The beautiful Gather hat and cowl that Alexa designed for Knit City uses an interesting technique called smocking. This technique gathers stitches together to create a richly textured fabric.
Smocking is simple to achieve (it’s less fiddly than cabling), and all the steps are described below!
Smock 6: insert RH needle front to back between 6th and 7th stitch on LH needle, draw through a loop, place this loop on LH needle and knit it together with first stitch on the LH needle, k1, p2, k2
(RH = right hand, LH = left hand … find a full list of knitting abbreviations here)
You can break this down into 6 steps:
- insert RH needle from front to back between 6th and 7th sts on LH needle
- wrap working yarn around RH needle tip (just like when you knit)
- draw up a loop (just like when you knit)
- place this loop in LH needle
- knit the loop together with first stitch (use k2tog)
- k1, p2, k2 (work the remaining 5 sts)
Let’s take a close look at the process in photos:
There you have it! Smocking is a great, simple technique. Get the Gather pattern now, and try it out!
Having a hard time understanding the photos? There is a great video that explains various ways of using elongated stitches, including this method of smocking, here.
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Designs featuring texture and cables:
Ready to Learn Something New? We’ve Got a Hat for That! | Tin Can Knits
December 31, 2020 @ 6:30 am
[…] worked in a different way. It looks intricate, but it’s actually not too tough. Check out our smocking stitch tutorial and then hop over to get the Gather hat and cowl pattern. It’s a really fun little […]
#TCKnewtricksKAL complete! | Tin Can Knits
April 1, 2020 @ 12:23 am
[…] who made Gather hats or cowls to learn the smocking technique (it’s EASY and very effective… check out our tutorial here). And many others tried steeking for the first time. Socks were a popular new technique, some […]
WoolWork Tin Can Knits-along: Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes…and hands! – KnitBritish
November 13, 2019 @ 11:32 pm
[…] a lovely cowl, which features smocking – there is a tutorial for this on the TCK website too (and there is a hat pattern to match!) I made this for a friend in […]
Fall is for Hats | Tin Can Knits
September 19, 2019 @ 8:22 am
[…] mostly because it looks pretty and complicated, but it couldn’t be simpler (we even have a tutorial for that here if you don’t believe me). I enjoyed putting this unusual palette together, a golden yellow, […]
December 24, 2015 @ 6:58 am
Thank you for the wonderful tutorials. Your pictures and explanations t5make it so easy to learn new techniques.
Sweater help! | Tin Can Knits
March 6, 2015 @ 9:39 am
[…] our technique tutorials. Unsure of how to work an ssk? Need to work a lace chart? Curious about the smocking stitch? We have tutorials for that! If you have any requests just leave a comment on the blog and we will […]
February 14, 2015 @ 4:50 pm
Thanks for your very clear explanation of this stitch. I could not figure it out until then! Also, there are you-tubes on this but it goes so fast—-the pictures are perfect.
November 16, 2014 @ 10:21 am
The cowl pattern appears not to use the Smock 5 stitch, only the Smock 6. Am I reading this correctly?
November 21, 2014 @ 12:05 pm
Nope, you are correct, the cowl only uses smock 6 because there are no decreases.
November 15, 2014 @ 12:52 am
Thank you for the tutorial:-)
December 19, 2013 @ 10:44 am
Reblogged this on The Darkness in the Light.
November 8, 2013 @ 10:37 am
Love the tutorial as well and greatly lit imagery! X
November 8, 2013 @ 9:38 am
Thanks for this explanation. I’ve seen another method that looked really risky because it seemed like you somehow wrapped your yarn around and around the stitches (I think with them on a cable needle?), but that would lead to uneven tension and little gathers of different widths unless you were very practiced! This way looks perfect!
November 8, 2013 @ 9:17 am
J’adore je suis une grande fan de tous vos modèles….Merci pour ces belles créations….