Knit purl stitches

Gründl Knitting School

Knitting for Beginners: How to Knit Purl Stitches

Knitting for Beginners: How to Knit Purl Stitches

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In addition to knit stitches, purl stitches are, of course, essential for knitting. These two basic stitches can be combined in many ways to create wonderful compositions. We'll show you here what purl stitches look like, how to knit them, and why you need them:

How to hold the needle?

As with knitting knit stitches, the yarn hold is the same. Hold the needle with the stitches on it in your left hand. With your right hand, hold the free needle, onto which you will knit your stitches step by step.

Bring working yarn forward

To knit purl stitches, you need to bring the yarn to the front of your work – meaning in front of the needle with the stitches. Don't be surprised if the front yarn slightly obscures the stitches on the needle. You can counteract this by gently pressing the yarn aside with your left hand.

Insert needle into stitch and yarn over

Now, with your free needle, insert it from right to left into the first stitch on your left needle. Then, wrap the yarn around the right needle from top to bottom, counter-clockwise. You can either rotate your right needle to do this or use your left middle finger to place the yarn around the needle.

Pull yarn through the stitch

After you have yarned over the right needle, pull the working yarn through the loop with the right needle. You can use either your left thumb or your left middle finger to help press the working yarn down.

Slip stitch to right needle

Now you can slide the stitch, which is still on your left needle, onto the right needle. Ta-daaa, your purl stitch is finished.

What does a purl stitch look like?

You can recognize a purl stitch by the little knot it forms at the front. We often describe this shape as an "umbrella" or "smiley". On the back of the knitted fabric, each purl stitch forms a small "V".

What are purl stitches used for?

You can either knit entire pieces with purl stitches – or you can combine them with knit stitches to create unusual knitting patterns. Here's an overview of patterns that require purl stitches.

Knit your first scarf – at the Gründl Knitting School

You can download the free pattern here and simultaneously order the matching yarn in the colors of your choice.