
Lifted Increases
Lifted increases (also called ‘raised increases’) are a great way to inconspicuously add stitches to your knitting. Unlike many other increase techniques – knit front & back, yarnovers, M1L & M1R – there is no bar, hole or twisted stitch to draw attention to itself. It elongates the stitch from the row below but nothing else. That’s why it’s the increase I recommend in my Astrophil patterns. Below are step-by-step photos for how to work lifted increases which will differ depending on whether you are working on the right or left side of a stitch.
The photo above demonstrates how they can be used to create a Raglan increase. Once you learn the basic idea there are several ways you can combine these increases together for decorative effect. I love to use these for double increases in my patterns so you can bet there will be another follow-up tutorial in the future! For now let’s look at how to do the single increase:
Adding a stitch to the right side:
Once you get to the spot where you want to insert a stitch, lift the right side of the stitch from the row below up onto the left needle. Work a normal knit stitch into this loop:
1. Catch the stitch that was worked on the row below (highlighted in green) by inserting the tip of the right needle from back to front.
2. Lift this stitch onto the left needle. It will be in the same orientation as the stitch next to it.
3. Knit into this stitch and move it to the right needle – the same way you would any normal stitch. You’ve finished creating the new stitch.
4. Now knit the original stitch of the current row. You can see how two stitches are now coming out of the original column of stitches.
Adding a stitch to the left side:
The left side is worked the same as the right side except you have to lift the stitch that is two stitches below. This is because as you work the original stitch and remove it to the right needle, the stitch that had previously been one row below is now two rows below:
1. Look for the stitch which is two rows below the stitch you just finished working. I’ve highlighted it in red in the photo below. The stitch highlighted in green is the stitch you would pick up if you were working from the right side – you can see how these two stitches (red and green) are on the same row.
2. To “lift” the stitch you are going to work into, take the tip of the left needle and catch it – from back to front – and keep it on the left needle. Insert your right needle into the lifted stitch in order to make the new stitch.
3. Bring the yarn around and through just as you would a normal knit stitch, and remove to the right needle. There are now two stitches coming out of the original single column of stitches.


3 Comments
Brenda Depew
Hello again- I have finally begun the Astrophil Hat pattern-adult size-and have a question regarding the set up round. On round one it reads “ K1, [M1, k5] 19 times “…I have read your tutorial for raised increases on your website and am questioning if I do a raised purl increase as the second stitch on the needle is a Purl stitch-your website doesn’t show how to do a Purl increase but I have found a tutorial by Ysolda-if I am to do a Purl raised increase, is the original purl stitch on the left needle purled immediately after doing the purl increase or do I knit it as part of the k5? Do I stay in the pattern when there is a purl stitch-making a raised purl increase? Hopefully you can understand my question. Thank you!
Brenda
Skye
Hi Brenda – yes I think I understand your question. When I worked this row I used both techniques in this tutorial. When I got to M1 in the instructions and the next stitch was a knit I used the “Adding a stitch to the right side”. And when the next stitch was a purl I used the “Adding a stitch to the left side”, which made the new stitch off of the stitch I had just finished knitting. That way there was no need to deal with increasing on a purl stitch and all stitches in the round ended up being knit.
Monique
You do beautiful work, very talented. Thank you for sharing.