Increasing Stitches
Increasing can shape your work as well as Increase the amount of stitches on your needles to lengthen the width of a work.
Yarn Over – yo
The Yarn Over technique increased the amount of stitches on your needles and also creates an eyelet or a hole in your work. This technique is very commonly used when creating a lace pattern. If you see “yf” or “yb” these are the Yarn Over technique. Yarn Forward (yf) is for creating a stitch between 2 knit stitches. Yarn Back (yb) is for creating a stitch between 2 purl stitches.
In a Yarn Forward, you bring the yarn to the front of the work (forward-towards you), but in a Yarn Back, you send the yarn to the back of the work (away from you). This technique basically requires you to wrap the yarn around the working needle to create a new stitch. The videos below is full of a detailed explanation. Please note that they may use different abbreviations to what I have mentioned. I have provided a couple of videos just in case one is easier to follow than the other.
Knit Front and Back – kfb
The Knit Front and Back technique is a method by which you knit or purl into a stitch twice. Once into the front and once into the back, before you take the stitch off the left needle.
Make 1 – M1
This technique uses a Running thread (bar) from between 2 stitches in the previous row to increase the amount of stitches you have on your needles. Just like with the decreases, this can increase can be slopped/lean to the left or slopped/lean to the right. The abbreviations you may see in patterns are M1L and M1R. The video below shows both. If a pattern just says M1, then it can be assumed that it wants you to do an M1L which is a slope to the left.
