Knitters utilize short rows to create garment shaping, to provide extra fabric where needed for garment fit, and even to create unique fabric design. Read on to learn what short rows are, how to make them, and when to use them in knitting.
what are short rows?
Short rows literally are shortened rows of knitting where we turn our knitting before reaching the end of a row or round. In this photo, I stopped knitting 6 stitches short of the end of my right side row and am ready to turn my knitting and work the back. When I've completed the desired number of shortened rows, I will work an entire row to get my knitting back on track of working all the stitches in a row or round.
There are various ways to make short rows, but I'm going to stick to the German short row technique in this post. It eliminates little 'holes' that can happen from turning our work before the end of the row, and it often is the favorite short row technique for many. We'll learn the German short row technique in the next section while we explore the 'why' of short rows.
short rows for shaping garments
Short rows are used to create shaping in garment knitting so that garments will match body shapes and fit well. Knitting patterns often include short rows at the upper back to create extra fabric across the back center, right below the nape of the neck, where we all have structural spinal curvature. If we don't add some extra fabric at this spot, garments (sweaters) tend to ride forward. By adding fabric at this spot, our garments accommodate the bump and sit correctly on our shoulders. No sweater pulling, tugging, or discomfort - all because of short rows!
Melissa of Knitting the Stash has a great YouTube video that shows exactly how this particular back shaping is done. AND she gives you a clear and concise tutorial on how to do German short rows. Double win!
There are other places that short rows are used in garment fit and shaping, such as at the top of a sleeve to accommodate the roundness of the top of the arm. We can see a visual of the extra fabric needed in flat sleeve construction where the schemata looks like this:
In the flat construction, we bind off stitches to add extra fabric just at the top of the sleeve to form the cap.
What happens if instead, we want to pick up stitches around the armhole and knit the sleeve in the round? We still need to add that extra bit of fabric to accommodate the roundness at the top of the arm/shoulder. We accomplish this with short rows.
Guess who has a great video showing how this works (and even converts a flat sleeve construction from a pattern into a picked up sleeve)? Melissa!
In both the center top back and the sleeve cap, we use short rows to create extra fabric to accommodate the body's shape. When we look at a finished garment with these short rows added, however, we really don't see that the overall shape of our garment has changed or even that extra fabric has been created. All we know is that when we put on our garments after using these short row accommodations, they fit our natural body structure.
short rows to create extra fabric - beyond pattern instructions
I recently took a class at Virtual Vogue Knitting Live with Kim McBrien Evans on short rows and sweater fit where she taught us how to use short rows to add even more fabric to areas where our bodies need it, such as a tummy or at the back of the neck if the structural bump is extra large. If you get a chance to take this class, do it. Think about it: patterns can only approach our body shapes with sizing. It's up to us to understand our unique body shapes and learn the techniques to add fabric where we need it. The goal is garment fit - and we can do that with short rows.
short rows for design or other problem-solving issues
One of my favorite patterns in our collection is from our archives and it uses short rows not for garment fit (it's a scarf/shawl pattern), but for straightening a design and adding design interest.
