Each new lesson will be released on Thursday at midnight UTC.

If you would like to chat with other knitters about Short Rows, we have a KnitHub space here. (It uses the same login as for the Teachable classes).

Music: Vlad Gluschenko — Golden Hour License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

I discovered Short Rows completely by accident. I think in fact that this happens for a lot of knitters!

I was following the instructions, as written, for a pattern and before I knew it I had completed my first short row. I now started seeking out patterns with short rows and new ways I could use them.

Short Rows always seem like magic to me. All you are doing is turning before you reach the end of a row. This means that certain sections of your knitting will have more rows than others so they will be deeper.

The most important thing to remember about short rows is that what you are trying to do is very simple! You are simply turning your work before you get to the end of a row and working back in the other direction. The reason it can become a bit more difficult is in hiding that turn. If you don't do anything other than turning our work you will have a hole. This is because there is a height difference between one row and the next. All of the methods we will be describing for short rows are different ways in which you can hide that gap.

Wrap & Turn, Japanese and Yarnover methods all create a small loop of yarn that you can work together with the next stitch to close the gap. German Short rows pull the row below up, and hide the gap that way. Shadow wraps work a lifted increase into the next stitch that is knit with the stitch to close the gap.

I will teach you a variety of different ways to work short rows. I would encourage you to set the swatch up (as shown in the wrap & turn section) and when you are finished working a dividing purl row so that you can use the same swatch for working every short row type. This will allow you to see them all next to each other an easily compare.