Slip stitch patterns are an easy way to add color to your knitting; unlike Fair Isle and Intarsia, you knit with only one color per row so they are less complicated. When knitting slip stitch patterns, some stitches from a previous row are slipped and others are knit or purled with a new color.
When a row is completed, you will have stitches that are slipped which are a different color from the stitches that you just knit with the new color. The slipped stitches will be elongated; this will cause the stitch pattern to pull in, so check your gauge carefully if you substitute one in a pattern that calls for Stockinette or another less dense stitch pattern.
Tips to Know
- Slip stitch patterns are most often knit in Stockinette but you will find some that combine knits and purls on the same row; this results in a fabric that is both colorful and textured.
- Stitches can even be worked with yarn held in the front or manipulated to create "floats" (strands running across other stitches) for contrast.
- Slip stitch patterns can be worked in two or more colors.
- Generally you won't find a stitch pattern that calls for more then 3 stitches to be slipped.
- Take caution to make sure the strand from the working yarn that results when slipping the stitch is kept loose (resist the urge to pull that "float" tight) or your fabric will pucker.