German Short Rows on a Provisional Cast-on

button for patreon

All of the free patterns and tutorials on this website are supported by my amazing Patreons! If it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t be able to continue to produce or host freebies. We’d love to have you join us and in return, you get exclusive behind-the-scenes material, member-only discounts and early access to new free content. Membership starts at $1 per month. You can also say thanks for the freebie via the Tip Jar.

There may be times when you need to work a German short row in the very first row of a pattern that will be grafted, i.e. working it on the provisionally cast-on stitches. While this may seem counter-intuitive – because the stitch or stitches you’ll be short rowing are false – it can be done, and it’s really not that hard!

 Please note that you’ll also need to reference the Repairing a German Short Row (photo tutorial) to complete the rebuild – it’s linked in the last step as well, in case you miss this note 😉

This is a useful tutorial for the Montes mitts in my Short-Row Colorwork – The Definitive Step-by-step Guide book, too.

1) Work the desired number of stitches before the stitch that will be short-rowed.
2) Knit the stitch that will be short-rowed and turn, as you would a standard German short row.
3) Create the German Short Row then knit back across the stitches to the end of the row.
4) When you come to knit across the German Short Row, you’ll see that the double-legged stitch is partially made up of the waste yarn – that’s what you want to see.
5) Insert your needle to knit the double-legged stitch, as you would working across any other German Short Row.
6) Once you’ve completed your first full row, where the short row was worked will appear as a bump along the provisional cast-on. Work the rest of the pattern as indicated.

7) This is how a single short row on the provisional cast-on looks

Removing the Provisional Cast-on and Catching the Short Row

8) Remove the provisional cast-on as you normally would, taking care to insert the needle into the stitch before removing the waste yarn.

9) As you reach the point where the short row was worked, your work will look like this, with a two threads of waste yarn anchored to the stitch.
10) Carefully loosen then pull through the front thread of waste yarn, the one with the tail end.
11) Then carefully loosen the back thread of waste yarn and gripping them both together, pull them gently to the left to reveal the loop of yarn at the base of the short row. This would be the wrap in the Wrap & Turn method, or the other half of a German short rowed stitch.
12) Using the tip of the right-hand needle, carefully catch the loop and then pull through – or cut – the back thread of waste yarn
13) Now continue to release the remaining stitches from the provisional cast-on.
14) Once all of the stitches have been released, the point where the short row was worked will show as two very close together stitches.
15) To catch the short row properly, we need to go back to this pair of stitches, by slipping the released stitches onto the left-hand needle.
16) With the tip of the needle, carefully transfer the rescued loop to the left-hand needle

17) You will now want to follow the steps for Repairing a German Short Row with both the rescued loop and the 2nd stitch on the left-hand needle. Once the short row has been restructured, you can graft or knit across it as usual!

Support

As always, if you have a question about this technique or need some help with it, leave a comment below! I’m afraid I’m unable to offer help via email or private message, but you’re welcome to post in our forum.

 

Print This!

If you’d like to print this free tutorial, either use the ‘Print’ button below or right-click in your browser, adjust the settings to suit your needs, and select ‘Save as PDF’ for a digital copy, or your printer for a paper copy. You can use the scale option to reduce or enlarge the font.

Woolly Wormhead

Woolly Wormhead is an internationally reknowned knit designer, specialising in Hats, technique and construction. Their patterns and techniques have been used by thousands of knitters worldwide. Join The Woolly Hat Society to be the first to learn of their latest projects and special offers!

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Categories

Follow Me

Join Me

Latest Hat Release

Latest eBook

Best Seller

Latest Blog Posts