The purl stitch is just as important as the knit stitch – you can’t do one without the other. I know a lot of beginning knitters who get confused and frustrated when it comes to purl stitches – I actually learned how to purl before the knit, and I find it just as easy. Here are the step-by-step instructions on how to make a purl stitch, English style. You’ll get the hang of it with a few tries.

First, take your nicely cast-on work in your left hand and pick up the ball-end yarn with your right hand. Then take the right-hand needle and slip it into the first loop, right to left, bottom to top (See Figure A).

Then take the yarn in your right hand, and loop it around the right needle counterclockwise from back to front. Make sure the yarn is in front of the needle and not behind it. You might want to hold the right needle in place with your left thumb so the needle doesn’t slip out.

Here’s the most tricky part: using the right needle, carefully lift the new loop into the first loop, under the left-hand needle.

Slip the first loop off the left needle, and there! You have just made a purl stitch.

Repeat until you have finished the row. You’ll see that all the stitches have a loop right under them, almost like they’re wearing little pearl necklaces. Flip your work and start again – now you know how to purl!

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I am an English knitter. No, it doesn’t mean I have tea with cream and scones when I knit. ;) it just means the way I knit, which uses my right hand to wrap the yarn around the needles, is called the English method. The other popular method is called Continental, which I will cover at another time. Most beginners will find out which they prefer soon after starting their first knitting project. As a personal observation, right-handed people usually knit in English and left-handed people in Continental, but it should be whichever you feel most comfortable with.

Take your nicely cast-on work in your left hand and pick up the ball-end yarn with your right hand (Figure A).

Insert the needle into the first loop from left to right, front to back (Figure B).

Take the yarn with your right hand, and loop it counter-clockwise (from back to front) around the needle you just inserted into the loop (Figure C).

This part takes a bit of practice. Pull the yarn straight (but not tight) with your right index finger. Use the right needle and slide it down and out so it picks up the loop you just made. Slide the right needle to the right and pull the old loop off of the tip of the left needle (Figure D). Voila, you’ve just made your first knit stitch.

Repeat until you finish the whole row (i.e. transfer all the loops from your left needle to your right needle), then turn the work over and start from the left side again.

When you use only the knit stitch to make a garment, it is also called the garter stitch.

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As you can see, I am now the proud owner of a DIY yarn swift thanks to my very handy husband B. :)

For years, I had been shying away from buying beautiful hanks of yarn because I did not own a ball winder or a swift. I always thought buying balls of yarn would be enough, and that hanks are for “hardcore knitters” who consider knitting as much more than just a hobby. Well, years later, I find myself admiring lovely hanks of yarn and wishing I had a winder and swift to make them into balls. Hmm, does this mean I am slowly becoming a hardcore knitter? :)

I bought a ball winder from KnitPicks at a great price a few weeks ago, and I started doing some research on yarn swifts as well. There’s the umbrella (most expensive) style, the ferris-wheel style, the pinwheel style, and a few others. The umbrella style is the best looking, and the kind they usually have at yarn shops – they retail anywhere from $50 (on sale) to $100 (Scandinavian-made, really nice quality wood). I showed them to B and he thought it would be possible to make the pinwheel style for a fraction of the cost, so why not?

We found a really cool tutorial by Craft Diversions, and after 2 weekends I finally have a working swift! I tried it out for the first time this morning and was able to wind up a hank of Cascade 220 wool into 2 balls of yarn. Success!