How to knit SKL – slip, knit, lift

A step-by-step tutorial on how to knit a right-leaning bar increase; perfect to mirror kfb

Have you ever wondered if there is a right-leaning counterpart to KFB, knit front and back? Well, there is, even though it is not very well known. By knitting SKL – slip, knit, lift – you can beautifully accent those right-slanting increase lines with the same sort of bar created by the more popular version of the increase.

a swatch with skl - slip knit lift that shows the lovely right-slant of this increase

This is a somewhat rare stitch (unrightfully so) and you may find it under different names. I’ve seen “right-leaning bar increase” or “KFB-right” but I feel that SKL is more in line with modern knitting terminology and that’s why I typically refer to it as such.

a swatch with the right leaning bar increase skl

Let’s show you how to do it!

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Instructions: How to knit SKL

someone showing how to knit skl right leaning increase

Knitting this right-leaning increase involves lifting a stitch back to the left needle. But other than that, it's really smooth and straight-forward to knit this version of the bar increase.

Active Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes

Instructions

  1. Slip one stitch knitwise.

    slipping one stitch knitwise
  2. Slip the very same stitch back to the left needle purlwise (so point-to-point). You thereby twist it around once.

    slipping the slipped stitch back to the left needle point to point
  3. Knit into the front loop of that stitch as normal.

    knitting the thus twisted stitch through the front loop
  4. Drop the resulting stitch off the left needle.

    dropping the stitch off the left needle
  5. Lift the right leg of the stitch one row below you've just knitted back to the left needle.

    lifting the right leg back to the left needle
  6. Next, knit the resulting loop through the back loop and drop it off the left needle to finish SKL.

    knitting the resulting loop through the back loop

Notes

Try to work very close to the tip of the needle to avoid overstretching the stitch of the previous row. Otherwise, you might end up with a more pronounced little gap.

The beauty of this right-leaning bar increase is that it utterly mirrors kfb. Use both of them on different sides of the same project and you get beautiful mirrored increase lines – just like when you are using M1R & M1L. Maybe a bit more noticeable but very pretty nonetheless.

a swatch with mirrored left and right leaning increases - kfb and skl
A swatch increased with SKL on the left side and KFB on the right side

There’s one important difference, however. Most popular knitting increases make use of a strand or stitch one row below. While normally quite inconspicuous, it stops being so when you have to increase in every row or round or you are knitting stripes.

Kfb and SKL work perfectly in those situations where you need to place a lot of adjacent increases but don’t want to resort to yarn overs or backward loop increases that typically create a little eyelet/visible hole. I love it for toe-up socks!

Anyway, that’s how to knit SKL – slip, knit, lift. Comment below if you have any questions!

how to knit skl - slip, knit, lift for beginners

3 thoughts on “How to knit SKL – slip, knit, lift”

  1. I saw in your KFB instructions you have the option to slip the back loop for a slightly more “invisible” appearance. Is there an equivalent for the SKL?

    Reply

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