

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I am going to show you how to pick up stitches along the vertical edge of garter stitch. Garter Stitch has these wonderful ridges, and when I’m picking up along this edge, I’m going to pick up one stitch between each ridge. 

So I’m going to take my one needle here, make sure I have my working yarn close and take my needle. I like to use this purl bump kind of as a guide. So I’m going to take my needle, insert it just below that purl bump through the fabric, take my yarn, wrap it around that needle, and pull it back through to the front side, so. You can use your fingers to tack down that tail. 

So once again, between the next two ridges, I’m going to use that purl bump as a guideline. Take my needle, insert it through the fabric, wrap my yarn around knitwise. Use the tip of that needle to pull it to the front side of the fabric. Now we have two stitches, and you just travel all the way up the edge of your fabric like this. Insert. Wrap it around, pull it through. That’s how you pick up along the vertical edge of garter stitch.

This Picking Up Stitches Tutorial shows you how to pick up stitches knitwise along the vertical edge of a garter stitch swatch.

Insert your needle, from front to back, between the ridges of garter, between the last and second-to-last columns of stitches; wrap the working yarn around the needle counter-clockwise as if to knit; use the tip of the needle to pull that yarn through to the front of the fabric.

TIP: Due to the ratio of stitches per inch and rows per inch, when picking up along a garter edge, you’ll typically only need to pick up one stitch for each ridge (1 ridge =  2 rows).

Along a Vertical Edge: Garter Stitch, Into The Ridge

Another way to pick up stitches along the vertical edge of garter stitch is by picking up into the garter ridge itself. We love to use this technique in blanket projects to get a really tidy edge between different colors.

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Locate the outermost purl bump (the one shaped like a little frown) along the edge of the garter ridge and insert your needle, from bottom to top, into that bump. Wrap the working yarn around the needle counter-clockwise as if to knit…

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… and use the tip of the needle to pull that yarn through to the front of the fabric. Repeat these steps until you have picked up the desired number of stitches.

TIP: Due to the ratio of stitches per inch and rows per inch, when picking up along a garter edge, you’ll typically pick up one stitch in every ridge (1 ridge =  2 rows). This means picking up every purl bump!

Purlwise

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I am going to show you how to pick up stitches purlwise, along a horizontal edge. This technique works along both the cast on as well as the bind off. I’m going to show you along the cast on, so I have a swatch here of stockinette stitch, and I have the wrong side facing. I have one needle and I have a contrast yarn for demonstration purposes.

So as we learned in the other video, when you pick up on the knitwise, you identify these Vs closest to the edge, and that’s where you want to insert your needle. Same is true when you’re picking up purlwise, except you’ll be inserting your needle from the back to the front. So find that V, insert your needle from the back to the front with your yarn in front. Wrap your yarn around the needle purlwise, and then use the tip of the needle to pull that yarn to the back of the fabric.

Let’s do that again. Insert your fabric from the back to the front. Wrap your needle, pull it through. That’s two stitches. As you can see, I’m working into each stitch along the cast on edge. Oh, missed that one. Let’s do that again. Here we go. Here we go. Insert your needle, wrap the yarn, pull it through. You can use this same technique along the vertical edge, but you’ll be picking up fewer stitches. Here, I’ll show you what it looks like from the front. There you go. That’s picking up purlwise.

This Picking Up Stitches tutorial shows you how to pick up stitches purlwise along a cast-on edge. While picking up purlwise isn’t as common, it does occasionally come in handy! The steps are very similar to picking up knitwise.

Insert your needle, from back to front, into the center of the stitch closest to the cast-on (or bind-off) edge; wrap the working yarn around the needle counter-clockwise as if to purl; use the tip of the needle to pull that yarn through to the back of the fabric.

Practice

Picking Up Stitches | Purl Soho

Our Optic Blanket is a great project for practicing picking up stitches. Each block is attached to its neighbors by picked up stitches. Easy, clever, and best of all, no sewing!

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