Day 5: Purl Stitch

Hi, everyone. Welcome back to our Learn to Knit Series here at The Knitting Circle. I'm Jen Lucas. And in this video, we're gonna work the purl stitch. The purl stitch is typically worked on the wrong side of your fabric. Not always, but it's the stitch that you need to know to create stockinette stitch which creates the knitted fabric that we most commonly think of when we think of knitted fabric. It's a little bit more tricky than the knit stitch for some people, but it's really not that hard once you get the hang of it. I'd love to show you how to do it, and I'm gonna show you using both the yarn in my right hand and in my left hand. So let's go ahead and take a look. Let's take a look at the purl stitch. I'm gonna demonstrate how to work the purl stitch in the English or throwing method where the yarn is gonna be in my right hand. And then I'll also demonstrate how to do the continental or picking method where the yarn is in my left hand. Just like the knit stitch, it's really about trying both ways and seeing which way is most comfortable for you. I know lots of right-hand knitters that work with the yarn in their left hand. Most people who are left-handed do work with the yarn in their left hand, but again, try both ways. You might be surprised on what feels most comfortable for you. So the purl stitch is another stitch that is the foundation of lots of knitting stitch patterns. And so where you're gonna most commonly see the purl stitch used is in a fabric like this, which is stockinette stitch. We've talked about stockinette stitch a little bit before already. This fabric is created by knitting all the stitches on the right side of our work. And then when we have the wrong side of the work facing us, we'll be working in purl stitches. So when we're working these purl stitches, we'll be having the wrong side of our fabric facing, we'll be creating these little purl bumps is what they're called. And when you're looking at them from the wrong side, they look this way. But from the right side, this is how they form stockinette stitch. So it's a great stitch to know. You also will see stitch patterns where the purls are worked on the right side of the work. They have all sorts of applications in knitting, but it's very important that you learn this one too. You can make just about anything with a knit stitch only, but knowing how to do the purl stitch is important as well because lots of knitting patterns use it as well. For some people, the purl stitch is a little bit more tricky than the knit stitch. I know for me when I was first learning to knit, I found the purl to be a little bit more tricky. I was sticking with only working knit stitches for quite a long time, but I just took a little time. I practiced my purl stitches each day, and now it's just like second nature, just like the knit stitch. So even if you find the purl stitch to be a little bit harder than the knit stitch, don't worry. It does get easier with practice. So I have a little swatch here of stockinette stitch. So I have been knitting on the right side, purling on the wrong side. So I have just finished a row of knit stitches. So I'm going to flip this over to the wrong side and we're gonna work some purl stitches. So first, I'm gonna do that using the English or throwing method and have the yarn in my right hand. So when we're working a purl stitch, we always want the yarn facing us. We want it in the front and by in the front, I mean we want it in front of our work, not front as in this is the right side of our fabric. We want it facing us. So our yarn's pretty much already just naturally there from doing stockinette stitch, which is great. We're going to tension the yarn. Again, you can bring it over your pinkie, wrap it around up to your finger. Again, whatever feels comfortable for you. So we're going to have the yarn in front. You can see how it's in front here. And we're gonna insert the needle from right to left this way. And then we're going to take the yarn up and over the needle to create our stitch. So I have my yarn here. I'm gonna bring it up and over. So I have my working yarn here on the needle. Here's my old stitch. Much like the knit stitch, now I need to pull the right needle through the loop on the left needle to create the stitch. So because we're purling, our right needle's in the front. We're gonna bring it through that loop to the back. And now you see I have my new stitch created there. So I can drop the stitch on the left needle off and I've created my new stitch on the right needle. So again, I'm gonna insert from right to left. I'm gonna bring the yarn up and over to create my purl stitch. I'm gonna bring the needle through the loop to catch that yarn and off. Again, making sure my yarn is staying to the front. See how it's in the front this way? I'm not somehow bringing it between the needles or anything to the back. It's staying right here in the front. We're gonna insert our needle, wrap the yarn around up and over, pull that yarn through the loop, drop the loop off the left needle. We have a new loop on the right. In this one, it does take a little bit more practice, but you'll have it in no time. So I'll do one more here with the yarn in my right hand. We're gonna insert, wrap the yarn around up and over. We're gonna bring that right needle down through loop, catching that yarn and off. And so that's the purl stitch using the English or throwing method. So now let's switch it and I'm going to show you how to purl with the yarn in my left hand. So again, we're gonna just tension the yarn in a way that feels comfortable for you. We have the yarn to the front of our work, so facing us. We're going to insert our needle same way as we did before. We're gonna insert it here from right to left. And then we're going to bring the yarn up and over and then pull that loop through so we've caught it on the right needle. And then we're gonna pop that stitch off the left needle and drop it 'cause we have our new stitch on the right needle. So again, yarn's to the front, inserting, bringing that yarn, you can see kind of like when we did the knit stitch, the yarn's pretty much right there so you just need to bring it. It's already kind of coming over, over and down, through and off. And you just keep working in that way, insert, bring it down, and through. And so you might find it easier to get your thumb into the mix here to do your purls. That's the way I like to do it when I'm knitting in this way or purling in this way, I should say. So we're gonna insert. I just like to use my thumb to sort of bring the yarn down and through, down and through. And we'll do one more. So we've got one more stitch left here. Yarn staying in the front, bringing that yarn just like we did with the knitting or with the yarn in the right hand when purling, we're bringing it just up and over and then down and through. Much like the knit stitch, you really should try practicing it both ways. Or if you try it one way and it feels natural to you, just keep practicing it that way. That's the beauty about knitting is everybody does knit a little bit different. I've met a lot of knitters over the year and everybody has sort of their own way that they tension the yarn or their own way that they hold the yarn, their own little way that they make their knit or purl stitches work for them. So don't get discouraged if you don't get it on the first try. It's like any new skill. It's just gonna take a little bit of practice, but I know you'll be purling in no time. There you go. That's the purl stitch. It really isn't that hard once you take a little time to practice. Just like everything in all of these videos, it's just gonna take a little bit of practice, but you'll have that purl stitch down in no time and be creating beautiful projects. I'll see you back here again soon.