Tutorial - Herringbone Stitch (Knit)

The knit herringbone stitch uses slight modifications to common decrease stitches. This creates a dense, zig-zag texture. Learn how in this tutorial!

Herringbone Stitch Photo Tutorial:

(scroll down for video tutorial)

Herringbone stitch is a stockinette type stitch, meaning it’s always knits on the right side, and always purls on the back. Because of this, it tends to curl. The swatch I’m using in this tutorial is actually a blanket square, and has a garter stitch border on all 4 sides to keep it from curling as much. I’ve ignored that border in the instructions.

Your swatch can have any number of stitches. I recommend at least 15 or 20, so you have a good sized swatch and can see the pattern develop.

Abbreviations used in this tutorial:

k = knit
p = purl
p2tog = purl next 2 stitches together
sl = slip
ssk = slip slip knit
st = stitch
RS = right side

Right Side (Knit) Row:

Start like a normal ssk decrease: Slip each of the next 2 stitches knitwise. This has the effect of twisting both of those stitches around.

Then insert your left needle back into the 2 stitches and knit.

Here’s where it gets different – instead of dropping both stitches from your left needle, drop only 1.

Now we’re going to continue to do modified ssk stitches, but notice that the first stitch is already turned around backwards. So we don’t need to slip that knitwise, instead we slip it purlwise.

The 2nd stitch is not yet twisted, so slip that one knitwise to twist it.

Now finish as before – insert your left needle into the 2 slipped stitches and knit, dropping only one loop.

Continue in this manner across the row. We’re working into two stitches at a time, but since we only drop one of those stitches each time, so our stitch count does not decrease. When you have only 1 stitch left, knit it.

RS row: Ssk dropping only the first st from the left needle, (sl 1 purlwise, sl 1 kwise, insert left needle into the 2 slipped stitches and knit, drop only the first st from the left needle) across until 1 stitch remains, k last st.

Wrong Side (Purl) Row:

The purl side of Herringbone stitch is much easier than the knit side because no stitches need to get twisted.

Purl 2 stitches together (p2tog), but drop only the first loop from the left needle.

Repeat until only one stitch is remaining, and purl that last stitch.

WS row: (P2tog dropping only the first st from the left needle) across until 1 stitch remains, p last st.

Repeat these 2 rows to continue the pattern. You may not see the herringbone texture develop right away, it doesn’t really look like much for the first two or 3 rows, but you should be able to see it after that.