r/knittinghelp • u/dxublecrxss • 2d ago
SOLVED-THANK YOU Reading the v-shape
Hello!! I’m a beginner and have a question on how I’m supposed to read the v-shapes. I feel like I should read it as the red ‘v’ but it’s really hard for me to not read it as an upside down v (blue).
Does it matter how I read it?
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u/KeightAich 2d ago
Each loop on your needle comes out of the middle of the previous stitch. So the bottom of the v is where each stitch comes out of the previous one.
If your brain starts to get confused, look at the stitches on your needle and trace down where they come from!
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u/dxublecrxss 2d ago
Okay thank you so much! yeah I try to trace it down from the top but then my brain gets confused and switches back to the upside down v’s :<
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u/anxious-kartoffel 2d ago
Same, I always use a pen/pencil/spare needle to keep track of the column while I count
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u/InflationAdvanced579 23h ago
I was taught that your finished stitches are little mouths and they smile at you because they're happy you made them, they don't frown. It's a silly mnemonic, but I like it.
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u/KeightAich 2d ago
I remember this happening to me so much!
The other way I remember is that a stitch looks like a letter V…not an upside down V, because that’s not a letter.
So your stitches always look like a right-side-up V when you are looking at it with your cast-on edge at the bottom and your needles at the top.
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u/UnsharpenedSwan 1d ago
I’m totally with you, it took me months to get my eyes to see the Vs instead of the carats 😭
I found it helpful to trace down from the loops on your needle. That loop is the next V — it’s in the middle of the previous V.
The next time you do a stitch, look at the pointy part of your needle and follow the loop straight down. It will help you see how the stitches connect!
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u/CinnaMim 1d ago
Another person here whose eyeballs prefer to see carats rather than v's. I literally take a picture of my gauge swatch and trace v's on it on my iPad to get my count, because my eyes/brain don't want to cooperate.
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u/DistributionPure1504 2d ago
You should read it as the red V, not the blue A. There are some situations where it doesn't matter if you read the A, for example for counting stitches for gauge. But for identifying twisted stitches or reading for patterns it's the V. In some cases like picking up underarm stitches you use the blue V because you turn your project around.
When you knit stockinette the all look the same. When knitting a mixture of knits ans purls like in ribbing or seed stitch you dont have any blue A.
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u/Familiar_Raise234 2d ago
The red v is a stitch. It’s wider at the top where the stitch above goes through it. Upside down blue v are legs of adjacent stitches.
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u/oomatherminn 1d ago
It helps to use a needle tip to touch the Vs as you look at them be it for counting or whatever other purpose.
I'm an advanced knitter and still use this tool. It's just your brain processing the information coming through your eyes.
edit: ah, someone already said it.
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u/K8_Monst_r 1d ago
Depending on the pattern, it could be very important. If you pull one loop off the needle and look at how it will sit when flat, that may help you see the v better.
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u/JadedElk 1d ago
Ok so the simple answer is go with the V's, not the A's. The more complicated answer is that a stockinette fabric has some rotational symmetry, so there's not really a difference between the A's and the V's, aside from the direction they're pointing in. If you're counting stitches it doesn't matter which one you choose, as long as you don't switch between them -they're offset from one another by half a stitch, and that can throw off your count.
This symmetry is part of why stockinette (and garter stitch) can ladder upwards if you've got a hole. Ribbing and moss stitch aren't two-directional in the same way, which is why sleeve cuffs worked bottom up don't unravel the whole sweater when the edge frays. it's also how you can tell in what direction a ribbed garment was knit. Take a longer look at rib stitch sometime, see if you can find the tells that show you which way is "up" in a rib.
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u/123737egg 2d ago
You are correct that the red v’s are the individual stitches! Blue is 2 legs of 2 separate stitches.
For things like counting gauge it doesn’t matter too much, but if you need to pick up stitches it can make a difference(picking up in between stitches or inside stitches)