Reverse Left-Leaning Bar Increase
Create the look of the kfb / k1fb while working on the purl side
There may come a time when you want to create a Left-Leaning Barred Increase, which is typically created on the knit side of the fabric using kfb or k1fb (knit into the front and back of the same loop), but you’re working on the purl side. If so, this tutorial is for you!
The mirror image of this increase is the Right-leaning Bar Increase.
(For lefties, this would be a Reverse Right-Leaning Bar Increase.)
How to do it:
Basic Principle:
You’ll be knitting into the front and back of the same stitch.
What should it look like?
When working a kfb, on the knit side of your fabric, you work to the stitch you want to increase. Usually, this is the stitch after a stitch marker. Then you knit into the front leg and the back leg of the same stitch before slipping it off the non-working needle. The result is an extra stitch on the next to the original one that has a little bar across its base, like this:
Image shows the detail of a kfb increase done by a right-handed person, with the stitch on the right looking like a normal column of knitting, and a new stitch on the left with a horizontal bar around its base. Text: Bar Increase (k1fb) - Increase stitch “sits” on top of bar.
To create this exact look from the other side of the fabric, on the purl side:
Work to one stitch before marker. Slip stitch knitwise onto working needle, then slip directly (purlwise) back onto non-working needle.
Knit into the front leg. Drop stitch from non-working needle.
Working into the stitch directly below the one you just created on the working needle, use the non-working needle to pick up the loop closest to your dominant hand from the dominant-hand side of the yarn. This will create a loop on the non-working needle with the leg closest to the needle tip in front, extending from the same stitch you just worked into.
Purl into the front leg of this picked-up stitch.
That's it! If you check the knit side of your work, it should look like you just made a kfb—except you and I both know better, don't we? *wink, wink.*
Left-Leaning Bar Increase (Reverse BincL or LBinc) worked from the purl side. (The one closest to the bottom of the pictured sample was worked from the knit side. The rest were from the purl side.)
