Mistake Rib Stitch

Hi everyone, I'm Jen Lucas for the Knitting Circle. In this video, let's take a look at the mistake rib stitch. This stitch pattern is very, very easy and it's perfect for beginners, because it only uses knits and purls, and it's just one row that you're repeating over and over and over again. Both the right side and the wrong side are worked exactly the same and it also makes it completely reversible. So let's go ahead and take a look at the mistake rib stitch.

Here I have my swatch of the mistake rib stitch pattern. This stitch pattern is so easy, it is one row that you just keep repeating over and over again. So this is a great stitch pattern to know, especially if you are a beginner, and you've learned how to knit and purl, you can create a really interesting texture in your knitting project, just with knits and purls and just repeating the same row over and over again. So you can see here is my right side and my wrong side looks exactly the same, and that's what's really great about the mistake rib, is that it is completely reversible, the right side and the wrong side look the same. So let's go ahead and knit the stitch pattern.

So you'll want to have a multiple of four plus three stitches on the needle. So it's called mistake rib, because we're going to be working knit two purl two ribbing all the way across, and then when we get to the end, we have three stitches, and so we knit two and then purl one. So it almost seems like you made a mistake because you've been knit two purl two, knit two purl two all the way across the row, but then at the end you do a knit two purl one. And then on the next row, you just keep repeating the same thing. But what it does is create this really interesting texture.

So we're just gonna knit two, bring the yarn to the front, purl two, bring the yarn to the back, knit two, bring the yarn to the front, purl two, and then you can see here, I have three stitches left on my needle, so I'm gonna knit two purl one. And for me, when I'm knitting it, it really does feel like a mistake. I'm like, where's that other stitch? But it's mistake rib, you're supposed to be missing that stitch. So that is the right side.

And then the wrong side, we're just gonna do the exact same thing, knit two, purl two, knit two, purl two, and then knit two, purl one. So if you're just knitting a scarf or something, you don't really need to worry too much about which is the right side or the wrong side, right? 'Cause you would just be repeating this for your whole entire scarf and it's reversible. But if you were doing something where you were gonna be switching stitch patterns at some point, or maybe you had worked a different stitch pattern now you're starting this, then you're gonna work into a different stitch pattern, you may wanna take a stitch marker to mark your right side, you might find that helpful. I just have a locking stitch marker here, and so, I would just somewhere on the right side just attach that to my project so I know that this is technically the right side of my work, but again, the stitch is reversible.

So for things like scarves, it doesn't really matter which side is the right side or the wrong side. I'm gonna go ahead and work one more row for you just to give you a little tip on how to tell where you are. I find that this pattern, even though it's so easy, if you stop in a middle of a row, and then you pick it back up, to me, it's not necessarily super clear whether you are on a knit stitch or purl stitch, you can look closely and tell. So you can see that here, you're always starting with the knit stitch, but I'm gonna go ahead and start this. So I'm gonna knit two, purl two.

And what I have noticed is that when I come to my knit two, the first knit of my knit two is always gonna be on this column of knit stitches. So I just purl two, so you can see my first knit one is over this column of knit stitches. So I knit two, purl two, and then again, now I've come to my next knit two. You can see that first stitch is gonna be over this column of knit stitches. So knit two, purl one.

So again, coming to the wrong side we're just going to keep doing the same thing. Knit two, purl two. And just like the right side, that first knit stitch of my knit two, it is gonna be right over this column. So, I find that's an easy way to keep track of where I'm at, that's the easiest way in my mind to keep track if I do stop in the middle of a row. So there you go, that is the mistake rib stitch.

And there you go, you can see just how easy it is. It's a beautiful stitch pattern, and I really love using it on one row scarves, and I really think that you'll enjoy it too. I'm Jen Lucas for the Knitting Circle, I hope that you enjoyed this video and if you did, be sure to check out all the other great videos on our website. I'm sure you'll find lots of videos to enjoy. I'll see you again soon.