Pick Up Stitches (knitting) - Wikipedia

Knitting technique

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In knitting, picking up stitches means adding stitches to the knitting needle that were previously bound off or belong to the selvage.

Picking up stitches is commonly done in knitting garments, e.g. in knitting the collar or sleeves, and is essential for entrelac knitting.

Uses

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Picking up stitches is usually used to create a new fabric that is not worked in the same direction as the piece to which it is joined, without having to knit the new piece separately and sew it on. In this application it is most familiar for knitting ribbed button bands for cardigans, but it can also be used to e.g. knit sleeves onto an existing body or add an afterthought thumb to mittens, and entrelac uses the technique to form rows of squares that are worked perpendicularly to those above and below.

It can also be used to provide stability, as when a garment pattern instructs the knitter to bind off at the collar and then immediately pick up the same number of stitches; the bound-off edge helps keep the collar from stretching.

Technique

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Picking up stitches uses the same action as regular knitting, save that the loop through which the new stitch passes is not "live"; that is, it will not run if dropped from the needle. Some knitters prefer to pick up all the loops onto the left needle at once, and then knit across in a relatively normal fashion; others pick up each new stitch individually as they work.

Picking up is normally done from the front as if knitting, or from the back as if purling. If purled from the front or knitted from the back, the ridge created will show on the public side of the work; this should be done only if the designer intends it to be a design element.

Gauge issues

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When picking up to work in the same direction as the established fabric, as from a bound-off edge, the knitter can simply pick up one new stitch for every column of extant stitches. However, knitting stitches are usually wider than they are tall; when picking up on a selvage, as for a button band, creating the same number of stitches as there are rows will lead to the new fabric ruffling rather than lying flat. As a rule of thumb, picking up three stitches for every four rows will avert this problem. When the main fabric is in garter stitch, one picked-up stitch for every garter ridge (i.e. two rows) will generally suffice.

References

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• June Hemmons Hiatt (1988) The Principles of Knitting, Simon and Schuster, pp. 183–200. ISBN 0-671-55233-3
• Elizabeth Zimmerman (1973) Knitting Without Tears, Fireside Books. ISBN 978-0684135052

v t e Knitting
Tools and materials	Knitting needle Knitting needle cap Needle gauge List of yarns for crochet and knitting Row counter Stitch holder
Yarn styles	Bouclé Eyelash Lopi Novelty Variegated
Yarn brands	Coats Group Eisaku Noro Company Kraemer Yarns Lion Brand Yarns Patons and Baldwins
Styles	Circular Combined Continental English Flat Norwegian Warp
Stitches	Stockinette/Stocking stitch Garter Decrease Dip stitch Elongated stitch Increase Loop knitting Twisted stitch Yarn over
Techniques	Arm knitting Basketweave Bead knitting Bias knitting Binding/Casting off Bobble Brioche knitting Buttonhole Cables Casting on Double knitting Drop-stitch knitting Entrelac Faggoting Finger knitting Gather Gauge Grafting Hand knitting Hemming Illusion knitting Lace Medallion knitting Picking up stitches Pleat Ribbing Roositud Short row Slip-stitch knitting Spool knitting Steek Three needle bindoff Thrumming Tuck Twined Weaving Welting
Patterns	Aran Argyle Fair Isle Intarsia
Machine knitting	Complete garment knitting Fully fashioned knitting Knitting machine Spool knitting Stocking frame William Lee (inventor)
Knitters anddesigners	Sam Barsky Marit Emstad Nicky Epstein Kaffe Fassett Marianne Kinzel Frances Lambert Herbert Niebling Shannon Okey Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Alice Starmore Debbie Stoller Meg Swansen Barbara G. Walker Elizabeth Zimmermann
Organizations	I Knit London Knitta Knitting clubs Knitty Ravelry Revolutionary Knitting Circle Stitch 'n Bitch UK Hand Knitting Association World Wide Knit in Public Day The Knitting Guild Association
Related	Basic knitted fabrics Blocking Dye lot History Knitted fabric Knitting abbreviations Knitting in literature List of knitting stitches Selvage Yarn bombing I Am a Teacher: Super Mario Sweater