How to Knit Ribbing: 1x1 and 2x2 Rib Stitch

Ribbing repeats over two stitches, so an even number lets the row start and end the same way. Pattymac casts on 12 for the swatch, which is enough to see the columns form. Any cast on will do the job here.

For 2x2 rib, cast on a multiple of four instead. Size the needles to whatever the yarn band recommends. A light solid color is kinder on the eyes while you are learning, because you have to read the stitches and a variegated yarn hides them.

Check where the working yarn is before you do anything else. For a knit stitch it belongs behind the needles, away from you. Slide the right needle into the front of the first stitch on the left needle, wrap the yarn around the right needle, draw the new loop through and let the old stitch drop off.

That is one knit stitch and the bottom of your first knit column. Every knit stitch you work from here stacks directly above it.

Here is the move this whole page is about. Take the working yarn between the two needle tips and let it sit at the front of the work, toward you. Then purl. Right needle into the stitch back to front, wrap, pull through, drop the old stitch off.

Between the tips, not over the top of the needle. Carrying it over the needle wraps an extra loop that becomes a yarn over, and a yarn over is a hole plus a stitch you did not plan on.

Carry on alternating for the rest of the row, moving the yarn between the tips at every change. Knit, yarn forward, purl, yarn back, knit. On an even stitch count the last stitch of the row lands as a purl.

For 2x2 rib the rhythm is knit two, purl two. The yarn still only moves when the stitch type changes, so it travels half as often and the row goes quicker.

Turn the needle around and look at the row facing you. A knit stitch reads as a flat V lying against the fabric. A purl stitch reads as a raised bump sitting on top of it. They alternate all the way across.

Run a finger along and name each one before you pick the needles back up. Reading the fabric is the skill that keeps you in pattern, and it beats counting rows every time.

Work the row by matching what you see. A flat V gets knitted with the yarn behind. A bump gets purled with the yarn in front. Do that the whole way across and the columns stack straight up the fabric.

This is why ribbing gets written as knit the knits and purl the purls. It also means the pattern survives an odd stitch count or a row you put down halfway through, as long as you read before you knit.

Give the yarn a light tug after each change of stitch. The strand that crossed between the needles wants to sit close against the fabric. Left loose it leaves a slack ladder running between the knit and purl columns, and that gap is the other thing that makes a first rib look untidy.

Spread the piece flat on the table every few rows. The columns should already be visible and running straight.

Keep repeating that same row. Ribbing has no second row to learn. A hat brim or a sock cuff is usually 1 to 2 inches, a sweater hem 2 to 3, and a scarf worked entirely in rib lies flat instead of curling at the edges the way stockinette does.

Let the fabric relax on the needle rather than stretching it out to measure. Rib pulls in by design, so the relaxed measurement is the honest one and it is the one your pattern means.