The Moss Stitch is a simple knit stitch based on multiples of two stitches, and a four-row repeat. This stitch comes out well with nearly all fiber and yarn.
Watch the video or see the written pattern below to learn how to knit the Moss Stitch. For demonstration purposes, Alan executes the Moss Stitch using 8 / 5mm knitting needles, a heavy weight yarn (Darn Good Fancy Twist Yarn), and casts on 6 stitches. For a symmetrical look, you'll want to cast on an uneven number of stitches.
So if you're watching this tutorial you're trying to find out how to do the moss stitch because it's part of the darn good yarn monthly challenges that we do. And the moss stitch is a pretty easy stitch to learn. Now it's basically just a repeating stitch, so basically what's going to happen you'll have four rows and you'll do them in a certain pattern and then you'll repeat that pattern until you get to the end. A basic pattern very simple is just to say it first and then we'll show it. Is the first row is going to be a knit stitch, and that's followed by a purl stitch, and then a knit stitch and a purl stitch, knit stitch and a purl all the way till the end of however many stitches that you've cast on. The second row will be the same thing but you're going to do it on the other side so it's going to be a knit stitch, purl stitch, knit stitch purl stitch, which if you turn it over you'll see there's going to be basically the same thing that you did before. The third row is going to change that but we'll go to purl one, and then knit one, and then keep repeating and the fourth row will be the same thing.
So let's start with the first. I've already cast on four rows so I'm going to start again I have six stitches that I've cast on I'm doing this only for demonstration it's a larger gauge needle. I've got the eights and a larger weight yarn so you're gonna have a bigger thing. I would probably recommend you do it on a smaller one I'll show you with this one in just a sec. So first thing you do is you do your knit. Most people are at a point right now where they have the knit stitches and the purl stitches down. You do a purl, so I'm just going to go fairly slow here just so you can see what the pattern is. You're gonna have a knit you're gonna have a purl. Now some people find themselves getting confused or distracted, and there are a lot of distractions in our lives. Their spouses their kids and their animals and there are noises from around the room and you get distracted and you think you're doing it one and you're doing a knit stitch and all of a sudden you realize you're doing a purl stitch. So what I find myself doing, and I'm going to flip it over I'm going to start row two, and purl, and purl. There you go okay.
Now we've just done two rows of knit and purl and now we're going to do a purl stitch to begin so we do purl, knit, purl, knit and if you know the Continental stitch and you want to do that feel free I'm just doing this because this is probably about the easiest one right now for me to do. Yeah and then we'll do the fourth row and the other thing is if you're beginning and you're just starting out all the counting and everything else is, I know it's very hard to do sometimes keep track but if you keep doing it over and over again it does become second nature and then you can actually do things like talk to somebody and do videos while your doing your stitches without getting too confused. Which is actually I'm doing this right now and I'm actually amazing myself that it can do this without getting screwed up. So there you have the basic moss stitch pattern and you'll just repeat this and keep repeating this until you get the full thing. Now let's switch real quick over to that just so you can see what its gonna look like when you're going and what I have done here and this is just a suggestion you don't have to do this on a regular, you know, you can do a basic thing. I've put on a border so when they cast on I did two rows of just knit stitches and that creates as we've said before with the Garter stitch so basically you're just knitting every row, and then what I've done is I've done a border of three stitches, three knit stitches, and then I do my Moss stitch, repeat and then I finish with three stitches. So I've cast on 30 stitches and 24 of those are going to be the moss stitch and six of those are going to be the border, the beginning and the end. In some patterns people will use this or a variation of this when they're doing turning out a heel on a sock. So it gives you kind of a nice strong strength but it also gives you a texture that's pretty cool. So this is your basic moss stitch and when you make it I hope you have fun with it.
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