Why Does My Seed Stitch Look Like Ribbing?

Seed stitch is a beautiful, easy, textured stitch pattern that is used in every kind of knitting project. Sometimes while working this stitch pattern, the seed stitch turns into 1×1 ribbing (knit 1 stitch, purl 1 stitch). In this video, Jen Lucas answers the question: “Why does my seed stitch look like ribbing?”

Jen begins by reviewing how to work seed stitch, back and forth in rows. She’s working over an odd number of stitches, which means every row is the same.

All rows: (K1, P1) to the last stitch, K1.

As she’s knitting, she notes that as she works across the row, she’s purling the knit stitches, and knitting the purl stitches. She reads the next stitch on the needle, and that tells her which stitch she is working next. There are two ways seed stitch turns into ribbing. They are:

1. Two knit stitches or two purl stitches are worked next to each other instead of maintaining the (k1, p1) patterning.
2. The row is started with the wrong stitch. For example, if the first stitch of the row is supposed to be a knit stitch and it’s purled instead.

Jen demonstrates how the error can easily occur, and how you can easily recognize it and fix it. The main thing to remember when working seed stitch is that you are knitting the purls and purling the knits. If you remember to do that while working this stitch pattern, you’ll avoid having your seed stitch looking like ribbing.

ABBREVIATIONS

K: knit
P: purl