Knitting for Beginners: Knits vs Purls

This Beginner Knitting Tutorial will Answer the Below Questions and Techniques:

• What Happens if I Only Purl?
• How to use Knits and Purls to make the Garter Stitch.
• How to Knit and How to Purl.
• How to Tell a Knit from a Purl while your Project is on the Needles.
• How to use Knits and Purls to make the Stockinette Stitch.

Knitting and purling: what's the difference? Hi, I'm Melissa from Modern Made, and I'm here to teach you how to knit. How can you tell a knit from a purl when looking at your own work? Can you just purl an entire project, or does that not work?

What Happens if You Only Purl?

This swatch right here I made by only purling; no knits were involved in the making of the swatch. What it made is the garter stitch. This is also the garter stitch, and I made it with all knits. So the green one is all purl, and the white one is all knits, but they're both the garter stitch. You can see that they look the same. You see, it's the contrasting combinations of knits and purl that can create a wide variety of patterns. The purl itself is just the reverse side of a knit.

I'll show you in just a moment how to recognize a knit from a purl. These right here on the top are knits, so you can see that. But if you turn them around, it's different; these bumps back here are purl. If you have a purl on one side, it's going to be a knit on the other and vice versa.

How to Make a Knit Stitch

Now, let's get into working a knit versus working a purl. When you're working a knit, always think behind. So the yarn goes behind, and then the needle in your right hand is going to go into the loop and up and behind the needle in your left hand. Now you can wrap the yarn from the right around the back to the left and then pull your right needle through that loop, up and under, and then slide the loop on your left needle onto your right needle.

So let's do that one more time: think "behind." Our yarn is staying behind our work, and we're going to move our needle in our right hand up and behind the needle in our left hand. Wrap your yarn, and then slide that needle up and under the loop on your left needle, and then move that loop over onto your right needle.

So that's just a little refresher on working the knit, just in case you need it. I'm going to work a few knits so I can show you what the knit will look like after it's worked and point that difference out to you from the purl. I've worked a few knits, and you can see that our fabric is looking different. It's flat; the stitches look like interlocking chains or V's. It's not bumpy like the purl.

How to Tell The Difference Between a Knit and a Purl

The way I learn to tell the difference between knits and purl when they're on your needles is to look at the stitches. Your knits are going to wear v-necks, and your purl are going to wear chel X. So that bump right there, that's a purl. If you pretend that the loops on your needle are a head, you can see a little turtleneck under there. Over here on the knits, they're more like v-necks.

How to Make a Purl Stitch

Now, if we want to work a purl, think in front. I'm going to bring the yarn in front of my work, and then the needle in my right hand is going to pass down and in front of the needle in my left hand as I work through that loop. Wrap your yarn up and around the needle in your right hand, and then move your right needle into that loop in your left needle and then push that loop over onto your right needle.

You can already see how we created a bump there; that's your purl. You can think of it as a bump or a turtleneck—whatever works for you. I'll show you one more purl. So again, think in front; keep your yarn in front. Move your needle in your right hand down and in front of the needle in your left hand. Wrap your yarn, scoop your needle into that loop on your left needle, and then pull that loop over onto your right needle.

I'm going to finish off this row with purl, and then when I turn my work around, you can see that on the other side it's knits. You can see those flat stitches, v-necks—however you want to think about them, those are knits. But then on this side, it's purl.

How to Make The Stockinette Stitch

Let me demonstrate to you with a very simple stitch how the contrasting knits and purl create different effects in knitting. I'm going to show you the stockinette stitch, and the stockinette stitch is just made by alternating rows of knits and purl. I have knits here on this side of my fabric, and I'm going to knit on top of those knits. Since you always turn your work around to do another row, you know that the row we just worked was purl.

So my last row was purl. I turned my work around, and now on the opposite side there were knits, and I'm going to knit on top of those knits. I worked a row of purl, and now I'm working a row of knits. There are multiple different ways to think about this, so I'm just trying to phrase it in different ways that will compute for different people. You can see that my fabric is becoming flat. This is the stockinette stitch.

If I turn my work to work another row, it doesn't have the same flat effect on the other side. It still looks like the garter stitch over on this side, and you can see that it looks like purl over here, even though we just worked knits. If we want to keep the stockinette stitch going, since I just worked a row of knits, I will now work a row of purl.

So for the stockinette stitch, you can either think to yourself, "Alternate knits and purl, rows of knits and purl," or you can think, "Always purl your purl and knit your knits." Since I have purl over here, I'm going to purl. When I reach the end of my work and turn it around, you can see that I still have the flat stockinette stitch on the other side.

How to Make the Garter Stitch

If I wanted to interrupt this stockinette stitch and start working the garter stitch again, instead of knitting on top of these knits right here, I would work another row of purl. So I just worked a row of purl; I would purl again, and then you get the bumps on your fabric, and it would start turning into the garter stitch again. You can see those bumps now from working a row of purl.

If I then worked another row of purl, you would start making the garter stitch like down here. I really hope that this video is helpful if you're a beginner to knitting and you are a little bit confused about knits and purl. I'll link some of my other beginner knitting videos here, and you can also find some easy and beginner knitting patterns on my website. Thank you so much! I'll see you next time.