How to pick up stitches

Most garment projects involve picking up stitches at some point in the process, to add necklines, borders around the armholes, button bands and so on. It’s a relatively straightforward part of the knitting process which most of us are very familiar with – yet if we fail to pick up stitches neatly, the resulting borders will look untidy and be very noticeable, so it’s important to get it right!

Here, I’d like to offer a few tips on how to pick up stitches neatly along stocking stitch and garter stitch edges.

Before we begin, we should say that when a pattern tells you to “pick up” stitches, it usually means to pass the needle tip through the edge of the fabric to pick up loops. You don’t use any yarn for this; you simply pick up one strand or leg of the stitch at the edge of the fabric.

When a pattern instructs you to “pick up and knit”, however, it means you will be using yarn to knit up stitches along the edge. You’ll be passing the knitting needle through a stitch or strand at the edge of the work, wrapping your working yarn around it, and pulling the yarn through, completing it like a normal stitch. It’s also possible to pick up and purl, of course – for this, you’d pass the needle tip through the edge from back to front, wrap the working yarn around it and complete the stitch as you would for a purl.

Picking up rates

Your knitting pattern is likely to tell you how many stitches you should pick up along a certain edge, or suggest a pick-up rate. However, it might be more vague, recommending that you be left with, say, an even number of picked-up stitches, or a multiple of 4 to complete a rib pattern.

There are some common pick-up ratios that you can use if you’re not sure how many stitches to pick up:

Along a vertical stocking stitch edge: pick up 3 stitches for every 4 rows

Along a sloped/diagonal stocking stitch edge: pick up 3 stitches for every 4 rows

Along a cast-off or cast-on edge: pick up 1 stitch in every stitch along the edge

Along a garter stitch edge: pick up 1 stitch for every 2 rows (i.e. 1 stitch for every garter ridge)

Picking up in stocking stitch: step-by-step instructions

To pick up and knit along a stocking stitch edge, you insert your knitting needle behind a stitch from front to back. Check you’re working through the actual edge stitch, and make sure your needle is under the whole stitch – you should have two strands on your needle. (Picking up through just one strand of the edge stitch gives you a looser, messier edge.)

Now wrap the yarn around the needle as if to knit, and pull it through to the front.

Reinsert your needle into the next stitch along – there should be one vertical bar in between – and repeat.

If you’re following a pick-up rate of 3 sts for every 4 rows, you should pick up 3 sts in 3 adjacent rows, then skip a row, then pick up another 3 sts in the next 3 rows. Do not skip 2 adjacent stitches.

Many projects require us to pick up and knit stitches along edges where there have been decreases or stepped cast-offs, such as at necklines or around armholes. Here, use the pick-up ratio for side edges along the straight vertical lengths and diagonal edges, and the pick-up rate for cast-off edges whenever you’re picking up along cast-off sections. Along a top cast-off edge, you would pick up one stitch in every stitch.

When you have a set number of stitches you want to pick up along an edge, it can be helpful to divide the edge into smaller sections, especially if a lot of stitches are involved. Fold the edge in half and place a locking stitch marker at the halfway point, to divide the edge into two sections. Now fold each of these two sections in half and place another marker. You can divide the total number of stitches you want to pick up by four, and pick up this resulting number in each of the four sections.

If you’re finding it tricky to pull the yarn through when picking up because the edge is tight, you can use a needle that’s one size smaller than your project needles for picking up, then change to the needle size stated in the pattern to continue knitting. You could also use the two-needle method – insert your left-hand needle into the edge stitch, then use your right-hand needle to knit it. Some people like to use a crochet hook for this, instead of a needle, to scoop the yarn through and place it on the knitting needle.

It’s important to make sure you start picking up directly into the cast-on or cast-off row for a smooth finish. This will be particularly noticeable if you’ve picked up to add on a ribbed border, and you haven’t begun at exactly the right place, as the bottom of the ribbing will pull up and look messy, as shown above.

It’s easy to get it wrong, because a piece of stocking stitch will often have a slightly rounded edge, making it hard to see where to start your pick-up – what might look like the first row is actually too high.

Pull down firmly on the edge and you should see an even lower space, directly adjacent to the cast-on – start your pick-up here, and the lower edge of your border will look neater.

If your picked-up edge stitches look a little untidy, or there seem to be lots of gaps as you’re picking up, you should find that once you start knitting the stitches will widen out to fill up the spaces – and blocking can always help to tidy things up further once you’ve finished!

Curved edges

Picking up stitches around a curved edge requires a slightly different approach, to avoid puckering. It’s also a situation where a bit of forward planning will help you: when working a shaped piece of knitting where you’ll be picking up stitches later, it’s a good idea to work any decreases or increases one or two stitches away from the edge stitch. This will make it easier to maintain a neat finish when you come to pick up later.

My preferred method for picking up around a curved edge is to place a locking stitch marker at the corner, and work an extra stitch at either side of the marker. To do this, you pick up stitches to the marker, work a yarnover, remove the marker, pick up a stitch at the corner (where the marker was), work a second yarnover, and continue your pick-up to the end. On the next row, when you get to the yarnovers, either knit or purl them through the back loops.

Picking up in garter stitch

When picking up along a garter stitch edge, the usual pick-up rate is 1 stitch for every 2 rows (i.e. 1 stitch for every garter ridge). There are two options here: to pick up a whole stitch (under the stitch between the ridges), or a half stitch (through the bump at the top of each garter stitch ridge).

Picking up a whole stitch involves passing the needle under both strands of the stitch between each garter ridge and pulling the yarn through.

Picking up a half stitch involves passing the needle through the purl bump or ‘frown’ at the top of the garter ridge, and pulling the yarn through.

The two methods produce similar results on the right side of the fabric – I personally think picking up a whole stitch looks a bit nicer on the RS than when a half stitch is picked up. However, this method is very noticeable on the WS as it pushes the purl bumps to the back of the fabric, whereas the other version is much neater on the WS and lies flat. So it all depends on your preference, or whether the wrong side will be visible.