Knitting Increases

An increase is simply adding a stitch to the knitting. Consider all of the ways you could create a new loop of yarn on the needle. Each way is likely to have been named and used by someone. If I could use only three methods (and I pretty much do only use these three), they would be M1L, M1R, and Yarn Over (YO). The first two are the most discreet and invisible, and match each other symmetrically for the fussy among us. YO is, by contrast, intentionally visible: it creates a decorative hole in the knitting, which is used a lot in lace. (It also, incidentally, makes a nice, stretchy little buttonhole.)

The sampler below contains both increases and decreases. Since it was knit from bottom to top, the increases are the "V" part of the diamond shapes. All of these increases are worked on the knit rows only (not the purl rows). The names M1A, M1T, KRL, KLL are my own names, for lack of a standard name for those.