This is basically a form of an increase, and is often used in the middle of a row, as it does not leave bumps or holes in the work. This is a very useful technique in miniature knitting.
To work a m 1 (make 1) in the middle of a row:
1. Insert your working needle into the loop between the two stitches of the previous row, this can be seen between the two needles below – the right hand needle is now lying under the loop.
2. In order to avoid a hole in the knitting, twist the stitch as you knit into it. To do this, insert the left hand needle into the loop and slide the right hand needle out of the work:
If you are left handed you can omit the two steps above and work from here, by inserting the left hand needle under the loop as shown below:
3. Remove right hand needle from loop
4. Knit into the stitch through the back loop and slide the stitch off the left hand needle, you will notice that a twisted loop has been formed as shown below:
5. Knit the next stitch as normal and the stitches will pull together, leaving no visible gap.
NOTE: If you did not twist the stitch as shown above your finished stitch would look like this, with a ‘hole’ above and below the loop used to make the stitch:
However, if you are a tight knitter you may like this helpful tip which was sent us by Anneliese:
It was the ‘Up1’/M1 increases in this scale (with my tight knitting!), that had been giving me trouble. But I discovered a fabulous way around it: I use the eye end of a tapestry needle as a third needle (leaving the left knitting needle to the back, out of the way), to lift up the ‘running’ thread. I am then able to position it so that I can more easily get my right needle into the back loop, and the eye allows me to sort of ‘scoop’ the thread up with the working needle’s point, as it gives me a little recess to place this into. That way I cleanly grab the whole of the thread in one go, as it can’t slip away. I don’t know if any of this makes sense, but it’s made a huge difference!!!
I first discovered the usefulness of the ‘eye recess’ a while back, when I didn’t have the right size cable needles, and I wonder if other people are doing this too. Also it means the tapestry needle is in the left hand, which might make it trickier for a right-handed person. Anyway, it helped me in more ways than one, as I’m often struggling to even get my working needle into a ‘running thread back loop’ in the first place, and with the darning needle I can line this up better. (By the way, when I use this trick, I do always make sure the stitches on the left-hand needle are well away from its point, so they don’t slide off when I’m not paying attention to them!)