Short Rows Tutorial Part 6: How to use short rows to make your sweaters fit

I don't know why I remember this, but I do. In sixth grade we had a substitute teacher for a week who would make students who came to class late say "better late than never, better yet never late".

Anyways, here's the rest of the short-rows tutorial.

I learned how to do short rows when I first began knitting socks. Here are some other ways to insert short rows to make your knit garments fit better.

You can add short rows to the lower back of your sweater to keep it from riding up. This is especially helpful to wear with low rise jeans if you don't want to flash your lower back.

 You can put short rows in the bust area of your sweater in addition to the waste shaping. This is helpful if you are...well endowed. Waist shaping will add width to the bust area, but by adding short rows you also add length, so that the sweater will drape better over the bust area. 

This is the same idea as above, but on a cardigan. Here you will one set of short rows on one side, then do the other side, whereas above you would do paired short rows on both sides simultaneously. 

You can see the rest of this series here: 

Short Rows Tutorial Part 1: What are short rows?

Short Rows Tutorial Part 2: Wrap and Turn
Short Rows Tutorial Part 3: Yarn Over Short Rows
Short Rows Tutorial Part 4: Make One Short Rows
Short Rows Tutorial Part 5: Japanese Short Rows

Short Rows Tutorial Part 5: Japanese Short Rows

Today I will be showing you step-by-step how to do Japanese Short Rows. I think these are the most seamless and best looking on the right side, but they do show on the wrong side. They are also more tedious than any of the other methods and if you're doing a lot of short rows it's a lot of safety pins. 


In this example I will be working 3 sets of paired short rows (to create a curve in the middle) on a swatch that is 30 stitches wide, and each wrap and turn will be two stitches from the end, then two stitches from the previous wrap and turn.

Here you can see the right side. The wraps are practically invisible. 

And here is the wrong side, where you can clearly see the wraps. 

Want more short rows? 

Short Rows Tutorial Part 1: What are short rows?

Short Rows Tutorial Part 2: Wrap and Turn

Short Rows Tutorial Part 3: Yarn Over Short Rows

Short Rows Tutorial Part 4: Make One Short Rows

Short Rows Tutorial Part 5: Japanese Short Rows

Short Rows Tutorial Part 6: How to use short rows to make your sweaters fit

Short Rows Tutorial Part 4: Make One Short Rows

Today I'm posting a step-by-step tutorial for make one short rows. Personally, these are my least favorite. I think that the 'wrapped' stitch becomes warped and there are small holes left where the stitch is picked up. 


In this example I will be working 3 sets of paired short rows (to create a curve in the middle) on a swatch that is 30 stitches wide, and each wrap and turn will be two stitches from the end, then two stitches from the previous wrap and turn.

Here I've marked where the short row turns occur. You can see that there are small gaps from the M1s. 

Want more short rows? 

Short Rows Tutorial Part 1: What are short rows?

Short Rows Tutorial Part 2: Wrap and Turn

Short Rows Tutorial Part 3: Yarn Over Short Rows

Short Rows Tutorial Part 4: Make One Short Rows

Short Rows Tutorial Part 5: Japanese Short Rows

Short Rows Tutorial Part 6: How to use short rows to make your sweaters fit

Short Rows Tutorial Part 3: Yarn Over Short Rows

We're on Day 3 of short rows! 
Today I'll be covering how to do yarn over short rows. These seem less fiddly to me than the wrap and turn, but not quite as tidy. You can try them and tell me what you think. 


In this example I will be working 3 sets of paired short rows (to create a curve in the middle) on a swatch that is 30 stitches wide, and each wrap and turn will be two stitches from the end, then two stitches from the previous wrap and turn.

Want more short rows? 

Short Rows Tutorial Part 1: What are short rows?

Short Rows Tutorial Part 2: Wrap and Turn

Short Rows Tutorial Part 3: Yarn Over Short Rows

Short Rows Tutorial Part 4: Make One Short Rows

Short Rows Tutorial Part 5: Japanese Short Rows

Short Rows Tutorial Part 6: How to use short rows to make your sweaters fit

Short Rows Tutorial Part 2: Wrap and Turn Short Rows

Today I'm going to be showing you how to do the classic wrap and turn short rows. These short rows are easy to employ and don't leave any holes in your knitting. They are not as invisible as other ways to wrap and turn, but are easy to work.

In this example I will be working 3 sets of paired short rows (to create a curve in the middle) on a swatch that is 30 stitches wide, and each wrap and turn will be two stitches from the end, then two stitches from the previous wrap and turn.

 Below you'll see the 6 wrapped stitches after being knit with the wraps.

Tomorrow I'll be posting step-by-step instructions for the yarn over short rows.

Want more short rows? 

Short Rows Tutorial Part 1: What are short rows?

Short Rows Tutorial Part 2: Wrap and Turn

Short Rows Tutorial Part 3: Yarn Over Short Rows

Short Rows Tutorial Part 4: Make One Short Rows

Short Rows Tutorial Part 5: Japanese Short Rows

Short Rows Tutorial Part 6: How to use short rows to make your sweaters fit

Short Rows Tutorial Part 1: What are short rows?

I've decided that this week I'm going to be focusing on short rows. Every day I'm going to post about this wonderful technique. I'll start today by explaining what short rows are and how they work. Later this week I'll continue with posts about how to do different short row techniques including: the wrap and turn short row, the yarn over short row, the make one short row, and the Japanese short row. Then next week I plan on talking about different ways to use short rows. I hope you'll all find this information helpful and interesting.

What are short rows?

Short rows are incomplete rows of knitting, where instead of working every row on the needle you knit back and forth on just some of the stitches.  In the picture you can see below that I knit a swatch, and the pink yarn is where I worked the short rows. The arrows show how I first worked to before the last 3 stitches, then turned the work and purled back to before the last three stitches. I continued to do this two more times, and then I knit across all of the stitches again.

In the picture below you can see that at each turning point the number of pink rows increases by two stitches.

Tomorrow I'll be posting step-by-step instruction on the wrap and turn short row technique. 

Want more short rows? 

Short Rows Tutorial Part 2: Wrap and Turn

Short Rows Tutorial Part 3: Yarn Over Short Rows

Short Rows Tutorial Part 4: Make One Short Rows

Short Rows Tutorial Part 5: Japanese Short Rows

Short Rows Tutorial Part 6: How to use short rows to make your sweaters fit