Transcript
So I’m going to show you a great ribbing that’s easy to knit in the round. It’s Two by Two, so that’s knit two, pearl two.
Here’s an example of knit two, pearl two. It’s at the top and the bottom of this really simple headband pattern that is available on my website.
It’s got just a little bit of color work. It’s a great first color work pattern.
And it starts off with a two by two ribbing and ends with a two by two ribbing. So you never have to worry about which is the top and which is the bottom.
Two by two ribbing is a really nice ribbing to make the edges of your work flat. It’s not quite as elastic as one by one, which means it does hug in as much. But it’s still wonderful. And it’s really easy to work on circular needles or double points.
So you just have to make sure that the total number of stitches that you’re working on is divisible by four because knit two, pearl two is a four stitch repeat.
So I’m working on 36 stitches, which is divisible by four, so I know that everything is going to work out just fine.
So I have started my round here where you see the tail. I often just use the tail as an end of round marker because I think it’s pretty obvious when its coming up. And I’ve done two knit stitches and two pearl stitches.
If you’re learning to read your work, then you can see that the knit stitches are like a “v” and the pearl stitches are like a bump. So because I just finished two bumps, I know I’m ready for two “v’s”.
So I’m going to knit and knit, and then move the yarn. Pearl and pearl, and then move the yarn. Knit two, and move the yarn to the front. Pearl two, and move the yarn to the front.
And you can see your little ridges lining up. Two pearls, two knits, two pearls, two knits, two pearls, two knits. I’m going to continue around like that as I talk about sort of the pros and cons of knit two, pearl two versus knit one, pearl one.
Like I mentioned, the downside of knit two, pearl two is that it’s not quite as elastic but that could be a good thing. If you’re knitting a sweater that you don’t want to really squeeze in at the bottom, two by two is a great hem. Ditto for cuffs if you don’t like that cinched cuff look. Two by two won’t cinch as much as one by one.
Another benefit of two by two ribbing is that I only have to switch the yarn between, or every second stitch as opposed to every stitch.
So if I’m doing knit one, pearl one, I have to knit a stitch, move the yarn, pearl the stitch, move the yarn.
But when I do knit two, pearl two, I can make two stitches, move the yarn, and then make two stitches and move the yarn. So you don’t have quite as many opportunities to either forget to move the yarn or to do it wrong or to just have to take the millisecond that, you know, it does add up over a project.
So I am approaching the end here. I’ve got two knits left, two pearls left. There’s the end of my round. And there’s the beginning of my round which is perfect.
I just finished two pearls. Next up is two knits. So I’m going to begin my next round and I don’t have to even think about anything.
If you’re doing miles and miles of knit two, pearl two, you don’t even have to watch that end of round come up. You can just keep going until it’s long enough.
So I can see, now that I’ve done a few rounds, they stack up really fast with this big yarn. Here’s my columns of knit. Here’s my columns of pearl.
So that’s how to do knit two, pearl two in the round.
