There are cases in which skipping the row on your needle for particular stitches is desired, and one is to knit or purl in the row below that one. In other words: you knit/purl into the stitch below where you normally would, exactly as the name suggests. Specifically for the bubble stitch, however, we have to work not 1 but 4 stitches below the one on the knitting needle. So that’s what I’ll be showing you in this tutorial on how to work the knit 4 below or k4b stitch.
Materials used
Yarn: Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color Tea Rose.
Needles: This is a pair of straights that I picked up at the second-hand store when I started knitting, brand unknown.
Working a knit 4 below (k4b) stitch step by step
In patterns, you may encounter the following description of this stitch:
Knit 4 below (k4b): Take the next stitch off the needle, and drop 4 stitches down. Insert the needle underneath the loose strands from front to back into the stitch 4 rows below the one on the needle. Knit this stitch, then pull the worked stitch and the strands above off the needle together.
But how to actually do this? Read on!
- First, work your way across the row until you’ve reached the point where you want to make the stitch.
In this case, I’m making the k4b stitch 5 stitches in from the right edge.
- Carefully unravel the column of stitches, until you have 4 loose strands of yarn.
- Now, insert the left-hand needle knit wise in the stitch….
- … and also place the 4 strands of yarn over the needle.
This will make it easier to knit the stitch underneath those strands, catching them.
- Insert the right-hand needle knit-wise into the stitch you placed on the left-hand needle.
- Now wrap your working yarn around the needle…
Make sure to do this at the back of the 4 loose strands of yarn.
- …. and pull it through the stitch, and underneath the 4 strands of yarn.
- Finish the stitch by slipping the new stitch to the right-hand needle.
And that is how you work the knit 4 below (k4b) stitch!
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