Garter Stitch is the simplest knitting stitch pattern out there, but that doesn’t mean it’s always simple. Here’s a guide to knitting garter stitch that will cover all the basics and beyond of knitting, shaping and seaming.

What is Garter Stitch?

Garter stitch is the name for the fabric that is made by knitting every stitch of every row in a knitting project. It’s as easy as knitting gets and is generally the first knitting stitch pattern that new knitters learn.

Garter stitch is a dense stitch that makes fabric with a bumpy look. It does not curl and is reversible.

It’s a great stitch for beginners to learn because you only need to know how to do the same move over and over. If you can cast on, knit and bind off you can make lots of projects only knowing garter stitch.

Supplies for Knitting

To get started knitting, all you need is some yarn and a pair of knitting needles. I like to start new knitters on either worsted/medium/size 4 yarn and size 8 US/5 mm knitting needles or bulky/size 5 yarn and size 10 US/6 mm knitting needles.

Here I am using Lion Brand Basic Stitch.

If you have yarn already it’s totally fine to use. Just make sure to check the ball band for the yarn weight and/or suggested size needles and make sure the ones you use correspond to the size of yarn you have.

In addition to yarn and needles, if you want to finish off your knitting you’ll need a pair of scissors and a yarn needle.

How to Knit Garter Stitch

Garter Stitch is as easy as knitting gets. If you can form the knit stitch, you can knit garter stitch, because all you have to do is knit every stitch on every row.

To practice a garter stitch swatch, you’ll first need to cast on some stitches. Casting on is what it’s called when you make the loops on the needle that will become the stitches.

When I teach people to knit I love to teach the knit cast on, because it uses the exact same methods needed to form the knit stitch (and thus to make garter stitch). But you can also do the backward loop cast on if you’d rather. They’re both easy cast on methods for beginners to use.

Here I have a cast on of 20 stitches, which is a good number to get started with. (If using bulkier yarn, you can cast on fewer if you want.)

To start knitting, hold the needle with the stitches on it in your left hand and the empty needle in your right. The yarn that’s attached to the ball should be coming from the back, behind the needle.

The quick version of forming the knit stitch is to take the right hand needle into the first stitch on the top of the left hand needle, taking the needle from front to back in the stitch. Loop the yarn over the right hand needle, push the needle back through the stitch, keeping the loop on the right hand needle. Then slip the old stitch off the left hand needle. Continue across.

If you’re totally new to knitting and need more detail, my how to knit page shows how to do it holding the yarn in either your right or left hand.

When you get to the end of the row, turn the knitting over and put the needle with the stitches back in your left hand.

Complete this process as many times as you like to practice or make a project.

When you’re ready, bind off your stitches.

Cut the yarn, leaving a tail of at least 6 inches. Use a yarn needle to hide the yarn end in your project.

Reading Your Knitting

When working garter stitch, the stitches on the needle look flat like little vs. But the fabric itself looks bumpy. Why is that?

Because the back of knit stitches gives you the bumpy look (just look at the back as you knit a row to see) so as you flip the work back and forth you’re making a pattern out of both the fronts and the backs of stitches. The bumps stick out so that’s primarily what we see and recognize as garter stitch.

Each ridge of garter stitch in the fabric is actually made up of two rows. If you’re counting rows while you’re still knitting, you may see a partial ridge if you’ve just knit an odd numbered row. In the photo above I’m counting 16 rows have been completed.

You can’t easily tell which side of garter stitch is the front because it’s a reversible stitch. If you need to know for the pattern you’re working, or just want to know, stick a locking stitch marker or safety pin in a stitch from the first row after you knit it. That will be your front side (also known as the “right” side in knitting lingo).

Knitting in the Round

Knitting in the round is a little different because instead of turning the work you are knitting in a spiral that always has the front side facing.

When you knit every stitch of every round working in the round, you get stockinette stitch rather than garter stitch. The bumps you see in garter stitch are actually the backs of knit stitches, which is the same as a purl stitch.

In order to knit garter stitch in the round, then, you have to knit the first round and purl the second. But because knitting in the round makes a spiral, this will give your work a stairstep effect that looks like a seam at the beginning of each round, which you can see in the photo above.

One way to avoid this is to slip the first stitch of the round and then move the end of the round over one stitch each round. This works best on solid color projects without shaping, but you can try it with other projects and see how you like it. Use a stitch marker to note where the new end of the round is each time.

Shaping in Garter Stitch

Of course you can you any increase or decrease you like to shape Garter Stitch. Because it’s the most basic stitch, you often see the most basic increase used, a knit in the front and back.

This increase makes a little bump, but since garter stitch is all about bumps it’s not super noticeable. Here the increases were worked on the second and second to last stitch.

Make 1 is another common increase used in garter stitch, and it’s a great choice if you want to hide your increases.

When it comes to decreases, knit two together is probably the most common used. You can pair it with slip, slip knit if you want your decreases to slant toward or away from each other. Here ssk was worked at the beginning of the row and k2tog at the end.

Because garter stitch is all the same stitch, you can increase or decrease anywhere in the fabric without altering the pattern.

For a fun variation on garter, try knitting three rows, then on the next row you knit the first stitch, then yarn over, knit 2 together across. (You may also end with a knit stitch, depending on the number of stitches you’re working with.) Knit every stitch on the next three rows and repeat the eyelet row.

Knitting on the bias is also a common way to work garter stitch and give it a different look. To do this you’ll start with a few stitches, increase on one edge of the work and decrease on the other to keep a consistent stitch count. You can also increase on both sides until the project is half the size you want, then decrease on both sides for the second half to make a square. That’s what’s happening in the photo above.

Or have increases on both sides and a decrease on one side to make a biased project that grows. This is what I did for my one skein shawl.

Tension and Fixing Mistakes

If you’re a new knitter, one of the problems you may have is maintaining consistent tension as you knit. If some of your stitches are big and open and some are so tight they’re hard to work, that’s a tension problem. It gets better with practice, and in the meantime you can just try to relax and not pull your stitches too tightly as you make them.

The most common mistake in knitting garter stitch happens when trying to fix a mistake, that is, improperly picking up a dropped stitch.

It makes sense intuitively to grab the stitch that’s fallen and loop it through the yarn from each row that it’s dropped past. But if you do that, your picked up stitch will look like stockinette stitch, not garter stitch, as shown here.

Instead, you have to alternate which side of the work you’re picking up from so the stitch still looks like garter stitch. This is where reading your knitting can come in handy because you want to work from the side where the stitches are smooth, not bumpy.

Take a crochet hook through the loop of the dropped stitch, then, starting with the lowest piece of yarn between the stitches on either side of the dropped stitch, grab it with the hook and pull through.

Take the crochet hook out, flip the knitting around and repeat on this side, going back and forth until you’re back to the needles.

Put the stitch on the needle and knit it. If the fabric made by that stitch doesn’t look the same as the stitches around it, drop it back and try again.

Knitting Stripes

When knitting in a single color of garter stitch, it doesn’t usually matter that might which side is the front or the back.

One time it does make a difference is when you are knitting stripes or changing colors. You want to make sure that you always change colors on the same side (that is, the right or front side) so that the stripes will look crisp.

On the back or wrong side the colors mix because each half of the ridge is a different row that’s been worked in a different color. If you like that as a design element you can do that on purpose, but generally crisp stripes of color are preferred.

Ready to try your hand at an easy garter stitch project? Why not try my Garter Stitch Bow Cowl?

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