How Do You Slip a Stitch?
- Susanna
- Oct 24
- 7 min read
What do you do when a pattern says to slip 1 (sl1)? The answer may seem obvious but this seemingly simple instruction can stump beginning knitters.
In this blog post you'll learn to slip a stitch seven different ways. I'll demonstrate four common way of slipping a stitch, two ways of slipping two stitches at the same time, and a special slipping maneuver that's only used in brioche knitting.
Let's get slipping!
Four Common Ways of Slipping a Stitch
Slipping a stitch means to transfer it from the holding needle to the working needle without knitting it. Seems easy enough, right? But there's more it than meets the eye! There are two aspects that need to be considered:
How does the needle enter the stitch?
Where is the working yarn held when slipping?
These two dimensions are independent of each other, that is, one does not determine the other.
Purlwise vs. Knitwise
The working needle can enter the stitch in one of two ways: purlwise or knitwise.
To slip purlwise means to lift the stitch from needle to needle in the same position it was in. As a result, stitch orientation doesn't change. The working needle enters the stitch head on — from right to left or back to front — in the same direction as if you were to purl the stitch (but there's no yarn involved). Indeed, a longer way of writing "purlwise" sometimes used in knitting patterns is "as if to purl".
The abbreviation for slipping a stitch purlwise is simply sl1 – the "purlwise" is assumed.
In contrast, to slip knitwise means to poke the needle tip into the stitch from left to right (or front to back), the same ways as if were about to knit it. Again, "knitwise" can sometimes be expressed as "as if to knit". Pay attention to how the stitch orientation changes: the slipped stitch becomes reverse-mounted (but not yet twisted) with the right (leading) leg behind the needle and the left (trailing) leg in front of the needle.
"Knitwise" is sometimes expressed as "as if to knit". Knitting patterns use abbreviations such as sl1k, sl1 kw, or sl1 kwise.
With Yarn in Back vs. With Yarn in Front
The second aspect about slipping a stitch has to do with the position of the working yarn. Regardless of how the stitch itself is orientated, slipping always forms a float with the working yarn. How you hold the working yarn determines where that unworked strand is: on the front or in the back?
Slipping a stitch with yarn in back (wyib) means that the working yarn forms a loop of yarn behind the work and you'd have to flip the work to see it. In most cases the working yarn is already in the back so no special action is needed. But depending on the stitch pattern you're working on, you might need to physically move it to the backside first.
On the other hand, slipping a stitch with yarn in front (wyif) means that the strand is visible on the front of the work. If the working yarn was at the back, you'll need to move it to the front first, then slip the stitch, and then move the yarn back to backside to continue.
Note that the position of the working yarn is always indicated relative to the current row you're working on. You don't have to remember whether you're working on the RS or the WS; the pattern has already taken care of this.
As I wrote earlier, stitch orientation and the position of the working yarn are independent of each other. Together, they build up the four basic ways of slipping a stitch. Here's they are in the order from the most common to the least common.
Top left: slip 1 purlwise with yarn in back (sl1 wyib)
This is the default way of slipping a stitch. If no other instructions are given, the abbreviation sl1 silently expects you to slip purlwise (without changing stitch orientation) and with yarn in back so that the floating strand is not visible. That's quite a lot of assumed knowledge loaded into a short, three-character abbreviation, and the reason why beginners are sometimes confused with which way to slip a stitch.
A slipped stitch may not look that different on the front but you'll see the bar of yarn in the back of the work.
Top right: slip 1 knitwise with yarn in back (sl1k wyib)
Whenever people ask how to slip a stitch, my rule of thumb is: purlwise unless otherwise indicated or part of a decrease. The latter part of that proviso comes into play when slipping a stitch knitwise with yarn in back. This action is performed most often when working decreases such as SKP or SSK.
Note the changed stitch orientation and the bar of yarn at the back.
Bottom left: slip 1 purlwise with yarn in front (sl1 wyif)
There are two situations in which you'll encounter this action. Either you're on a WS row and you want the floating strands to be hidden, such as when working a reinforced heel flap in heel stitch. Or, you're on a RS row and the floating strands are used to form a decorative stitch pattern, such as in linen stitch.
Bottom right: slip 1 knitwise with yarn in front (sl1k wyif)
This is the least common way of slipping a stitch and you'll probably encounter it in some special stitch patterns. Off the top of my head the only example I can think of is in a twisted slip-stitch selvedge. Can you think of others? Let me know and I'll add them to the post!
Slipping Two Stitches at the Same Time
The four basic ways of slipping a stitch can take you far in your knitting career. But with some advanced decreases — such as CDD and CDDp — you may need to slip not one but two stitches at the same time.
When a pattern says to slip 2 as if to knit together, it means to enter the working needle into the second stitch on the holding needle from front to back, grabbing the first two stitches on the same go. This changes both stitch orientation and the order of the two stitches. If the working yarn position is not indicated, it's assumed to be at the back of the work. This action is used in the centered double decrease (CDD), for example.
Earlier I wrote that you can enter the stitch in one of two ways, purlwise or knitwise, but that was a bit of an over-simplification. There's also a third way: from the back. When a pattern says to slip 2 as if to purl together through the back loops, it means to enter the working needle into the backs of the second and the first stitch, grabbing them both simultaneously.
This cumbersome maneuver is used in the wrong-side or purlwise centered double decrease (CDDp), for example. To make matters worse, since it's worked on the wrong side of the work, you first need to move the working yarn to the front so that it's doesn't form a bar on the right side.
These cases are so unique there are no established abbreviations. Usually the whole instruction is just spelled out.
Brioche Special: sl1yo
There is one more special case of slipping a stitch and you'll encounter it only when doing brioche. In the olden days (and by that I mean the 1990s) brioche was often done using the Fisherman's rib or knit-below method. Nancy Marchant re-popularized brioche in the early 2010s with her books Knitting Brioche (2010) and Knitting Fresh Brioche (2014), and introduced another method for achieving the same structure of tuck stitches: with yarnovers.
When a brioche pattern says to sl1yo it means to slip a stitch purlwise with a yarnover. There's nothing extraordinary about slipping the stitch itself but the unique thing has to do with the position of the working yarn: it's neither at the back nor at the front of the work but crosses over the needle and the stitch that was slipped. Which brings us to the tricky thing with sl1yo: the usual way to abbreviate it doesn't quite describe the two actions needed.
To do a sl1yo English style, move the working yarn to the front of the work, slip 1 purlwise with yarn still in front, then bring the yarn to the back over the working needle and crossing over the stitch that was just slipped. Some designers like to spell out these actions in more detail: yf(wd) sl1yo.
For Continental knitters the order of operations is a bit different: slide the needle under the working yarn making a yarnover, then insert it into the stitch purlwise, and slip it off. The abbreviation is is still the same even if you're essentially making the two actions in a reversed order: yo, then sl1. And when you get accustomed with brioche knitting, it all becomes one fluid motion in which both the yo and the sl1 are done simultaneously. Perhaps yo+sl1 would be a better alternative?
Whatever your knitting style, the end result is the same: a slipped stitch that maintains its original orientation and has a yarnover looping over it. And remember, even though the sl1yo may look like two stitches, the two loops are counted as one stitch in brioche.
To summarize: the rule of thumb for slipping a stitch is purlwise unless otherwise indicated or part of a decrease.
Whenever a knitting pattern says to sl1, always assume it's done without twisting the stitch and with the yarn in back. If there's a need to deviate from the default case, the pattern should clearly indicate both the stitch orientation and the position of the working yarn.
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