Do you have a favourite knitting technique that you use all the time? Mine is “wrap and turn”. The reason why I am blogging about wrap & turn is because many of my patterns include this technique. So, I thought it is about time for me to do a detailed tutorial about it.

Recently one of my new patterns called Hollyberry Bonnet & Cape have been published in Interweave Holiday Gift 2011 (super hurray!). This pattern is a typical example of wrap & turn technique.The horizontally shaping of the cape and the bonnet brim shaping are all worked using short-row technique.

I was thrilled to read in the magazine that the design is expertly shaped and designed. Seeing such a wonderfully edited and stylised publication of my knitting pattern, it made me think even more that I want to make sure that my patterns are logically constructed, knitable and achievable with 100% satisfaction!

So today I would like to write a detailed knitting tutorial about “wrap & turn”.

WRAP & TURN is one of the methods in short-row knitting. Short-row knitting allows you to change the direction of knitting, creating darts, mitred corners, vertical gathers and curves. It’s used for toe-up sock (the toe bits), horizontal yoke garments and lots of other 3D knitting!

In a nutshell: wrap & turn is worked as taking the yarn to opposite side of work (so if you are on the knit stitch, bring yarn front, if you are on the purl stitch, bring yarn back), slip next stitch from left to right needle, return yarn to working side, then slip st back from right to left needle. This will wrap the base of the stitch. The remaining stitches are unworked. Turn and continue working.

If you want to master all knitting techniques including various short-row knitting methods, I highly recommend Knitter’s Handbook by M. Stanley.

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The process of short-row knitting (i.e. wrap & turn) is divided by two stages: 1) The first stage is to do the actual wrap & turn, 2) The second stage is to “erase” the wraps by working together the wrap with the stitch.

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STAGE 1: WRAP AND TURN

RIGHT-SIDE of the work

When you reach to the stitch where you need to wrap & turn;

You will see that the stitch has a wrap at the base.

WRONG-SIDE of the work

When you reach to the stitch where you need to wrap & turn;

You will see that the stitch has a wrap at the base.

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STAGE 2: ERASING THE WRAPS

This is done so as to prevent a hole being made between the rows. You can ignore this process if you like the wraps to remain for a decorative purpose.

The most important thing is to pick up the wrap from the right-side of the work. This way, all the wraps would be tucked behind the wrong side of the work after the stitches are knitted together.

You can pick up the wrap either with right or the left needles. I will show you how you can do both methods.

RIGHT-SIDE of the work

METHOD 1) Using right needle (very similar to slip, slip, knit (ssk)):

METHOD 2) Using the left needle:

WRONG-SIDE of the work

METHOD 1) Using right needle:

METHOD 2) Using the left needle:

Here is the video tutorial.

Happy knitting!