There is a number of ways to make short rows in knitting. The most common one is called “wrap and turn” (usually shown as w&t in the patterns). It’s not a complicated way, but for some reason, it doesn’t work well for me. Occasionally, I forget to pick the wrap in the next full row, and then the whole work is a mess 🙁
So I was quite happy when I discovered “shadow wraps” in an amazing book “Socktopus” by Alice Yu. I adjusted it slightly to make it even easier to do, and now I use this “adjusted shadow wrap” method any time I need to make short rows.
Here’s how it works (every step described below is also shown in this video tutorial):
HOW TO MAKE A SHADOW WRAP ON THE KNIT SIDE OF THE WORK
1. Work to the spot where you need to turn your work.
2. With the working yarn at the back of the work, insert the tip of the right needle from front to back into the top part of the stitch that is below the next stitch (it will be the first stitch on the left needle).
3. Wrap the tip of the right needle with the yarn, and pull the wrap through creating a new knit stitch. Click here to watch how to do it.
4. Place the new stitch on the left needle and turn your work.
The extra stitch we’ve just created is a “shadow” of the live stitch. Its only job is to prevent the hole that would otherwise appear if we turned the work without making the wrap.
That’s it. Now let’s see how to make a wrap on the purl side of the work.
HOW TO MAKE A SHADOW WRAP ON THE PURL SIDE OF THE WORK
1. The first step is the same – work until it’s time to turn your work.
2. Keep the working yarn at the front of the work. Insert the tip of the right needle from back to front into the stitch that is below the first stitch on the left needle.
3. Wrap the tip of the right needle with the yarn for purling, and pull it through the work creating a new purl stitch. Click here to watch how to do it.
4. Place the new stitch on the left needle and turn your work.
As you see from the photo above, now we have another “shadow stitch”. And, that’s why we don’t have any unexpected holes.
HOW TO TREAT SHADOW STITCHES IN THE NEXT FULL ROW
This part is easy. The shadow stitch is not really a stitch. It’s more of a guardian that keeps the edges of the short row without holes. That means that we won’t treat it as a separate stitch, and will simply work it together with its “twin” in the next full row, just as it is shown in this part of the video tutorial.
As a result, we have a nice-looking short row shaping without holes and forgotten wraps.
If you enjoyed this tutorial,
here’s something else you might find helpful:
“Neat Side Edges” Book
Learn twelve ways to make side edges of a knitted project nice and tidy. Plus, ways to fix side edges, and a way to improve edges of finished projects.
Happy knitting!
