Phillippa jumper: 6. methods to increase

The jumper front and back has two times an increase in the amount of the stitches. The first time is when the last row of the ribbing is knitted and the second time in the rows above the waist to the breastline. When knitting the front and the back you increase at both sides. After sewing the sides together the increase is not visible.
When knitting in round the sides of your garment are already attached. This means that depending on what method you use, the increasing of the stitches will be more or less visible.



There are several methods to increase:

• - knit twice in one stitch
• - 'make one'
• - yarn over

'vintage' instructions
If you need to 'increase' or 'make one' in a vintage (lace or other) pattern make sure you reed the instructions very carefully! Often it is described in the 'Abbrevations' section what they exactly mean, often you just need to experiment... For example, 'make' could mean: "make by bringing the yarn to the front of the needle and over it". This is a yarn forward instead of a regular 'make one' like described below. Making a swatch of the pattern helps you to spot such problems and try out other methods if the instructions are not clear. 

knit one stitch twice
This is the most common method. You knit twice in one stitch (from the front and the back) before lifting it off the needle. In the next row there will be two stitches above the one in the previous row.
This is the method I used on the Phillipa jumper. To keep the edges neat, I increased by knitting 2 times in the stitch after the first one and before the last stitch of the row. That way there are two stitches between the increasing which makes a neat, barely visible dotted line at the sides:
   

The small 'holes' are better to see on the wrong side:
   

make one
Another method to increase is usually referred to as 'make one'. You make a stitch next to the one in the previous row. You do this by picking up the yarn between two stitches, twisting it and knitting it. I like this method, because it looks so neat and makes an almost invisible increase without holes.


On the right side you see the new stitches literally 'grow' between the two stitches of the previous row (left). At the back you see small dots (right).
Again, you could increase before the last stitch and after the first stitch of a row. Then you would have two stitches running vertically at the side, with the new stitches next to them.
   

yarn over
The yarn over method is used in lace patterns, because it creates a small hole between two stitches. It is usually followed by a 'k2tog' in the next row to reduce the increase that is made. In patterns it is often referred to as 'yarn over' or 'yarn forward'.
Because of the holes this method it is not used for increasing the width of a garment.


Previous posts in the Phillipa jumper series:
1. introduction
2.yarn an gauge
3. fit an ease
4. pattern charts an diagrams
5. knitting in round &stitch markers