How to Make a Pearl Stitch

Video Transcript

"Hi, I’m Kelsey. I’ve been knitting for 10 years, and I’m a member of several knitting organizations. If you’ve learned how to knit the knit stitch, then you’ve probably been able to make fabric that looks like this, with alternating rows of bumps. That’s called garter stitching. It’s reversible, and it’s really nice for scarves and such. But, if you want to make a sweater or something else, you are probably interested in making a more smooth fabric. To do that, you have to learn the pearl stitch, which is the next most basic stitch in knitting. When you alternate rows of knitting and pearl knitting, you get something like this, which is called stockinet, which is a really nice smooth stitch to have. Pearl knitting is basically the opposite of knitting. You’re doing it from the opposite side, and when you pearl, you always want to have the yarn in front. The yarn is in front, you’ve got your stitches in your left hand and your needle in your right hand. You want to go into the stitch from right to left and you’ll get a cross like this. Then you take the yarn and you loop it over that right hand needle. So now you’ve got two loops on that right hand needle. And then you want to take that needle and pull the loop you just made through the old loop like so. Slip that stitch off the left hand needle and tighten it on the right one. I’m going to do it again for you. You take your right hand needle, go through the first stitch on the left hand needle from right to left. Take the yarn, make a loop over that right hand needle, and then pull the needle back through the stitch and slip it off the left handed needle. Keep doing that and then you’re pearling, and that will give you the stockinet stitch, and that’s how you pearl. "