Short Rows: Wrap + Turn | Purl Soho

Short Rows tend to strike fear into the hearts of first-timers, but, like all knitting techniques, once you try short rows, you’ll see they’re not so hard after all, and our Short Rows: Wrap + Turn Tutorial will give you the confidence to try!

Short Rows are used to create triangles or wedges within your knitting. They shape everything from bust darts to ear flaps. Basically, a Short Row is just that: a row that you don’t knit to the end of the needle. There are lots of ways to turn your work partway through a row, but one very common way is called a Wrap + Turn (wrp-t). This simple method prevents holes along the Short Rows and works well with many different stitch patterns.

Note that there are a few stitch patterns, including Garter Stitch, that don’t require any sort of special technique when it’s time to work back the other way. For these stitch patterns, you just turn the piece and work back the other way. Easy!

Video Tutorial

Click To See Video Transcript

Hey guys, this is Laura from Purl Soho, and I’m going to demonstrate how to work short rows using a Wrap + Turn technique. Short rows are used to create triangles or wedges within your knitting. As you can see here, it’s a shaping technique that’s commonly used to turn a heel of a sock or to create a nice smooth slope along the shoulder of a sweater. 

Okay, so I’ve knit across this swatch to just past halfway point, and I’m going to demonstrate how to do a Wrap + Turn on the knit side or the right side of this fabric. The first step is to simply slip this first stitch, purlwise, from the left needle to the right needle. The next step is to take your working yarn from the back of your work between your needles to the front of your work. The next thing you’re going to do is slip that slipped stitch from the right needle back over to the left needle, and then once again, move your working yarn this time from the front of your work to the back of your work. 

Now that we’ve completed all the wrapping steps, the only thing left to do is turn. So keeping your orientation how it is, just switch the needles in your hands. And when you do that, you’ll see that your working yarn is here on the near side of your work and you’re ready to begin purling across this row, I’m going to take a few purl stitches and then we’ll go into how to do a Wrap + Turn on the purl side of the fabric. 

So here I am ready to do a Wrap + Turn on the purl side or wrong side of this stockinette stitch swatch. The first thing I’m going to do is use the tip of my right needle and slip this first stitch, purlwise, from the left needle to the right needle. The next thing I’m going to do is take my working yarn from the front of my work between my needles to the back of my work. Then I’m going to bring that slipped stitch back over to the left needle from the right needle and move my working yarn from the back of the fabric between my needles to the front of the fabric. And once again, now that I’ve done all the wrapping steps of this Wrap + Turn, all that’s left to do is turn and I just switch the needles in my hand, and here you can see my working yarn is in the back and I’m ready to knit across this row. 

So here I’ve knit across this row until I’ve reached this wrapped stitch. This was the stitch I wrapped on my previous right-side row. What I need to do is pick up this wrap. You can see it right here. I want to pick up that wrap and knit it together with this wrapped stitch. Here’s how you do it on the right side: I’m going to insert the tip of my right needle into the wrap knitwise, as if to knit. And then I’m going to stick my needle into this first stitch as if to knit. And then I’m going to knit these two together. When you do this, your wrap should fall to the backside of your fabric and it’ll be hidden from view. Picking up the wraps also closes any tiny holes that might appear during the wraps and turn portion of this technique.

So I’ve purled up until I’ve reached this wrapped purl stitch. This is the stitch we wrapped on that previous purl row we worked, and the goal here is the same. I want to work the wrap of this stitch together with the stitch itself. It can be a tiny bit trickier to identify the wrap on the purl side of the fabric, but here I’m pointing to it with my thumb here. And this is the back side of the wrap. I’ve just put my needle through. So just want to identify the wrap. 

So in order to work these together, I’m going to insert the tip of this right needle into the back of this wrap here and then into this first stitch all purlwise, in order to purl these two together like so. And when you do this, that wrap will fall to what is the near side for you right now. But when you turn the work around, it’ll be on the wrong side of the work. In any case, now I’m ready to just continue purling. 

I have a bonus clip. I want to show you guys how to work or pick up a wrap stitch that’s been wrapped on the wrong side, but is then picked up on the right side. Let me explain a bit more. So you can see here I have a top-down sweater started. I threw it on scrap yarn, so it’ll lay nice and flat. I’ve worked a number of short rows here to shape around this front neckline area. And my last short row, I worked on the wrong-side row, so I wrapped this stitch. I turned my work. I’ve knit all the way back around, and now I’m about to encounter this wrong-side wrapped stitch, but I’m going to encounter it and pick it up on the right side. Let me show you how. 

So I’ve knit up to this wrapped stitch. The first thing I’m going to do is use the tip of this right needle to kind of pick up that wrap. I’m just slipping this right needle into the front of that wrap, and I’m going to place it on the left needle. Now, when you place it on the left needle, you’ll want to kind of get it, it’ll go there naturally probably, but you just want to get it so it’s the actual stitch first and then the wrap next. The next thing that you’re going to want to do is slip this knit stitch, the actual stitch knitwise, and then slip the wrap purlwise. Then insert the tip of the left needle into the front legs of both of those stitches, both the wrap and the stitch. And now just knit them together. And when you do this, you’ll find that the wrap perfectly falls to the back of your fabric.


TIME STAMPS
(Just click the “Chapters” icon in the lower right corner of the video to skip to any of these topics!)
00:00 – Intro
00:23 – Wrap + Turn on the Knit Side
01:40 – Wrap + Turn on the Purl Side
02:34 – Picking Up the Wrapped Stitch on the Knit Side
03:30 – Picking Up the Wrapped Stitch on the Purl Side
04:33 – Bonus Clip: Picking Up a Purl Wrap on the Knit Side

Step-By-Step Tutorial

Here’s the same information as our Short Rows: Wrap + Turn video tutorial, but this time shown with still photos and text…

Wrap + Turn On The Knit Side

Short Rows: Wrap + Turn | Purl Soho

Keeping the yarn in back, slip the next stitch purlwise from the left needle to the right needle.

Short Rows: Wrap + Turn | Purl Soho

Bring the yarn forward as if to purl.

Short Rows: Wrap + Turn | Purl Soho

Slip the stitch from the right needle back to the left needle.

Short Rows: Wrap + Turn | Purl Soho

Bring the yarn to the back of the work as if to knit.

Short Rows: Wrap + Turn | Purl Soho

Turn the work so the purl side is facing you, ready to purl.

Wrap + Turn On The Purl Side

Short Rows: Wrap + Turn | Purl Soho

Keeping the yarn in front, slip the next stitch purlwise from the left needle to the right needle.

Short Rows: Wrap + Turn | Purl Soho

Bring the yarn back as if to knit.

Short Rows: Wrap + Turn | Purl Soho

Slip the stitch from the right needle back to the left needle.

Short Rows: Wrap + Turn | Purl Soho

Bring the yarn to the front of the work as if to purl.

Short Rows: Wrap + Turn | Purl Soho

Turn the work so the knit side is facing you, ready to knit.

Once you’ve completed your Short Rows, you’ll notice gaps in the knitting where you wrapped the stitches. To rectify this, you work across the entire row, closing the gaps by “picking up the wrapped stitches”.

Picking up the Wrapped Stitch on the Knit Side

Short Rows: Wrap + Turn | Purl Soho

Pick up the wrap with the right needle from front to back.

Short Rows: Wrap + Turn | Purl Soho

Then insert the right needle into the stitch that is wrapped.

Short Rows: Wrap + Turn | Purl Soho

Knit the wrap and the stitch together.

Picking up the Wrapped Stitch on the Purl Side

Short Rows: Wrap + Turn | Purl Soho

Pick up the wrap with the right needle from back to front

.Short Rows: Wrap + Turn | Purl Soho

Place the wrap onto the left needle, over and behind the stitch it was wrapping.

Short Rows: Wrap + Turn | Purl Soho

Purl together the wrap and the stitch that is wrapped.

That’s Short Rows! Not so scary!

Bonus: How To Pick Up A Purl Wrap On The Knit Side

NOTE: See this particular situation in action at minute 4:33 of the Short Rows: Wrap + Turn Tutorial video tutorial, above.

When working in the round, you may encounter a stitch that was wrapped on the purl (or wrong) side and needs to be picked up on the knit (or right) side. Here’s how to pick up a purl wrap on the knit side…

Work up to the wrapped stitch.

Use the tip of the right needle to pick up the wrap, inserting the needle from front to back. Place the wrap onto the left needle. Note: If necessary, nudge the wrap so it is after the next stitch on the needle.

Next, slip the first sitch knitwise, then slip the wrap purlwise. Insert the tip of the left needle into the front legs of those two slipped stitches. Wrap your working yarn around the right needle to knit the two together.

The wrap will fall to the wrong side of your fabric… Nice!

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