We love using short rows to shape many of our designs, but sometimes find it hard to avoid the little holes in the fabric at the turning points when doing the traditional ‘wrap & turn’. The technique of Sunday short rows, made famous by Carol Sunday of SundayKnits.com, is a wrapless method which is great for avoiding these holes and creating a smoother fabric.
How to create wrapless short rows
Create a smoother fabric, with fewer holes, using Carol Sunday's famous Sunday short rows method. Jen Bartlett shows you how it's done.
Published: October 3, 2019 at 12:45 pm
Step 1
Knit to the turning point specified in your pattern, and turn your work.
Place a piece of scrap yarn across your working yarn and then purl back along the row.
To resolve your short rows on the knit side of the fabric, work along to your turning point, where you marked the loop with the scrap yarn.
Step 2
Pull the scrap yarn a bit to bring out a little loop, and insert your left needle into this loop. You can now slide the scrap yarn out of the loop, or you can leave it for now.
Step 3
Knit that loop together with the next stitch.
On the purl side
Purl to the turning point and turn your work.
Step 1
Place a piece of scrap yarn across your working yarn and then knit along the row.
To resolve short rows on the purl side, work along to your turning point, where you marked the loop with the scrap yarn.
Step 2
Slip the first stitch purlwise.
Step 3
Pull the scrap of yarn to show the loop. Insert the left needle into the loop.
Step 4
Slip the stitch on right-hand needle back on to the left-hand needle.
Step 5
Purl these two stitches together.
The wrapped stitches are nearly invisible, and create neat curves in your fabric.
You can use the same length of scrap yarn for a series of short rows. However, as you begin to resolve your short rows, do be sure the scrap yarn stays threaded through the loops you haven’t resolved yet, if you’re pulling out the scrap yarn as you work.
Eventually, you’ll find it easier to spot the loop and may not need to use scrap yarn.
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