Patty Lyons

Teacher and Designer · Brooklyn, New York

Patty Lyons is a nationally recognized knitting teacher and technique expert. In her pursuit of training the mindful knitter, Patty is known for teaching the “why” in addition to the “how.” She specializes in sweater design and sharing her love of the much-maligned subjects of gauge and blocking.

Wherever knitters are gathered, there is a good chance of finding Patty. She teaches all over the United States at guilds, shops and knitting shows. Patty’s popular classes can also be found on DVD, and online at Interweave, Annie’s and Craftsy, where her “Improve Your Knitting Class” was named the most popular class of 2013.

Patty’s designs and knitting technique articles have been published in Vogue Knitting, Interweave Knits, Knit Purl, Knitter’s Magazine, Cast On, Knit Style, Creative Knitting, and Twist Collective. Her designs have also appeared in pattern collections from Classic Elite, Noro, Cascade, Tahki Stacy Charles, Sugar Bush and Willow Yarns. Her video sweater classes can help every knitter achieve their dream sweater. You can find Patty on the regular at her website and on Ravelry.

Do you have a problem you’d like Patty to tackle? Write to her at askpattymdk@gmail.com.

Patty Lyons's Networks:

Contributions From Patty Lyons

Ask Patty: Your Book About Your Knitting

This clever little book helps you discover what makes your knitting tick. Plus there are stickers!

Beginnings and Endings: Virtual Workshop with Patty Lyons

Let's learn how to start and end our knitting projects with a bang! Patty Lyons is one of the most acclaimed and beloved knitting teachers in the world, famous for filling her workshops with a-ha moments. Join us on January 10, 2025, from noon-2 Eastern time, for a 2-hour session that will make your knitting projects look good coming—and going. This will be a virtual workshop on Zoom. No kit is included, but there is a short materials list. Read on for all the details and to reserve your place.

Ask Patty: The Fiberly Faroe Islands and Iconic Iceland

Sheep and wool and sweaters round out a Nordic adventure.

Ask Patty: On the Loose in Norway

Nine yarn shops and one very happy knitter.

Ask Patty: Make One Make Sense

Increases are a basic thing to understand—how they lean, why they lean, why it matters.

Ask Patty: Brioche Best Practices

Level up your knitting skills by cracking the code.

Ask Patty: Three Is Not a Crowd

We always hear "alternate skeins to avoid pooling," but what does that really mean?

Ask Patty: Keep It Tight

Say farewell to floppy button bands with this handy how-to.

Ask Patty: Yokes That Fit

Bubble back, be GONE!

Ask Patty: Purling Backwards

"The most powerful (not so) secret joy of knitting"? Yes, please. Step-by-step pictures and a video too!

Ask Patty: Decreases in Reverse

Flipping charts got you flipping out? Unleash the power of why.

Ask Patty: No More Slanting Stockinette and Twisty Stitches

It's as easy as one, two, three pearls of wisdom from the Queen of Why.

Ask Patty: Wrap and Turn or German Short Rows?

The long and short of swapping techniques from the Queen of Why.

Ask Patty: Getting Left-cross Cables Right

Right is right and left is wrong. It's not you!

Ask Patty: Dropped Cast-on Stitch!

Breathe. You don't need to start all over again.

Ask Patty: You Are Not Alone

Suggestions for making knitting friends and for getting family accustomed to your sticks and strings habit.

Ask Patty: Jogless Stranded Colorwork

Flip the script on the usual method for the smoothest transitions.

Ask Patty: Jogless Latvian Braid

It's a trick of the eye that's easy to execute and oh-so-satisfying.

Ask Patty: Seamless Sweater, No Holes

Mind the gap? So do we. Close it in 9 brilliantly simple steps.

An Ode to Picky Knitters

It's hip to be square. Join us today for a Zoom party to celebrate the publication of Patty Lyons' Bag of Knitting Tricks.

Patty Lyons’ Knitting Bag of Tricks

We can all stand to save as much of our sanity as possible—especially while doing one of favorite activities. In this powerful little volume author, designer, and educator extraordinaire Patty Lyons offers her top tips. These are the skills and insights that instantly make us better, cleverer knitters. And our very own Knitter-in-Paris Franklin Habit provided the illustrations!

Ask Patty: Tubular Stockinette Hem

Call it the Totally Possible Burger of knitting tricks.

Ask Patty: Totally (Twistless) Tubular

This cleverly simple tip takes the stress out of working the long-tail tubular cast-on.

Ask Patty: Fake It

Put purl power to work for perfect boxy sweater ribbing.

Ask Patty: Purl Power

It's a stitch anatomy deep-dive and a reminder to Just. Please. Swatch.

Ask Patty: M1 with a Twist

Neater increases are all about the running thread. Take a closer look at a favorite technique.

Patty Asks Patty about Short Rows and Bind-Offs

Is this what the kids mean by "meta"?

Ask Patty: Directions in Grafting

Do you know where your stitches are going to? Do you like the things that grafts are showing you?

Me & Seth: A Tale of Love, Hate, Corrections, and a Sweater Vest

Comedians and jackals and knitters, oh Patty!

Ask Patty Goes Over the Edge

To slip or not to slip . . . and how and why. And that's not all—video tutorials!

Ask Patty: Button Band Gladness

Button band sadness becomes button band gladness when you just ask Patty.

Ask Patty: One More Jogless Join

You asked, Patty pondered: The Single Row Stripe.

Ask Patty: Jogless Join

Stripes, glorious, smoothly-flowing stripes.

Ask Patty: Taking a Ribbing

No twisty, sloppy ribbing to see here.

Ask Patty: Do I Really Have to Do That?

When it comes to seaming, the short answer is "Yes."

Ask Patty: Why, Oh Ply?

Understand twist and you won’t feel like shouting.

Best of 2020: Patty Knows

The sparkliest of the gems Patty brought us in 2020.

Ask Patty: What the Flip

For hems that lie flat.

Ask Patty: Grafting FTW

On becoming a visual knitter.

Ask Patty: Sweater Better

Decipher that sweater pattern.

Ask Patty: Magic Loop Solutions

Patty solves three magic loop mysteries.

Ask Patty: Let the Tool Do the Work

Tips for consistent tension.

Does Your Gauge Change, Or Do Swatches Lie?

Tips for a truthful swatch.

Ask Patty: Matching Cast-Ons and Bind-Offs

Love matching cast-on and bind-off edges? So does Patty.

Ask Patty: Grab Bag

Three perplexing problems, solved.

Ask Patty: Simple Fixes for Tidier Shawls

Two perplexing—or purl-plexing—cases, and two simple fixes.

Ask Patty: How to Tidy Up That Bind-Off

Debugging something that has bugged knitters forever: that giant stitch at the end of your bind-off.

Ask Patty: Short Row Mail Bag

Stand by to receive Universal Knitting Truths.

Ask Patty: The Finish Line

How to make a clean getaway.

Ask Patty: Moving Stitches and Untwisting Cast-ons, Oh My!

Moving and shaping fabric with simple increases and decreases, and a fix for that un-twisting cast-on.

Ask Patty: Gapping and Mapping

What to do when the pattern tells you to do something, and it doesn't look good.

Ask Patty: The Long and the Short of It

The whys and wherefores of short rows, or at least a good start.

Ask Patty: Stripe Trauma

Solving pesky problems when changing colors.

Ask Patty: Custom Yarn

Patty shares rules of thumb for combining yarns, and tackles two puzzlers about picking up stitches in a contrasting color.

Ask Patty: Perfect Husbands and Easy Sleeve Caps

Solutions to problems that are not problems, and also problems that really are problems.

Ask Patty: More Chatting about Gauge

Beware of strangers bearing shortcuts.

Ask Patty: We Need to Talk About Gauge

Technique, etiquette, and lifestyle advice for the modern knitter.

Ask Patty: The Slinky Strikes Again

Technique, etiquette and lifestyle advice for the modern knitter.

Ask Patty: Increasing and Decreasing in Pattern

Technique, etiquette, and lifestyle advice for the modern knitter.

Introducing: Ask Patty

Questions? Our new columnist, Patty Lyons, brings advice and counsel for the knitterly problems that plague us.