How To
Confident Knitting: Grab Stitches and Mattress Stitch
Simple tricks make for clever results. Welcome to a Confident Knitting double header: a pair of juicy video tutorials.
Jen Arnall-Culliford demonstrates the concept of grab stitches, a simple move to add sculptural interest to plain knitting. Her second video stars our favorite seaming technique: classic mattress stitch for sewing pieces of knitting together.
Grab and Go
With one basic technique, take grab stitch know-how and go in the direction you desire to create new textures. Take a look:
Worked singly, grab stitches give subtle texture to your designs. Worked in groups, a 3D, folded effect appears.
Matchless Mattress
It’s one of our favorite seaming techniques, expertly demonstrated in Jen’s video tutorial.
The Designs? Cushions!
To practice these techniques, Confident Knitting features two phenomenal designs by Jiminez Joseph: Saturnus Cushions.
Jen likes Neighborhood Fiber Co.’s Organic Studio DK from the MDK Shop for this design—each cushion requires two skeins.
We have Confident Knitting in the Shop now, as well as A Year of Techniques and Boost Your Knitting in the Sundries Department. You’ll find all three bundled at a special price in our Confident Knitting Library.
Hello these pillows look phenomenal. Are you selling the pillow patterns separately or do you need to purchase the book? Also the yarn recommends a different needle size than the pattern which is size 8 American. Please let me know about both.
Aren’t they gorgeous? Thanks for your questions, Debra. The patterns are not available separately. A larger needle size can accommodate working special techniques like these, but the size you need to get gauge may vary, so we recommend swatching.
Thank you for for getting back to me. So do I order the book through you or online?
We’ve got the book in stock! Tap any of the links to the book in the post and you can order through MDK. Thanks, Debra. If you prefer to paste the product link into your browser, here it is: https://www.moderndailyknitting.com/shop/confident-knitting/
Ann, thank you for including the subjects in the title of this post. I have a lot of saved articles, and finding the one I want is so much easier when the title has a hint of the subject. Many thanks to you and Kay – for everything you do. Happy New Year!
Thanks, MDK! I think Jen’s tutorials are terrific! When I have a knitting struggle….that’s where i go first! She’s so calm….and so smart!
Oh, very cool texture one can achieve! I’m definitely going to try it out.
Mattress stitch always makes me feel like I’ve performed magic. Thanks for this, my technique will be the better for it and my smile even bigger.
The pillows and videos are great. I just wanted to note that Tracy Purtscher published a book in 2017 titled Dimensional Tuck Knitting
that has dozens of stitches using the same technique, as well as some patterns as well. It’s very inspiring and I made a great hat with “tuck” or “grab” stitches.
Nancy Marchant also published a book on tuck stitches in 2017 called “Tuck Stitches: Sophistication in Handknitting”. My understanding is this technique comes from machine knitting. It’s quite fascinating.
Grab stitches! Years ago I was given a sweater done in this manner, to form little clouds, worked in angora on a blue alpaca tweed body. Pretty cute, gotta say. Might haul that one out of its time-out…
Crystal clear instructions and can’t get enough of Jen saying “lumpy-bumpy” …just makes you smile