How to purl
A purl is a knit stitch worked from the other side: yarn in front, needle in from the back, push the loop away from you.
Updated August 12, 2026·6 min read
A purl is a knit stitch worked from the other side. Yarn in front, right needle enters the stitch from behind, and you push the new loop away from you instead of pulling it toward you. If you can knit, you already have most of this.
Knit and purl are the only two stitches in knitting. Everything else — ribbing, seed stitch, cables, the whole catalogue — is those two in different orders.
The steps
- 1Hold the needle with your stitches in your left hand. Bring the working yarn to the front, between the two needle tips, so it hangs toward you.
- 2Insert the right needle tip into the first stitch from right to left, entering from the back of the work toward you. The right needle now sits in front of the left one, the opposite of a knit stitch.
- 3Wrap the working yarn counterclockwise around the right needle tip, coming over the top and down.
- 4Push the right needle tip back down and away from you, through the stitch, carrying the wrapped loop with it.
- 5Slide the old stitch off the left needle. One purl done.
What purling gives you
| Pattern | How to work it flat | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Garter stitch | Knit every row | Bumpy, reversible, lies flat |
| Stockinette | Knit one row, purl one row | Smooth V's on the front, curls at the edges |
| 1x1 rib | K1, P1 across; repeat | Stretchy vertical columns, no curl |
| 2x2 rib | K2, P2 across; repeat | Stretchier, common on cuffs and hems |
| Seed stitch | K1, P1; next row purl the knits | Textured, reversible, no curl |
Stockinette is where most people meet purling, because the smooth side everyone pictures when they think of knitting only exists if you purl every other row.
If it goes wrong
- Your purl rows are looser than your knit rows.
- Extremely common and mostly harmless. The purl motion uses slightly more yarn per stitch. It usually evens out with mileage, and blocking hides the rest. If it bothers you on a garment, purl on a needle one size smaller.
- You keep gaining stitches.
- The yarn is travelling over the top of a needle instead of between the tips, which makes a yarn-over. Move it between the tips every single time you switch between knit and purl.
- Purling feels far harder than knitting.
- If you knit Continental, it genuinely is harder — the scoop reverses direction. Try Norwegian purling, which keeps the yarn behind the work, or knit in the round for a while so stockinette needs no purling at all.
- Your ribbing has a gap between the knit and purl columns.
- You're leaving slack when moving the yarn front to back. Give the yarn a small tug after the switch, before working the next stitch.
Reading your work
Look at the stitches on the left needle before you work them. A knit stitch shows a flat V below the needle. A purl stitch shows a horizontal bump.
That's how you recover after putting a project down mid-row for a week. You don't need to remember which row you were on — the fabric tells you.