Give Me a Purl! A Complete Guide to the Second Stitch Every Knitter Needs to Know

If you have ever sat down with a pair of needles and a ball of yarn and figured out the knit stitch, you probably felt pretty good about yourself. And you should have. The knit stitch is the foundation of everything, the gateway to a lifelong craft. But at some point, almost every new knitter reaches a pattern that says those three little words: “give me a purl.” And just like that, the comfortable rhythm you built gets interrupted by a stitch that feels, at first, completely backwards.

This guide is for you. Whether you are a brand-new knitter who has just mastered the knit stitch and is ready to take the next step, or a self-taught crafter who somehow skipped the purl and has been avoiding patterns that require it, this is your complete, no-intimidation introduction to purling. By the time you finish reading, you will understand not just how to make a purl stitch, but why it exists, what it does, and how it opens up an entirely new world of texture, pattern, and design.

What Exactly Is a Purl Stitch?

Before your hands touch the needles, it helps to understand what a purl stitch actually is. In the simplest terms, a purl is the reverse of a knit. When you knit a stitch, you insert the needle from left to right through the front of the loop, wrap the yarn, and pull it through. When you purl, you insert the needle from right to left through the front of the loop, wrap the yarn in the opposite direction, and pull it through.

The result on the fabric looks like a small horizontal bump. Stack those bumps on top of each other row after row, and you get what knitters call the reverse stockinette. Alternate rows of knits and purls, and you get the smooth, flat stockinette fabric that most people picture when they imagine a knitted sweater. Mix knits and purls within the same row, and you can create ribs, seed stitch, moss stitch, basketweave, and hundreds of other textures.

In other words, the purl stitch is not just a secondary skill. It is the key that unlocks virtually everything interesting in knitting.

Why New Knitters Find Purling Tricky

The purl stitch has an unfair reputation for being difficult. It is not difficult, but it is different, and that difference catches people off guard for a few specific reasons.

First, the yarn position changes. When you knit, the working yarn hangs behind your work. When you purl, it has to come to the front before you insert your needle. Forgetting to move the yarn is the single most common mistake beginners make, and it results in an accidental yarn over that adds an extra stitch to your needle without you realizing it.

Second, the needle angle is counterintuitive. Inserting the needle from right to left feels awkward when your muscle memory has been trained to go left to right. Your hand has to approach the work differently, and at first it feels like you are fighting yourself.

Third, tension often shifts. Many knitters find that their purl stitches end up looser than their knit stitches, especially in the beginning, which creates an uneven fabric. This is normal and improves with practice, but it can be discouraging when your neat knit rows suddenly look bumpy and uneven once you add purls.

Understanding these three challenges before you sit down to practice means you are already prepared for them. They are not signs that you are doing something wrong. They are just the learning curve.

How to Purl: Step by Step

Let us walk through the purl stitch from the very beginning. If you are practicing for the first time, cast on about 20 stitches on a pair of medium-weight needles, something in the US size 7 or 8 range, with a smooth, light-colored worsted-weight yarn. The smooth yarn will help you see the stitches clearly, and the light color makes it easy to spot mistakes.

Step one: Bring the yarn to the front. Before you do anything else, make sure your working yarn is in front of your needles, between you and your work. This is different from the knit stitch, where the yarn stays behind. If the yarn is in the back, move it forward by passing it between the needle tips. Do not wrap it over the top of the needle, just pass it through the gap.

Step two: Insert the right needle from right to left. Slide the tip of your right needle into the first stitch on the left needle, entering from right to left through the front of the loop. Your right needle will end up crossing in front of your left needle, with the tip pointing away from you. This feels backwards compared to the knit stitch, and that is exactly correct.

Step three: Wrap the yarn counterclockwise. With the right needle in position, wrap the working yarn counterclockwise around the right needle tip. Some people describe this as wrapping the yarn under and around the needle. The yarn should move from right to left around the tip of the needle.

Step four: Pull the new loop through. Carefully draw the right needle back through the stitch, pulling the new loop of yarn through with it. The original stitch will slide off the left needle, and a new stitch will sit on the right needle. That is your purl.

Step five: Repeat. Move on to the next stitch on the left needle and repeat the process. Bring the yarn to the front if it has drifted to the back, insert right to left, wrap counterclockwise, pull through.

If you work every single stitch as a purl for row after row, you will create a fabric called garter stitch, just like you would if you knitted every row. That is because knitting on one side and purling on the other are mirror images of the same action, and both produce the same garter ridge texture from the outside.

Learning to Read Your Knitting

One of the most empowering skills you can develop alongside the purl stitch is learning to read your knitting, meaning learning to look at the stitches on your needle and understand what they are telling you.

A knit stitch looks like a small V sitting on the needle. A purl stitch looks like a bump or a horizontal bar across the needle. Once you can reliably distinguish between the two, you will be able to work from many patterns without constantly counting rows, because you can simply look at your fabric and respond to what you see.

This skill also helps you fix mistakes. If you accidentally purl when you should have knitted, the stitch will look wrong before you even finish the row. Catching errors early, before they are buried under several more rows of work, saves an enormous amount of frustration.

The Purl Stitch in Common Stitch Patterns

Now that you know how to make a purl stitch, here is a quick tour of the stitch patterns it makes possible.

Stockinette stitch is the most recognizable knitted fabric in the world. It is made by knitting every stitch on the right-side rows and purling every stitch on the wrong-side rows. The result is a smooth, flat fabric with a slight curl at the edges. This is the fabric used in T-shirts, classic sweaters, and most knitted garments.

Reverse stockinette is simply stockinette turned around so the bumpy side faces outward. Some designers use it as a deliberate design choice, and it also shows up as a background texture in cable knitting, where it makes the raised cables pop out visually.

Ribbing is created by alternating knit and purl stitches within the same row, then maintaining those columns in subsequent rows by knitting over knits and purling over purls. A simple 1×1 rib alternates one knit with one purl all the way across. A 2×2 rib alternates two knits with two purls. Ribbing is stretchy and snaps back to shape, which is why you see it at cuffs, necklines, and hat brims.

Seed stitch and moss stitch are close relatives that place knits over purls and purls over knits, so the stitches never line up in columns. The result is a bumpy, textured fabric that lies completely flat, making it popular for borders, dishcloths, and blankets where you do not want the edges to curl.

Basketweave and other textured patterns use blocks of knits and purls arranged in geometric configurations to create the illusion of woven fabric, raised squares, or other three-dimensional textures. Once you are comfortable alternating knits and purls fluidly, these patterns become very accessible.

Tips for Improving Your Purl Stitch

Even if your first attempts feel awkward, a few habits will help the stitch become second nature much faster.

Practice slow, deliberate movements at first rather than trying to match the pace of your knit stitches. Speed comes naturally with repetition, and rushing before the motion is ingrained just creates tension and frustration.

Pay close attention to yarn position every single time until it becomes automatic. Before each purl stitch, make a habit of checking that the yarn is in front. This one habit prevents the most common beginner mistake.

Work with a smooth, medium-weight yarn in a light or bright color until your purl stitch feels solid. Fuzzy yarns like mohair, or very dark colors, make it hard to see individual stitches, which slows learning significantly.

Do not worry about tension inconsistency in the beginning. Your purl stitches may be noticeably looser than your knit stitches for a while. This evens out as your hands find a comfortable, consistent position. Blocking your finished projects also helps even out minor tension differences.

Try knitting a small swatch that alternates one row of knit stitches with one row of purl stitches. This is the most direct practice for stockinette and forces you to move back and forth between the two stitches, which is exactly what most patterns require.

Continental vs. English Knitting: Does It Affect the Purl?

Knitters typically hold and tension their yarn in one of two main ways. English-style knitters hold the working yarn in their right hand and throw it around the needle to form each stitch. Continental-style knitters hold the working yarn in their left hand and pick it through the stitch with the needle tip.

Both methods produce the same finished stitch, and both involve a purl, but the purl motion feels different depending on which style you use.

English-style purling tends to feel more intuitive to beginners because the throwing motion is familiar from the knit stitch, just adapted for the new angle. Continental purling, sometimes called picking, is considered faster by many experienced knitters but can feel awkward at first because the yarn needs to be positioned carefully to avoid tension problems.

If you already knit in one style, learn to purl in the same style first. Mixing methods in a single project can sometimes create tension inconsistencies. Once you are comfortable with purling in your preferred method, experimenting with the other style is a worthwhile exploration, but it is not something you need to tackle right away.

Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Even experienced knitters occasionally find a mistake in their purl rows. Here are the ones that come up most often and what to do about them.

Accidental yarn overs happen when you insert the needle without first moving the yarn to the front. The yarn ends up looping over the needle and creates an extra stitch. If you catch it immediately, you can simply drop the extra loop off the needle before continuing. If you notice it at the end of the row, you will have one extra stitch and will need to decide whether to decrease back down or carefully ladder down to the error and fix it.

Twisted stitches occur when the stitch is mounted on the needle incorrectly, causing the new stitch to be worked through the back loop instead of the front. This creates a tighter, slightly twisted stitch that can look neat intentionally but is a mistake if unintended. It often happens when knitters inadvertently drop and re-seat a stitch in the wrong orientation.

Dropped purl stitches are a bit trickier to pick up than dropped knit stitches because you have to work from the front instead of the back. A crochet hook is your best friend here. Insert the hook through the front of the dropped loop, grab the horizontal bar of yarn above it, and pull it through from front to back to re-create the purl stitch.

Inconsistent tension shows up as wavy or uneven fabric, often with visible stripes of looser rows where you were purling. Slowing down and consciously maintaining consistent yarn tension through each stitch is the long-term solution, but a good wet block after your project is finished will also go a long way toward evening things out.

Projects to Practice Your Purl Stitch

The best way to move from understanding a stitch to owning it is to knit something real with it. A few projects are particularly well-suited to purl practice.

A simple dishcloth in seed stitch gives you continuous practice alternating knits and purls in the same row and is small enough to finish quickly. The satisfaction of a completed object is a powerful motivator.

A basic hat worked flat, rather than in the round, requires you to knit the right-side rows and purl the wrong-side rows, giving you direct practice with the classic knit-one-row, purl-one-row rhythm that stockinette demands.

A ribbed scarf in 2×2 rib is a longer commitment but a deeply educational one. The repetitive nature of ribbing trains your hands to move fluidly between knit and purl, and you will end up with something practical and beautiful at the end of it.

The Purl Stitch Is Just the Beginning

Once you have the purl stitch down, you will find that patterns you previously flipped past in knitting books and magazines suddenly look approachable. That cabled sweater? It is just knits and purls arranged cleverly. That textured pillow cover? Knits and purls. The intricate lace shawl in the shop window? Knits, purls, and a few yarn overs.

The purl stitch is not the end of your learning journey. It is the point where the journey genuinely begins. Every advanced knitting technique, every stitch pattern, every garment with any texture at all, is built on the same two stitches you are working with right now.

So grab your needles, bring the yarn to the front, and give yourself a purl. You are closer than you think.