Easiest Way To Remember Make One Stitch
Make 1 Left (M1L) and Make 1 Right (M1R) have always been increases I have to look up every time. I tried all the mnemonics and tips I could find, but I still couldn't remember which one was which.
What Is A Make 1 Increase?
In a Make 1 increase you pick up the bar between two stitches, and knit a new stitch into it. This adds to your stitch count, and depending on which way you do it, the new stitch leans either left or right.
In some situations it's not very important which way an increase leans, but in others it does. Especially if there are increases on multiple rows in the same spot, you'll want the increases to lean in the same direction for a smooth line.
My Realization
I finally started working on the Jubilee shawl from Titityy. It is a triangular shawl, so there are increases on either side of the center stitch on all the right side rows. Somewhere around the 30th row a light bulb turned on about how to make the increases.
All I need to do is pick up the bar with the needle on the side I want it to lean toward!
Most tutorials I've seen focus on picking up the bar between stitches with the left needle from either the back or the front. Which makes sense, you're going to hold the stitch on that needle so you can use the right needle to knit into it.
Instead, I can pick up the bar with the needle I want it to lean toward. And I will always do it from the front. No remembering if the left or right is related which way the bar is picked up or which way it's knit.
And then knit it in the most awkward way possible.
When picking up the bar with the left needle, it's harder to knit through the back leg.
When picking up the bar with the right needle, once it's moved to the left in order to work it, it's harder to knit through the front leg.
Does that help?
One of the reasons there are so many different instructions and tutorials for knitting methods is because there are so many different ways that brains work. I hope this tip helps out someone who hasn't been able to memorize the differences any other way, like me.
1 comment
Brilliant! I had to immediately pick up my knitting and give it a try! WOW! Now I can stop having to think so hard every time I come to one as well!