How I Work Short Rows

Short rows are used in knitting for shaping. They are used in socks to form the heel, in shawls for various reasons, and in sweaters for shaping the shoulders and neckline. There are lots of short row methods: German, Carol Sunday’s Short Rows, wrap and turn, Japanese, and yarn over are some of the most common. Interweave has a free guide on some of these here.

I’ve used many of these methods and the one I’m currently partial too is yarn over short rows. If you are knitting my Frolic Pullover ADD LINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and working yarn over short rows for the first time, I made this video tutorial to help explain them.

Step 1: You have placed markers when you joined the sleeves and body. The Beginning of the Round (BOR) marker is at the left back, there is a marker at the left front and another marker at the right front. It looks like this:

Short Row 1: The instructions say to knit to marker, slip marker, knit a few stitches and turn. It looks like this:

Short Row 2: Make a backward yarn over, purl 6 stitches, slip marker, purl across the left sleeve, slip the beginning of round marker, purl across the back of the sweater, across the right sleeve, slip the next marker, purl 6. Here is a diagram of that:

And here are videos of how to work these Short Rows

The rest of the short rows are basically the same, just worked a few stitches less than the previous ones. Here’s the rough idea:

Short Row 3 and 4: Short Row 3 ends with the instructions to slip a marker and then turn. This might seem strange, but the point is to get the yarn over on the correct side of the marker so that when closing up the gaps the marker isn’t in the middle of what you want to close up. Same thing with the end of short row 4 and start of row 5. I made videos of everything in case you need help. But before that I’d like to sign off by saying how much it means to me that you are knitting my patterns. Thank you so much! <3 Andrea