How to Increase in Knitting

There are several ways to increase, and each method adds extra stitches to the row unless they are paired with compensating decreases. Increasing is used whenever a knitted piece needs to be wider, such as sleeve shaping.

One of the easiest and most common increases is to knit into the front and back of a stitch (kfb). If a pattern does not give instructions for the type of increase to use, this is a good choice. Another common, although more difficult, increase is the Make 1 (M1). The M1 increase creates a new stitch by itself, without going into the previous stitch.

The yarn over is third type of increase. Often used in lace knitting, it creates small holes (eyelets) in the fabric.