How to Knit Half Linen Stitch - free knitting pattern and video tutorial

Half Linen Stitch is a really clever little stitch pattern in that it uses slipped stitches to create a lovely pattern on the right side of your work.

As the name suggests, Half Linen Stitch is a variation of Linen Stitch. However, unlike Linen Stitch there are no slipped stitches on the wrong side rows, and this gives the finished fabric a looser, drapier feel.

At just a four row repeat Half Linen Stitch is a super quick and easy pattern to get to grips with. There’s nothing overly complicated in this stitch pattern, you need to know how to knit, and purl.

The final technique used in this stitch is a slipped stitch with the yarn forward.

If you are a newer knitter that isn’t familiar with slipping a stitch purl wise with the yarn forward – I cover how to slip the stitch in the video tutorial linked below.

You don’t have to knit a whole project in Half Linen Stitch for it to work, you could incorporate small slices of it into a bigger project, for instance replacing a Stockinette Section in a knitted baby blanket with Half Linen Stitch instead.

Is This Stitch Pattern Reversible?

Whenever I produce a knitting tutorial, or a baby blanket pattern, I’m always being asked if its reversible or not. Hopefully having a little section to cover this question within my blog posts will help to answer that question nice and quickly.

The Half Linen Stitch isn’t a reversible pattern, it has a definite right and wrong side. This means it isn’t a stitch to use if you’re wanting a reversible knitting project.

That being said, the reverse isn’t ugly, or messy. The photo below shows how the reverse of this stitch looks:

Pin for Later

Want to easily bookmark this stitch for later? Why not pin this image so you can easily find it in the future!

written pattern

Stitches Used

K – knit
P – Purl
Sl1pwyf – slip one purl wise with yarn in front
WS – Wrong Side
RS – Right Side

Pattern Repeat

Foundation Row: Cast on an ODD number of stitches (I like to use the Long Tail method)

Row 1 (RS): k1, *sl1pwyf, k1* repeat from*to* until the end of the row.

Row 2 (WS): p all stitches.

Row 3: k2, *sl1pwyf, k1* repeat from *to* until 1 stitch remains, k1.

Row 4: p all stitches.

Repeat Rows 1-4 until your project is the desired size. When casting off, you’ll get the neatest result if you cast off knit-wise after a Row 1 or a Row 3 (i.e. – cast off knit wise instead of working Row 2 or 4)

video tutorial

If you’re a beginner, or new to reading written patterns, then you’ll love this step by step video tutorial that accompanies this free knitting pattern!