Learned Today: Raised Increases

When I need to increase a stitch as invisibly as possible within the body of a garment, I use the Raised Increase technique. It increases a stitch by working into a stitch in 1 or 2 rows below the current stitch, hence it’s called a  “Raised Increase”.

There is a Right Raised Increase (RRI) and a Left Raised Increase (LRI) named for the side the increased stitch will rest on in relation to the root stitch. The following pictures will show you how tow work the two raised increases.

Right Raised Increase (LRI)

		If the stitch on your left needle is the child stitch (root), then the stitch in the row below it is the parent stitch. 2) Insert the needle from the front to the back into the right edge of the stitch in the row below (parent) to pick up the right leg.
		3) Wrap the yarn around the right needle and pull through, creating a new stitch on the right needle; you have increased 1 stitch.
		A right raised increase has been knit. 4) Then knit the next stitch (= root stitch or child stitch) on the needle.
		This is how a Right Raised Increase (RRI) looks like: You can see that from the root stitch a new stitch is branching off to the right.

Left Raised Increase (LRI)

Summary: The LRI is worked into the left leg of the stitch in 2 rows below a stitch that was just knit (and on the right needle).

			1) Work to the stitch for which the increase will fall to the left side of (= root stitch). Knit the next stitch which becomes the child stitch on your right needle. The stitch below it is the parent stitch and the stitch below that is the grandparent stitch.
			2) Insert the left needle from the front to the back into the left edge of the grandparent stitch (2 rows below) the stitch on your right needle to pick up the left leg.
			3) Wrap the yarn around your right needle and pull through, creating a new stitch on the right needle; you have increased 1 stitch.
			This is how a Left Raised Increase (LRI) looks like: You can see that from the root stitch a new stitch is branching off to the left.

I hope this helped. 🙂