Are you ready to TUCK?

Tuck sounds like some kind of energetic gym activity, but I promise that knitting tuck stitches is actually relaxing and not at all alarming. And to help you develop your tuck stitch skills, we have Nancy Marchant’s lovely Bramen Cowl – the first design in Boost Your Knitting.

The fabric created by the tuck stitch pattern is squishy, cosy and has great texture. The colour shifts of the Schoppel Wolle Gradient yarn add another layer of interest, and I found it hard to stop knitting on mine, as I kept wanting to knit on to the next colour change! And don’t even start me on how many I have plans to cast on, in all the different delicious shades of Gradient.

One of the benefits of the tuck stitch pattern is that it’s attractive from both sides. Here’s the “wrong side” of the fabric, but I think it’s just as pleasing as the outside.

Tuck stitches have been used in machine knitting for ages, but they are only just getting to be popular in hand knitting – mostly thanks to the incredible development work that Nancy Marchant has done on this technique.

To help you get started with tuck stitches, there is a step-by-step photo tutorial in the pdf files for the first pattern for Boost Your Knitting (see below for the best way to get hold of your files), and we have also created a video tutorial to walk you through every step of the process.

The tuck stitch video is below, and you can also find videos on the two-colour long-tail cast-on method as well as the sewn cast off, over on our YouTube channel, or on our Boost Your Knitting video tutorial page. We will be talking in more detail about both of those techniques next week.

Boost Your Knitting subscribers will have emails from us with details on how to update your files. The easiest way is to go through Ravelry, and if you haven’t already added your ebook to your Ravelry library, you will find information on how to do so over on our FAQ page.

And of course it’s absolutely not too late to join in! You can purchase Boost Your Knitting for £30 (which includes worldwide shipping of the print book in September) over in our online shop. We also have a Spring Kit which includes all of the yarns for the first three projects in a handy cotton duffel bag. And finally, you can go all in, and purchase the ULTIMATE Boost Your Knitting for £275 (which includes worldwide shipping) and kit yourself out with the complete digital programme, all four seasonal kits (which is all 12 projects’ worth of yarn) as well as the print book. We will be closing sales of the Ultimate Boost Your Knitting at the end of the day on Sunday 3rd March, so if you’ve been considering it, then don’t delay. The main Boost Your Knitting programme will continue to be available until the print book goes on sale in September.

Finally, we have a knitalong running in our Ravelry group right the way through March. To take part you just need to be working on a project using tuck stitches, and post about it over in the Ravelry knitalong thread. It’s always a fun and friendly place to share your progress and there are heaps of people on hand if you’re finding anything tricky.

I can’t wait to see your projects! Happy tuck stitching one and all!

All images in the post are © Jesse Wild.