VIDEO Tutorial Tuesday – Continental Purl Stitch

As you know, I have been working on a video knitting tutorial series. This week we are covering the purl stitch in the continental method.

In case you haven’t seen the other videos yet, here is a link to the cast on video and a link to the knitting video.

The purl stitch has SO many uses in knitting and is really an essential tool in your toolkit (as my former marketing manager would say).

Image Courtesy of: You-Can-Knit-Too.com

Reasons why you NEED to know the purl stitch:

1. In order to do a gauge swatch (come back in a couple weeks for that post) – you have to be able to do the stockinette stitch – which means you have to know how to purl!  Knit 1 row, purl 1 row (repeat)
2. Any pattern that calls for ribbing calls for the purl stitch – knit 1 purl 1 or knit 2 purl 2 (any variation really)
3. To make cool textured patterns using the seed stitch – you have to be able to purl
4. Most cabling patterns call for you to purl
5. It adds another level of interest and intrigue to your knitted piece

How about I break it down with some screen shots?

Wrap your yarn over your pink, under your ring and middle fingers and over your pointer

Yarn in front of the needle

Needle goes through the back to the front

Grab the yarn with the right needle

Pull the yarn back through the loop

Slide the stitch off the left needle – you have now purled a stitch!

I hope this video and post have helped you learn how to do the purl stitch in the continental style of knitting.  Purling really is essential to knitting. You do not need it for your basic scarf, but once you move past the scarf stage of your knitting, you will definitely want to master this technique.

The next video tutorial will be on how to cast off.  Feel free to leave me a comment if there are other knitting video tutorials that you would like to see on our blog and I will do my best to get them posted!