Tutorial: German Short Rows (Knit-wise)

Hello everyone! This week I wanted to give you a tutorial on making German Short-Rows. (Which just happen to work beautifully in my Soiree Slouch and The Highlighter Affair Hat Patterns in place of the Wrap & Turns.)

I recently learned this technique and I'm absolutely in love. Seriously, it's like magic. The first time that you do it and see how it works and makes a nice, smooth turn in your knit fabric will be like the first time you turned a heel in a sock. After I did it for the first timed I proceeded to show anyone around me who would listen how they worked. (Even my non-knitting hubby was forced to learn German Short-Rows.)

These can be used in place of a traditional wrap & turn or most other short-rowing techniques. The difference is that you get a much more fluid movement in the fabric than with other techniques that I've seen and you don't have to try to pick-up wraps as you're working over the turning stitches. I just can't get enough of them and I hope that you enjoy them as much as I do!

(I've added a tutorial for doing these purlwise: HERE. Enjoy!)

Step 1: Knit to the last stitch of your short-row. (The stitch that would be wrapped if using the wrap & turn method.)

Step 2: Turn work, keeping yarn in front.

Step 3: Slip stitch (purlwise) to Right Needle.

Step 4: Wrap yarn over the top of the stitch that was just slipped to the Right Needle.

Step 5: Pull yarn to the back tightly so that the slipped stitch synches up and the stitch below wraps around the right needle...

...it will now look like 2 stitches.

(This is what it will look like on the Right Side of the fabric.)

Step 6: Bring yarn to the front of your work and begin purling as normal.

OR

Keep yarn to the back & knit as normal.

(Use whichever stitch your pattern calls for.)

Here is a completed section of short-rows waiting to be picked up. (Short row turns occur every other stitch.)

You can see where the short-row turns are by looking for the stitches that look similar to purls. When you look closely you will see that  they are the stitches that were wrapped over the needle when you turned.

To finish your German Short-Rows and knit across them, simply knit the 2 legs of the turning stitch together when you come to them. Knit all the other stitches as your pattern indicates.

I hope that you enjoyed this little tutorial and that it will help you to have smoother knitting when you use short-rows. Have a great week of crafting, I'll be back next week with the Purl-wise version!

Shaina  ^_^