Increase mesh size - it's that easy!

• Material and preparation
• 1. Increases on the outside slope
  • Increases from the first stitch
  • Increases with a wide margin
• 2. Straight up
• 3. bloody increase
• 4. Increasing for shaping
• Examples of increases
  • Knit jackets
  • Knit buttonholes
  • Increases for lapel collar
  • Hat

There is no knitter around the rise of stitches, because only scarves and rectangular shawls are made of a uniformly wide knit. All other clothing and accessories require the stitching to increase in size. Take the knitting needles and give it a try - with this guide you will learn how to increase the stitches and it will be easy to knit caps, gauntlets or triangle scarfs.

The increase of stitches occurs to increase the width of the knit. A typical example is the knitting of sleeves, where the waistband is narrower than the upper arm area. Triangular wipes that are started from the top need double-sided mesh increases to create a skew. And if you want to knit raglan from the top or you want to give a cardigan a reverse collar, these cuts are also made by stitching stitches. There are different possibilities and areas within the knit for multiplying stitches. Mesh can be knitted from existing mesh in a variety of ways or you can hit new stitches at the end of a row. This technique is primarily used in raglan cuts where the bat sleeves require a large stitch gain within a few rows.

Material and preparation

• Wool
• Circular needle in the appropriate size or two
• single knitting needles
• scissors

To increase stitches, you need a piece of knitting. To practice, make a few stitches and knit a few rows to the right (the rows are worked on the right, the rows on the left). For exercise, you can use any wool of your choice that is easily knit. Very thin wool or fancy yarns are rather unsuitable for the samples.

Increases can be worked on the edges or in the middle of the knit (darts). This results in many possibilities to set visual accents. The increase meshes create eye-catching rows, which, for example, enhance the appearance of a raglan frame in a sweater. Increases, which are performed regularly in every second to fourth row, provide for a quick broadening and form a flat slope. On the other hand, if you take it in larger row distances, the result is a steep slope - the knitting piece increases very slowly in width.

1. Increases on the outside slope

Increases from the first stitch

As a rule, a series is extended by stitches by knitting the edge stitch and working out an additional stitch from the second stitch. At the end of the row the penultimate stitch is used (a stitch in front of the edge stitch) to knit an additional stitch out of it. In both cases, the new stitch is worked in a right-hand knit style.

Pick up your work and knit the edge stitch. Then plunge into the second stitch as for right-hand knitting - coming from the left front to the right, pick the thread with the needle and pull it through. Normally, let the finished stitch slide off the needle, and when it is still on the needle, it will remain. You stab again in the second stitch. The needle now comes from the right and pushes into the loop, get the thread and pull through. Now slide the stitch from the left to the right needle and the increase is done. You've doubled the second stitch.

If you need to increase your left hand length according to knitting instructions, this happens in the following way:

You lift off the edge stitch or are at the penultimate stitch at the end of the row. Pierce the stitch as if to the left, pull the thread through and keep the stitch on the left needle. The thread comes in front of the right needle. Now insert into the stitch on the left needle from the back left to the front right.

Take the thread and pull it through and let the stitch slide off the left needle.

Increases with a wide margin

For visually striking rows of ornaments, knit the extra stitches out of stitches farther from the edge stitch. Instead of the first and penultimate stitch, you can choose the second, third, or fourth stitch after and before the edge stitch for the increases. They knit the stitches in the same way as described in the previous example. Lift off the edge stitch and knit the first stitch on the right. From the second stitch an additional stitch is knitted out on the right side. Knit all other stitches right to the end of the row. If there are still three stitches on the left needle, insert the following stitch and knit a new stitch. Knit the penultimate stitch on the right, then knit the edge stitch on the right. In the back row, work all the stitches left.

After several rows, you can see that the increases result in an optically uninterrupted row of stitches.

Depending on the mesh position you choose for the increases, optically skewed stripes will appear.

2. Straight up

When raglan cut the so-called "straight increase" finds its application. Here, the additional stitches are not worked out of an existing stitch, but completely repainted. For this, the row is ready knitted and you propose the appropriate number of stitches anew. At the beginning of the row, new stitches are looped up in front of the previous edge stitch. At the end of the row after the edge stitch. They pick up the new stitches as well as at the beginning of the knitting, only this time on one needle and not on two needles as before. That's why you have to strike lightly. When knitting stitching, knit the stitches on two needles and then pull out a needle. As a result, the mesh had a size where you could knit them without problems. When loosening within a piece of knitting, there is only one needle available, so loosely you have to take new stitches.

According to the cut, ten, twenty or more stitches are taken at once. They turn the work and knit the new envelopes now as a stitch. This requires a bit of practice, loosen the thread with the needle tip before piercing through it. In the back row, knit all stitches to the left to get the smooth right stitch pattern. If you repeat this step several times, you quickly reached the number of stitches required for the sleeve length.

3. bloody increase

This knitting means that several stitches are knitted out of existing stitches all over the row. Especially after ribbed cuffs, there is an increased need for stitches in the fabric. The rib knitting technique causes a contraction of the knitted part, which is desirable on the waistband. If you then switch to the normal knitting pattern, the ribbed collar still has an effect on the knit. In order to have a bit more knit area at this point, increase in the first row after the cuff pattern. You knit a stitch out of several stitches within a row. Pay attention to a uniform distance between the individual increase meshes.

For cuts with very blousy sleeves, this effect can be achieved by knitting a lot of stitches (one stitch out of every other stitch). Due to the tight cuffs, the smooth, right-hand knit fabric is laid in light folds.

4. Increasing for shaping

For special cuts (breast modeling in jackets), the stitch increase must take place within the knitted piece. A stitch is marked at the corresponding position and to the right and left of it is increased in previously calculated row spacing. These doublings can be done directly next to the marked stitch or you can each run a stitch smoothly knit right and double with the adjacent stitch. In this way, an optical pattern develops in the knit, which can be used for smooth right knitwear.

Make a few stitches and knit several rows. Select a stitch of your choice.

Knit right stitches until there is still one stitch left in front of the marker. Double this stitch by knitting out an extra stitch on the right side. Knit the following stitch (the marked stitch) on the right. From the following stitch again knit out an additional stitch right crossed. Then knit all remaining stitches in the row to the right.

Turn over the work, knit on the left over all the stitches. Work in this way a few rows. The work points to you with the right side and you work the next increase. Knit again to the marked stitch. This is now a few rows below, so you must pay close attention to take exactly the same position in the mesh of the current row to knit out. Also back out of the stitch in front of the marker and knit out a loop stitched right after that. In this way, knit several inches to create more volume for the chest area.

Examples of increases

Knit jackets

Sleeves are narrower at the bottom and increase in width towards the shoulder. Here you can see regular increases from the first stitch.

If jackets in the waist area should fit snugly, more width must be incorporated to the chest area. The additional stitches are caused by the increases in the side seams.

Boleros receive round shapes on the front pieces when they are started with a few stitches on the waistband and then increased. You hit about a third of the stitches, which make up the entire front width.

Knitt the first row (back row) on the left. Turn the work over. A nice rounding results if you now re-stitch five stitches on the needle and then knit them off to the right.

Over the rest of the row also on the right, turn the work and knit all the stitches left. Turn the work over. Now hit four new stitches, knit the row and back again. Then hit again three new stitches, in the next row put on two new stitches. After the next back row turn the work over. It has formed a curve and you widen the front part now still so long until the desired width is reached. The further increase is due to the doubling of the first or the second stitch after the edge stitch. The other front part is knitted against the same, doing the striking and doubling the stitches at the end of the series.

Knit buttonholes

Buttonholes are also caused by the increase. The stitches that were taken from the knitting process are re-struck again. Here's how two stitches were chained off. Knit over the remaining stitches to the right.

Turn the work over. Since there are now two stitches missing from the total number, they must be added again to close the knit. For this purpose, two new stitches are struck over the two chopped stitches and the remaining stitches are knitted on the left.

The work is turned and knitted to the newly posted stitches. These must now be knitted according to the stitch pattern, ie right. Finish the rest of the series in this way. The buttonhole has been created, the knit was closed again and it is knitted on until the next buttonhole is to be worked. For larger buttonholes, more stitches are decommissioned and accordingly more stitches are posted in the next row.

Increases for lapel collar

Jackets with lapel collar are stylish and have a special touch. They are also not difficult to knit, because they are also created only by increasing stitches. If the front part is knitted up to the armpit, the lapels are started. The increases knit at the edge, which forms the front center at the end. With the right front part (on the right body), you always work the increases at the beginning of the row.
You knit the edge stitch on the right and knit another stitch from the second stitch on the right side. The remaining row and the back row work as the stitches appear.

Depending on the cut shape of the lapel collar, take a stitch in every second or fourth row by knitting it out of the stitch following the edge stitch and knit another stitch on the right side. In this way, the edge widened by several centimeters and then forms the lower flap of the lapel.

Hat

Caps are held by a tight waistband on the head. If you want to sit casually as a beanie, you need a lot more stitches right after the waistband to increase the width of the hat. For this purpose, a row of right stitches is knitted after the ribs, in the same time over the entire width distributed many stitches are increased. This creates the loose case of the cap.