When I first looked at this stitch, I thought, ‘wow that looks super hard. I bet that’s hard to do.’ But the truth is, its quite simple. If you can knit basic knits and purls, you can do the herringbone knit pattern. This one comes from Michael’s, and used the Bernat blanket yarn, if you make the blanket they’re showing on the pattern. As we have previously done, I won’t be copying the pattern here into the blog, but will do a tutorial of how to do the stitch, including my notes and recommendations.
Alright, let’s start with Tip #1: use a bigger needle size than the recommended for your yarn! This stitch is really tight and even if you keep things loose as you go, it’ll still be tight, so size up! I used a 6.5 mm needle for the video below and used a worsted weight yarn, and it was worth it.
Herringbone Stitch
-Worked in multiples of 2 stitches, so cast on any even number of stitches using your preferred method. I use the twisted knit cast on, shown in the beginner cables video, but any cast on is fine. The stitch isn’t overly stretchy, but it is super thick.
We’re going to start by knitting our right side, straight from the cast on row.
For this stitch, we knit 2 together, through the back loop, as in the pic at left.
Then, after drawing our loop through, we’re only going to loop off the first stitch from the left needle. This is SUPER important because we don’t want to reduce the number of our stitches.
Continue knitting 2 together, through the loop we just left and the next one, via the back loop only, lifting just the first stitch off each time, until you get to the end of the row.
At the end of the row, you’ll knit the last 2 together, loop off the first loop again, and have 1 stitch left. Knit through the back loop on its own and you’re done. Well, the first row anyway.
Wrong Side Row
To begin our wrong side row, hold your yarn in front, as if you’re going to purl (because we are).
For this row, we’re going to purl 2 together, the normal way, and only loop off our first loop from the left needle again.
Continue purling through the loop we left and the next one, across the row, and finish the same as we did with the knit row, by purling the final stitch on its own.
So, that’s it. A nice and simple knit stitch that is an easy 2 row repeat, and can be used so many different ways! I am going to make an infinity scarf. And really, the back of the work is still pretty enough that I’m not concerned that it’s not the same on both sides.
If you try this one out, tag us on Instagram, @purple.rose.crafts I love sharing your makes to our stories!
So, just a quick post, just like the stitch itself.
Much Love,
