Pick-up rates: stitch gauge over row gauge

A knitted stitch is wider than it is tall. A band picked up along the side of a piece runs at a right angle to it, so its stitches have to match rows, and one stitch in every row gives too many: the band flares. Too few and it pulls the edge in.

The rate that lies flat is the stitch gauge over the row gauge, both from your own blocked fabric. Twenty stitches and twenty-six rows over the same length mean twenty stitches for every twenty-six rows. Reduced, that is ten for every thirteen. Nobody counts to thirteen along an edge, so the fraction is split into short runs: pick up a stitch in each of a few rows, skip one row, and go on. The number of skipped rows in a repeat is the rows less the stitches, and the stitches are shared between those skips as evenly as whole numbers allow. Ten for thirteen becomes three, skip, three, skip, four, skip.

The familiar rule of three stitches for every four rows is the rate for one particular gauge. The same source that gives the example above works three other gauges and gets a different rate for each.

For the total, multiply the length of the edge by the stitch gauge of the band. A rib needs a count that fits its repeat, so the total moves to the nearest count of the right form. When a pattern gives a count for its own length and yours is longer, the same sum scales it: enter the pattern's count and length as the gauge.

Chart: stitches in one pick-up repeat, by row gauge and stitch gauge

Each cell is the number of stitches in the reduced rate for the rows in its row and the stitches in its column, both counted over the same length. Read it with the next chart: stitches here, rows there.

	Gauge: stitches
Gauge: rows	16	18	20	22	24
26	8	9	10	11	12
28	4	9	5	11	6
30	8	3	2	11	4
32	1	9	5	11	3
34	8	9	10	11	12
36	4	1	5	11	2
40	2	9	1	11	3

Work out your own numbers: Pick up stitches calculator

Chart: rows in one pick-up repeat, by row gauge and stitch gauge

Each cell is the number of rows the stitches of the previous chart are spread over.

	Gauge: stitches
Gauge: rows	16	18	20	22	24
26	13	13	13	13	13
28	7	14	7	14	7
30	15	5	3	15	5
32	2	16	8	16	4
34	17	17	17	17	17
36	9	2	9	18	3
40	5	20	2	20	5

Work out your own numbers: Pick up stitches calculator

Chart: stitches to pick up, by edge length and stitch gauge

Each cell is the total for the edge length in its row and the stitches over four inches in its column, with no rib multiple.

	Gauge: stitches
Length of the edge	16	18	20	22	24
8 in	32	36	40	44	48
12 in	48	54	60	66	72
16 in	64	72	80	88	96
20 in	80	90	100	110	120
24 in	96	108	120	132	144
28 in	112	126	140	154	168
32 in	128	144	160	176	192

Work out your own numbers: Pick up stitches calculator

Used by

• Pick up stitches calculatorHow many stitches to pick up along an edge, and at what rate.

Sources

• Kelbourne Woolens, Kate Osborn: Perfectly picked up stitches
• Modern Daily Knitting, Patty Lyons: Button band gladness