How to Work the Double Moss Stitch

Hi guys, Mary Beth temple here on behalf of The Knitting Circle. And in this video, we're going to take a closer look at the double moss stitch. Sometimes it's called the Irish moss stitch. But it's basically a four row repeat, gives you a really nice completely reversible texture stitch. So let's take a look at the double moss stitch.

Here is a closeup of my swatch of the Irish moss stitch, and sometimes you'll see that called the double moss stitch. It's sort of a hybrid between ribbing and seed stitch. By which I mean that the rows are knit one purl one, but the placement of them is what gives you double moss. So, I'm working on an even number of stitches and this is a four row repeat. And my first two rows are exactly the same.

Knit one purl one. Knit one Purl one. And you'll notice that I'm being very careful to make sure when my yarn goes back and forth, because it has to be back for a knit stitch and front for a purl stitch, that I'm making sure that my yarn goes between the needles and not over the needles. Because it's a really simple mistake to make when you're going back and forth this frequently, to go over the needle and make an extra stitch where you don't want one. Knit one.

Purl one. And I'm going to do this all the way across. I'm coming up on the end of the first row of this four row repeat. And this is what it looks like. So I'm going to turn the work, get ready for my next row.

My row two is exactly the same as my row one. So, knit one purl one. All the way across. Coming up on the end of my second row. Can you see how after the second row it starting to look like ribbing, which is of course not what I want.

So we're going to change things up on the third row. So when we come to the third row, instead of beginning with a knit stitch, which would make that look even more like ribbing, we're going to start with a purl. So we're going to begin with a purl stitch. So instead of knit one purl one all the way across, it's purl one knit one all the way across. So this is the third row of our four row repeat.

And you can see that that ribbing pattern has broken up now. Coming up on the end of our third row. Here's my last repeat purl one, knit one. Now for the fourth row, it's going to be the same as the third row. And so that means purl one, knit one.

Remembering once again to make sure that that yarn goes between the needles and not overtop. Now you can see that it's starting to look like ribbing again. So that would mean the next row I'm going back to my row one, which is knit one purl one. Now the last thing I want to give you, it's just a little tip. Not everybody does this, but some people do and it's a little fiddly.

So if you want to just count rows or intuit your knitting, that's fine. However, there's no real right side wrong side to this, it's reversible. It looks the same on both sides which is one of the reasons we use this stitch so much. Because it's simple to do, gives you beautiful texture, and can be used in a lot of places. But on alternate rows, you are knitting the knits and purling the purls.

And on alternate rows you're knitting the purls and purling the knits. By which I mean, it's really simple to know what row you're on if you know if you are making that row that looks like ribbing, or you're changing things up to break it up. And you can absolutely do that just by looking. You'll learn your knitting. We call that reading your knitting.

It's really simple to see if you have a mistake. But some people like to take a locking stitch marker and put it on the side of the work, in any stitch. It doesn't matter where you put it. In any stitch. And you know that whenever this side of the work is facing you that has the marker, and you can move it up as you go, that you're knitting the knits and purling the purls.

And that's just a little reminder if you have to put your work down and you know, you've you forgot to put the pencil down or you spill your coffee on your pattern, or, you know, whatever happens. We've all got to go out there and put our knitting down sometimes. Even if we don't want to. So that will help you remember what row you're on when you pick up your work. See, I told you it was easy.

Just keep repeating those four rows and you're going to have a beautiful textured stitch that is 100% reversible. Once again, I'm Mary Beth temple here on behalf of The Knitting Circle. Take a minute, look around, see what we have to offer you. And we look forward to seeing you back again real soon. Bye-bye.