#but like if youre telling me the neck ribbing is a 1x1 i need an even number of stitches it just works like that | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

continent-of-wild-endeavor · 1 year

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I was messing around with Fisherman's Ribbing, since I see it described as an alternative to brioche, and damned if it isn't just about identical. Idk if you can do it in two colors, but it's a hell of a lot less annoying than actual brioche.

Then I came across something that said you could just knit all the stitches, with no purling at all, and ??? Yeah that actually works. Section A is "proper" fisherman's rib, and B is the "garter" version. They're not identical - A pulls in a little more (though the cast on is also constraining it) and its valleys are a little deeper - but it's pretty damn close.

This is gonna be a long post, so I'll put more pics & explanations under a break.

First: What is fisherman's rib?

It's basically a k1p1 ribbing, except you knit into the stitch below the working one, and that alternates between rows.* You set up a k1p1 ribbing first, working flat, and then purl your purls as normal, but for each knit stitch you come to, put the needle in here

and pull through. You'll have two loops on the back of your stitch, but no change in # of stitches. In the next row, these stitches will be purled and the other stitches will get the k1below treatment.

The magic trick is to just knit them all, alternating below & regular knits. It helps to establish the ribbing with a couple k1p1 rows first, so you can tell where you are, but because the k1below flips both the loops over to the back, regardless of how the row below was worked, it effectively hides what would have been the garter ridges/purl bumps on the front.

Here's those sections spread apart. You can see there's a minor difference in how it looks in the "valleys" between the knit columns, but it really isn't significant. A is a tiny bit neater looking, perhaps, and has a more dramatic dip into those valleys. But the cheater version is pretty damn good!

Ok, but can I do it in the round? Can I avoid the dreaded constant back&forth of 1x1 ribbing and still get this cool result?

Section C is me doing it "properly" in the round, stranding the yarn across the back: alternating rows of "k1below, p1" and "k1, p1below"**. Purling into the row below is only slightly more awkward than the knitted version. This is a short section bc I could see, yeah, this is working as expected.

Section D is me dicking around with all-knit or mostly-knit options in the round, putting in purls only on so many rows, and they don't really work. It's a lovely squishy fabric, but it isn't ribbing.

Section E, I think, is the best in-the-round solution. The "k1, p1below" rows are worked as normal, but on the k1below rows you can just knit the purls. This is the same as B. It's not a complete solution, but only every other row is worked as ribbing, so it's something.

F is kinda in between, & unsatisfactory for me. It's done like E, but only purling on every other p1below row. (Ie "k1below, k1" for rows 1 3 & 4, "k1, p1 below" for row 2) Even less purling***, it does look like ribbing, though not as deep, and it's squishy, but it doesn't quite work as fisherman's rib. Still a perfectly nice texture to use somewhere else. That last pic, where it's stretched out, really shows the difference.

Conclusion: If you want to purl/work 1x1 ribbing less, and still get a lovely fisherman's rib/brioche result, version B is a fantastic solution for working flat, and E is a pretty good solution in the round. You will have to purl some in the round, alas.

After all this, it didn't even work out for the sock leg I was swatching for. Too loosey-goosey, and I was already using 2.25mm needles. For something lovely & soft & squish, like a cowl/neck, scarf, shawl, or what have you, that's all right, but if you need the ribbing to actually do any work (or approximate a stockinette/garter gauge) you'll want to use a smaller needle than normal for a given yarn.

Footnotes below:

*I have just had more thoughts of variations. The basic version alternates which stitches get the k1below treatment just by the nature of the k1p1 pattern. What about wider ribs? A 3x1 ribbing could have edge stitches that get "belowed" as usual and a center stitch that's knit normally every row, or the middle one could get it on other rows... There are a lot of possibilities I haven't explored. Some will only get a nice squishy texture, like my whole D section, but others would be actual ribbing.

**This is not technically written correctly, bc it would look slightly different depending on whether you have a slipped edge stitch, whether you're working with an odd or even # of stitches, etc. You knit your knits, and you purl your purls, and on one row half the stitches get worked below, and on the next row the other half do. Don't work the same stitches "below" repeatedly - they'll just bunch up. I don't want to write it out super correctly bc it's longer & I think it's harder to understand that way. If you're like "damn that makes no sense, how does it all line up?" then please look at any one of the many instructions/tutorials the google can bring you, and make a swatch. I nearly always have to make a swatch to get a new concept to really work in my mind.

***I am not one of those who hates purling altogether (though these methods will help those ppl, too), but going back & forth for k1p1 ribbing is tiring. If you hold the yarn in your left hand while you work, this probably isn't even a concern for you.

#knitting #fiber arts #fisherman's rib #brioche knitting #knitting technique #needlework #long post

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