How to Knit the Garter Slip Stitch [Free Video Tutorial & Written Pattern!]

Garter Slip Stitch is a really simple, but effective knitting technique that uses just knit and slipped stitches – no purling involved! It produces a lovely dense piece of fabric that isn’t reversible but looks great on both sides making it perfect for projects like dish or wash cloths.

There are two versions of this pattern – one that is a 4 row repeat, and another that’s a longer 8 row repeat. The only difference between the two is that the 8 row repeat staggers the texture whereas with the 4 row repeat the stitches are stacked on top of each other.

The 4 row repeat is just the first four rows of the 8 row repeat, so if this is the pattern you want to follow, after you’ve knitted Row 4, you can just go back and restart from Row 1 and repeat the process.

For those of you that like to have a video tutorial to follow along to while you knit, there is a video tutorial linked at the bottom of this post. Happy Knitting!

Pin for later

written pattern

stitches used:

• K – Knit
• P – Purl
• Sl1p wyib – Slip one Purl wise with the yarn at the back.
• Sl1p wyif – Slip one Purl wise with the yarn in front.

Repeat Rows:

Cast On: Any ODD number of stitches (aka a multiple of 2+1).

Row 1: K all stitches.

Row 2: K all stitches.

Row 3: K1, *sl1p wyib, k1* repeat from *to* until end of row

Row 4: k1, *sl1p wyif, k1* repeat from *to* until end of row.

Row 5: K all stitches.

Row 6: K all stitches.

Row 7: K2, *sl1p wyib, k1* repeat from *to* until 1 stitch remains, k1.

Row 8: K2, *sl1p wyif, k1* repeat from *to* until 1 stitch remains, k1.

Repeat rows 1-8 (or 1-4 if you want the shorter repeat) until your project is the desired size. Cast off knit wise on either a Row 2 or Row 6.

video tutorial