Garter Rib Stitch

The garda rib stitch is a really interesting stitch pattern that you can make using just knit and pearl stitches. It's similar to a regular rib. Maybe you think of like a two by two knit, two pearl, two rib. It is similar to that, but it's a little less stretchy and a little more decorative. So let's take a look at how to do that.

Here, I have two different swatches with two different garter rib stitch patterns. So this blue one, the larger one here, this is a large garter rib pattern and it's worked over a multiple of six stitches plus an extra three. So we can have it balanced on our fabric. And then here I have a smaller Garda rib stitch pattern where this one's worked over a multiple of four stitches plus two again, so we can have the fabric or the stitch pattern rather centered over all of the fabric. So let's take a look at how to knit both of these.

Here, we have the large garter rib stitch pattern and again, it's worked over a multiple of six plus three stitches. So when you're casting on your own project, you would just have a multiple of six. So here I had 1234. So I had 24 here and then plus an extra three. So a total of 27 because six times four is 24 24 plus three is 27.

So that's all you really need to think about in terms of your stitch count. The other thing I want you to consider though is that even though it has the word rib or ribbing in the name, this particular stitch pattern, both the large version and the smaller version really are not stretchy like a traditional ribbing pattern would be. So if we think about a knit two pearl, two rib, which is the most common ribbing pattern in knitting, um that's a very stretchy pattern. It really gives a lot of elasticity and really bounces back on itself. And you can see here there's not really a lot of bouncing back on itself.

There is a little bit of stretch to it but not a ton. So this is something that you would use when you're looking more for a decorative ribbing type pattern. Or even if you're just looking for a decorative stitch pattern to add on to the bottom of say, you know, a sweater or even you could use this in a hat or something, but I would not necessarily use this to fully replace ribbing that you want to stretch and have it snap back on itself. So having said that let's go ahead and knit this larger version. So here I have a total of 15 stitches on the needle.

And so that is a multiple of six plus three stitches because six times two is 12 and 12 plus three is 15. So let's just quickly go ahead and double check and make sure that we have the right number of stitches here. So +257, 10, 12 and 15. So, what I did is I cast on, using a long tail cast on and you of course, can use any kind of cast on you. Like when you're going to be working the stitch pattern, I just typically use that long tail cast on and then I worked one wrong side row which you'll see in a minute.

So now I'm ready to work a right side row. So the right side row for this is really easy because we're just knitting all the stitches. So I'm simply, I'm simply putting my needle into that first stitch and knitting it and you'll just knit all the way across every right side row and every wrong side row are the same. It's just a two row repeat here. Uh So it's really easy and it's nice because all the right side rows, you're simply knitting your stitches.

So that's our right side row done. We're gonna turn it over to the wrong side and on the wrong side, this is where we're going to do something that looks more like a traditional ribbing pattern. We're going to be alternating between knitting and pearling. So, on the wrong side for this, we're going to knit three pearl three and you would keep repeating that until you have three stitches left and then you're ending with a knit three. So knitting 31 two and three and then we need to pearl three.

So we're going to bring that yarn in between the needles to the front to pearl three, one, two and three. And now we're knitting three. So I had the yarn in the front because I was pearling. I'm bringing it between the needles to the back. So I'm ready to knit and then knit three.

And I'm just repeating that down the row T three, pearl three. And then when you get to the end, you should have just finished pearling and having three stitches left. We're going to knit those three stitches. That's pretty easy. But let's just work these two rows once more.

Again, we're on a right side row here, knitting all the stitches flipping over to the wrong side row again. It's just the same as the last wrong side row. We did. We're going to knit three pearl three across ending with at three, we have our three stitches left ending with that knit three. So that finishes off the wrong side row.

And then here flipping it back to the right side. You can see that nice little garter rib pattern. So let's just quickly look at our larger swatch again because I do want to show you both the right side and the wrong side. So this is the right side of the fabric or the public side. This is most likely the side that we'll be facing out on whatever project you're using this for.

Um And you can see we have that nice column of garter stitch with the column of stat stitch here. And then if we look at the back, you can see, I think it still looks pretty cool on the wrong side too. Um But what you then have is you have still your columns of garter stitch here. But then of course, this is just reverse stat stitch. So I think both right side and wrong side on this looks pretty great.

Um But the right side, especially for me, I think that that garter detail really pops off and especially in this case, I've used um a smooth wool yarn. Um So you get really nice stitch definition and it, I think the stitch pattern looks just great. So that takes care of the large garter rib stitch pattern. But let's take a look at the smaller version, which really is uh just using less stitches and we just aren't doing as big of repeats as we did with the large version for the small version of the garter rib stitch pattern we're going to cast on a multiple of four stitches plus an extra two. So if we take a look at this swatch here, we have 1234 repeats of that multiple of four.

So four times four is 16 and then we added on our extra two at the end. So that's 18 stitches here. And you can see that this also looks really great too. It's just a little more delicate, obviously. Um The columns are not as wide because we don't have as many stitches, but I really like this one too.

And this one again, even though it doesn't provide that same elasticity and stretch as a regular traditional ribbing pattern. This one sometimes I will replace a regular ribbing pattern with this one. But it, of course, depends on where that ribbing is going. If it's something like the neckline of a sweater where you do need that neckline ribbing to be stretchy, so you can fit your sweater over your head, of course. Um But usually that ribbing is pretty small.

And so in terms of height and so you don't necessarily need to worry as much in most cases about it, having a ton of elasticity and snapping back on itself. So something like the small garter rib stitch pattern is something that I would replace traditional ribbing, but it would be when it's in very small quantities. So something like the neckline of a sweater. So just keep that in mind and you can definitely play around with both versions of these stitch patterns um and figure out where you want to use them in your own projects. So, like I said, we're looking for a multiple of four plus two stitches.

And so again, I've already cast on here using a long tail cast on and then worked one wrong side row and on my little swatch here, I should have hopefully 14 stitches uh because four times three is 12 and then 12 plus two is So let's just double check that +257, 10, 12 and 14. So we're ready to go. So let's do that right side row. This pattern is set up just like the larger version in that on the right side, we are going to be knitting all the stitches. So we finished that off.

That's the right side row. We're gonna turn this over to the wrong side where we're going to work some knits and pearls just like we did in the larger version for the wrong side row. For the stitch pattern. We are going to do knit two pearl two all the way across and we're going to end with that knit two. So we're going to once again knit two stitches and then bring the yarn in between the needles to the front, so we can pearl two stitches and then bring the yarn in between the needles to the back to knit too.

We'll continue working that all the way across, we just finished a pearl two and we have two stitches left and we're going to end with that knit too. So let's just work those two rows one more time to make sure we're really clear on what we have happening on this stitch pattern. So once again, we're on the right side, we're knitting all the stitches. I've finished that right side row. I'm going to turn it to the wrong side and on the wrong side, we're going to knit two pearl two all the way across and end with that knit two, two stitches left knit two.

And that's all there is to the small garter rib. Once again, if we take a look at this on both the right side and the wrong side, you can see that really nice stitch definition here on the right side where we have our column of garter stitch with our column of stat stitch. And if we flip it over to the wrong side again, you have that reverse stock in it, stitch there. So it's a little less defined on the wrong side. But I think both sides look really great.

So that's all there is to the garter rib stitch pattern. I hope that you try it and incorporate it into some of your future projects.