I used the wrap and turn knitting technique lately in my cabled baby hat pattern and I thought that maybe you would like to dig into it a little bit. You know – get the know-how.

Using wrap & turn knitting stitch in the patterns

You can see wrap and turn in knitting patterns mostly as abbreviations: w&t; W&T; /or fully written out: wrap one (1) and turn; / or just referred to as short rows.

Why wrap and turn?

Let’s start by talking about why you even need this wrap and turn thing. In general, you’ll need this to turn your knitting. To make slants or corners.

If I lose the “wrap” word then you have only “turn”, right? Well, it is what it says – turn. I’ll show you in detail.

Knit somewhere in the middle of your swatch, turn your work and purl back. If we now make full rows, you’ll be able to see that there is a hole in your work.

It happened because knitting is really binding your yarn and connecting stitches with one another and by just turning your work, you didn’t connect these stitches.

So, in one sentence – the whole purpose of wrap and turn in knitting is really just connecting your stitches, so you don’t have this ugly hole in your work.

Wrap and turn instructions

Wrap and turn on knit side

Knit to the point where you want your wrap and turn to be.

Bring yarn to front, slip next stitch purlwise (from the left-hand needle onto right-hand needle)…

…bring yarn to back, slip slipped stitch back to left-hand needle and turn. Purl your next row.

This is how it will look like:

Now knit to the point where you can see your wrapped stitch.

You have two options at this point:

One is just to knit forward and do nothing (this is how it will look like).

I usually like to use this method when I want the showing yarn to have a decorative purpose – like on sock heels.

Or do this: slip wrapped stitch from left-hand needle to right-hand needle, with left-hand needle grab the wrapping yarn…

… and slip your wrapped stitch back on the left needle. Knit the wrapping and wrapped stitch together and knit to the end of row.

You can see that you have this beautiful knitting with nothing much to show. Cool, right?

*If you have knitted your swatch with me then you’ll start to notice that our work is slanting a little. That’s our goal.*

Wrap and turn on purl side

Purl to the point where you want your wrap and turn to be.

Bring yarn to back, slip next stitch purlwise (from the left-hand needle onto right-hand needle), bring yarn to front, slip slipped stitch back to left-hand needle and turn. Knit your next row.

This is how it will look like:

Now purl to the point where you can see your wrapped stitch.

You have two options at this point:

One is just to purl forward and do nothing (this is how it will look like).

Or do this: slip wrapped stitch from left-hand needle to right-hand needle, with left-hand needle grab the wrapping yarn …

… and slip your wrapped stitch back on the left needle. Purl the wrapping and wrapped stitch together and purl to the end of row.

Remembering which way to bring yarn

How do you remember which way you have to bring your yarn?

It’s actually logical. If you’re making the knit stitch then you automatically hold your yarn at back. So you will be bringing your yarn to front and then to back.

If you’re purling then you have your yarn at front, so you need to bring it to back and then at front.

Difference between wrapping on knit side or wrapping on purl side

Now – what is the difference between a wrap and turn on the knit side or wrap and turn on purl side?

If you take a look at your work then you’ll notice that if you made your wrap and turn on the knit side, then your work started to slant to left. And if you made your wrap and turn on the purl side, then your work started to slant to right.

That’s the difference.

Wrap and turn holes / gaps

You made your wrap and turn and you still have a gap. I feel your pain, but there is a solution. This may happen when you make a wrap too tightly. Loosen it up a little bit. Better?