Ask Amanda: How do I slip a stitch?

As a beginner knitter, I found slipped stitches (or slip stitches, as they’re also written) to be some of the most vague directions when following a pattern (the photo on the left shows off the beautiful stitch texture of Tracery from NGV12, which combines slipped stitches with lace).

It seemed like an easy concept – just transfer the next stitch to the right needle without working it, right? But I found that my slipped stitches didn’t always look the same every time. It wasn’t until I looked it up in a knitting manual that I found out why: a slip stitch in knitting should always be slipped as if to purl unless stated otherwise.

It never occurred to me that there was a difference between slipping a stitch purlwise versus knitwise. I’d always just slipped them in whatever way I felt like it, which can be a relaxing knitting style but will not yield consistent results!

For a quick demo on the difference between slipping a stitch purlwise or knitwise, check out this video from our how-to library:

Now next time you encounter slipped stitches in a pattern, you’ll know exactly what to do!