My Favorite Increase
August 26th, 2007
Whenever knitting something that requires a line of increases going up the work, I cringe inside. I don’t like the way most increases look. They just don’t line up nicely like an SSK, or a K2TOG. They always have a bit of wierdness on the stitches around them, and it’s just not as fun.
While knitting a toe-up toe recently, after switching between two decreases before I settled on the one I liked, I decided that it was my favorite. It involves the most basic of increases with a twist, _literally_. It’s a yarn over that is knit twisted on the following row, and seems to work just so perfectly with toe-up socks. You don’t have to go to much effort to remember which row you’re on when you’re alternating decrease rows with plain. If you encounter a YO, knit twisted into it. If you don’t encounter a YO at the right place, make one!
This is identical to the increase that involves lifting the bar between two stitches, and knitting twisted into it. It’s just much easier to do, and you start it a row earlier.
If you’re tricksy, you can even mirror them on either side of the toe! (or whatever)
Sorry Kara, your comment got in my Akismet spam box! That’s very true with the mirroring, knitting twisted the other way.