How to Increase (M1L)

Tutorial Overview

There are many ways to increase the number of stitches in your knitting. We're going to show you how to 'make one' (M1) by working through the horizontal bar found between 2 stitches in the row below. We can either make a left-leaning (M1L) or right-leaning (M1R) increase.

In this tutorial we'll show you how to make a left-leaning increase stitch, which is abbreviated to M1 or M1L in knitting patterns.

Watch

Step-by-step guide

Step 1:

Follow your pattern until you reach the M1L abbreviation in your pattern.

Step 2:

Instead of inserting your right needle into the next stitch on your left needle, you'll pick up the strand between the stitch on your right needle and the next one on your left needle.

Step 3:

Lift this strand up with the tip of your left needle, from front to back.

Step 4:

Then knit into the back of the loop, and slip it off your left needle.

Step 5:

Continue knitting until you reach the next M1 or M1L in your project and repeat.

You can now make a left-leaning increase!

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