What are twisted stitches in knitting?
twisted stitches are just as the name implies, stitches that are twisted. If you were to put your needle through the stitch and look at the bottom, you should not see the left and right strands cross. A good visual would be this reddit post.
Typically, most twisted stitches come from people twisting the purl stitch, especially when doing continental knitting. Another common mistake (one that I used to make) is twisting stitches only in the round when combination knitting. So if your twisted stitch problem only shows up on items knit in the round, combination knitting is probably the culprit.
The root issue causing twisted stitches is the way you are wrapping your yarn and which leg of the loop you are going through. A very helpful (and funny) blog post I like to use is Ways of knitting, which has some helpful drawings to better visualize how to see the “legs” of your stitches.
It can sometimes be tricky to identify twisted stitches in your knitting, but a good rule of thumb is to look at the “v” shapes in your fabric. If the stitch is sitting correctly, you should be able to see through the “v” when you pull the fabric apart. If it is twisted, the legs of the “v” will be crossed over each other, similar to a person crossing their legs.
Why do twisted stitches matter?
If you take a look at this reddit post, you can see that twisted stitches change the shape of the fabric. Another great resource on how twisted stitches affect stretch is this youtube video by Roxanne Richardson. Overall, twisted stitches affect both the shape and the stretch of your finished knitting, which can be a real problem for fitted garments or anything that needs to block out properly.
Can twisted stitches be a design choice?
Sometimes twisting your stitches can be intentional. I personally like to twist stitches when doing sweater cuffs because it gives a tighter, more structured look. Furthermore, when making mittens some patterns will ask you to twist stitches to prevent large gaps between stitches so warm air stays inside. There can be legitimate uses for twisted stitches in knitting, but the majority of the time I see them in projects, it is simply a mistake and not an intentional choice.
Can twisted stitches be blocked out?
I'm going to hold your hand as I say this, but unfortunately **no, twisted stitches cannot be blocked out**. Blocking would not really work here because the anatomy of the stitch itself has been changed. Twisted stitches are a fundamental change in the way the stitches are created, so once they are twisted, the only real fix is to frog back.I twisted my stitches, should I frog and start over?
Ultimately this is up to you. For any sort of fitted garment I would say it is 100% worth the effort to frog it back, especially since it will likely fit better after. I would also recommend checking whether your gauge swatch was twisted and redoing that as well, since your stitch gauge might change once you correct your technique. For blankets and other non-fitted items, it probably won’t matter too much. One important thing to keep in mind though is that when you stop twisting your stitches halfway through a project, it is very noticeable that something changed. In that case you might actually want to keep twisting the stitches for the rest of the project and say it was intentional.
How to prevent twisted stitches going forward
The best way to prevent twisted stitches in your knitting is to learn how to read your knitting and understand stitch anatomy. Understanding how stitches sit on the needle and which leg to enter through will allow you to knit correctly without having to overthink it every row. Learning to read your knitting also gives you more freedom when working in other knitting styles, and it is especially useful if you are interested in double knitting.
My preferred method of double knitting is to hold the dominant colour in my left hand and knit continental, and the contrasting colour in my right hand and knit English style. Because I know how to read my knitting, I don’t have to think about which leg to enter or how to wrap the yarn. I can simply tell from how the stitch looks on the needle.
Yarn twist (Z vs S twist yarn) (AKA yarn bias)
I won’t go into too much detail here, but it is worth noting that knitting twisted stitches are fundamentally different from the natural twist of your yarn. Z-twist and S-twist yarns interact differently with your knitting technique, and it is a whole topic on its own. I recommend this blog if you are interested in learning more about yarn twist.