Master Knitter Level I – Swatches #4, #5, & #6 – Increases

Swatches 4 through 6 in the Master Knitter Level I program are all about increases. Specifically, each swatch demonstrates a particular type of increase. The increases are done on each side, with three stitches before the right edge increase and three stitches after the left edge increase.

Bar Increases

Swatch 4 - Bar Increase

Swatch 4 demonstrates the Bar Increase. This is probably the increase most knitters first learned to make when knitting. It often written as “KFB” in patterns — which means “Knit in the front and back loops”. When you knit into the front loop of a knit stitch and then knit in the back loop of the same knit stitch, the resulting increase has a purl bump where the second stitch was made. It is clearly visible as you can see in this picture.

I learned a few things working on this swatch. Since I am now much more aware of my tension, I found that the purl bumps looked much better if I made certain I kept the tension even with both stitches. It’s much the same issue as when I had trouble getting even tension in ribbing.

Also, through my research, I learned that you should never make your increases on the very edge of your knitting — you should have at least one stitch on the edge before doing the increase. This makes it much easier and neater to do seams. This is something to pay attention to when you are knitting pieces that will be sewn together — I know I will practice this in my future knitting projects.

Swatch 5 - Knitted Make 1 Increases

Swatch 5 - Make 1 Increases

Swatch 5 demonstrates Make 1 increases. On the right edge, I knit an M1R increase — which means “Make 1 Right” — this is a right-slanting increase. It is made by inserting the left needle from the back and lifting the horizontal strand between stitches onto the left needle and knitting into the front of this strand.

On the left edge, the increase is an M1L — which means “Make 1 Left” — a left-slanting increase. It is made by inserting the left needle from the front and lifting the horizontal strand between stitches onto the left needle and knitting into the back of this strand.

M1 increases are tighter and there is no purl bump on the front of the knitting.

Swatch 6 - Lifted Increases

Swatch #6 - Lifted Increases

Swatch 6 demonstrates the Lifted or Raised Increase. This is the most invisible of increases — and was an increase I had never used before, so the entire swatch was a learning experience.

Again, I knit a right-slanting increase on the right edge. This increase is done by lifting the stitch below the stitch on the left needle and knitting it.

The left-slanting increase on the left edge of the swatch gave me the most difficulty. I had to search out several different pictures of it in my references before I figured it out. The left-slanting lifted increase is done by lifting the stitch below the stitch just knitted on the right needle and then knitting it.

The best pictures and explanations I found of this increase, as well as the others, were in an online article at Knitty.com, entitled “Techniques with “Theresa – Increases”.

So, these three swatches improved my technique when knitting increases and I learned a method of increasing that I had never used before. Check out the article on Knitty.com if you want to explore these methods.

Related Post

And finally…The Third Hat: Beret in Bee StitchAnd finally…The Third Hat: Beret in Bee Stitch

As you know from my previous post, I have been side-tracked with switching to a new computer and then finding that my blog had been hacked.  Well, I think I have recovered from the hack and I have all of my pictures and files transferred to my new computer — so, now to catch up and post about the third hat I started in January and finished in February.

My third hat is a beret knit in Bee Stitch.

Beret in Bee Stitch

This hat was also inspired by the thread about Hermione Granger’s hat in the Deathly Hallows, Part I, in the Harry Potter Lover’s group on Ravelry.  Again, I think the beret is fairly close to the original hat.

Bee Stitch Beret 4Details:  Hat was knit with Stitch Nation Full O’ Sheep (100% Peruvian Wool), using US Size 7 (4.5 mm) needles.  This yarn is very soft, aran weight, though I did find it a bit splinty.  The color is Passionfruit.  Stitch Nation is manufactured by Red Heart (Coats & Clark). 

When increasing for the beret, I basically doubled the number of stitches and it created a very slouchy beret, so if you’d like it a less slouchy, I’d only increase by 50%. I converted the Bee Stitch so I could knit it in the round and I wrote up the pattern to share with others, so here’s the link: Bee Stitch Beret.

To see my notes on Ravelry, use this link.

A Study of Pooling in a Variegated Sock YarnA Study of Pooling in a Variegated Sock Yarn


Several days ago, I decided to knit a pair of plain vanilla socks using Serenity Sock Weight Yarn (Premier Yarns) in the colorway Amethyst. This was a yarn I had purchased at my local Hobby Lobby and had been sitting in my sock yarn stash for a few months. In the skein, the yarn appears to be a mix of greys and purples, and I thought it would result in a striping of the socks. The label does not indicate that the yarn is “self-striping”, but the picture on the label shows a sock with an interesting variation of stripes.

Since I had never knit with this yarn, I knit a circular swatch to determine needle size and gauge before starting on my socks – and this is where my study in “Pooling” began. I started with US 2 (2.75 mm) needles and cast on 64 stitches (which is what I would use for my socks with a gauge of 7 stitches per inch). As I worked on the swatch, I noticed that the yarn was not knitting up in the stripes the way I had anticipated – in fact, it seemed to be predominately purple on one side of the swatch and predominately grey on the other side.


Obviously, I had some “pooling “ going on. Pooling is an effect that occurs when a variegated yarn knits up in “pools” of color, rather than in stripes. Now, I wasn’t really sure I liked the effect – and my stitch gauge was 6.25 spi, rather than the 7 spi I wanted.

So, I decided to do a second swatch with fewer stitches, a smaller needle – and because I had read about pooling in a Rav thread, I also decided to knit from the outside of the skein instead of the inside. I cast on 52 stitches on size US 1.5 (2.50 mm) needles and knit away – and I got more striping – not even stripes, but definitely stripes on both sides of the swatch.


So, I took a picture of the two swatches and posted a comment on Ravlery under the thread, “Examples of Pooling Good & Bad”, stating what I had observed along with my assumption that the change was probably due to knitting from the outside of the skein – and completely ignoring the fact that I had changed the number of stitches in the swatch and this might also be contributing to the way the colors were knitting up.

I must admit, I did not anticipate much of a response to my comment in this thread. But I received several. It’s one of the things I love about Ravelry – fellow knitters are always willing to share and question things. Anyway – after reading the comments, I decided I needed to do a little more work before I could actually answer my fellow Ravelers’ questions.

Off I went to swatch again – this time I decided to start from the inside of the skein, use US 2 (2.75 mm) needles and begin by casting on 72 stitches. I knit approximately 1.5 inches, then purled and decreased the number of stitches to 64 stitches, knit another 1.5 inches, purled and decreased to 54 stitches and knit another 1.5 inches. Here’s a picture showing how the yarn pooled with different numbers of stitches.

So – in response to Robocass and Hypercycloid, who asked me if the difference might be due more to the difference in the number of stitches in my swatches: Clearly, the number of stitches used results in very different color patterning and it doesn’t really matter whether I knit from the inside or the outside of the skein.

Hypercycloid also asked about the length of each of the colors in the yarn. Hmm – I hadn’t thought about that, so I got out the measuring tape and discovered that each purple section of the yarn was approximately 19 inches, while the grey sections were approximately 12 inches. Not quite, but almost a 3 to 2 ratio. Statnerd suggested I count the number of grey stitches compared to the purple stitches in my wider swatch – I did and ended up with 27 stitches of grey to 37 stitches of purple. Again, this is close to a 3 to 2 ratio of purple to grey. All of you were correct in your observations that the colors shift around the circumference of the swatches – and due to the differences in the number of stitches, the colors stack up very differently for different numbers of stitches.

Zgma commented:

“It doesn’t look like a self-striping yarn to me. The striping you got in the top sample is a result of the colors pooling in a way that looks like stripes, not actual “self-striping”. When yarns are labeled self-striping, it is because the runs of color are large enough that for the project intended (as in, socks for self-striping sock yarn), the color will last for all the stitches in at least one round or row, usually more. When a particular color (for instance, the black in your sock samples) lasts for part of a row, but then in the next row the color occurs before or after it did in the previous row in such a manner that it looks like striping, it doesn’t mean that the yarn is self-striping – just that it is prone to pooling in a stripey way.”

Yep, you are right about that.

To each of those that took the time to comment — thanks! I learned a great deal about pooling and variegated yarns.

I did a little internet surfing on the subject, as well. I found two informative posts about Pooling — One from the Yarn Harlot and the other from Knitting Sutra.

So – I am not really sure if I like this particular yarn – but I have decided to proceed with using it to knit a pair of plain vanilla socks. I am going to use US 2 (2.75 mm) needles with a gauge of 6.25 spi and cast on 54 stitches (this should fit my foot). I’ll post pictures of the final result.

FO: Cable Rib SocksFO: Cable Rib Socks

Knitted Cable Rib Socks

I finally finished the Cable Rib Socks! Yes, this is the unfortunate pair of socks that was eaten by the Roomba. (See post here.).

I set this project aside for some time to work on other project. Typically for this kind of project, I would pick it up every now and again, but not spend much time on it — thus, progress was very slow. In addition, every since the Roomba incident, this pair of socks seemed to be prone to problems (errors?) — in fact, I think I frogged each sock back several rows at least twice. So, it is nice that they are finally done — and I am happy with the result.
Cable Rib Socks

The socks fit well, and they look nice on my feet. They were knit in Knit Picks Risata, Baby Doll colorway — it’s a nice cotton sock yarn and I love the bright rosy pink color. Pattern was Cable Ribbon Socks by Classic Elite Yarns.