Learning the purl stitch with local Irish wool

It being winter in Ireland, a beanie seemed the obvious choice when I was looking for something new to knit. It was easy to find a pattern that was simple enough for me - a beginner, who has just learnt the knit stitch. To complete the beanie, I only needed to learn one new stitch - the purl stitch.

The first ball of yarn I purchased for my previous project, the headband, was a combination of sheep and alpaca wool. I found it in a shop that I was walking past. It was beautifully soft and I loved the colour, but I don’t actually know where the animals were from, who spun and dyed the wool and all those details that I have grown to care about. So this time, I chose to purchase a local Irish wool that was grown, spun and dyed all in the same area by a small family company.

Local Irish Wool

A common opinion I have come across is that Irish wool is too coarse and undesirable for yarn and clothing. Many makers of Irish woollen products actually obtain their wool from overseas and from foreign breeds such as the Australian Merino.¹ This is despite traditional sweaters such as the Aran sweater, originally being made from Irish wool suited very well for protecting against the Irish weather.

But there are a few that resist this common perception and do their best to support the local Irish wool industry. For example, Galway sheep, the only surviving native Irish breed of sheep,² are now primarily used for meat, but whose fleece are used by some spinners to create their yarn.

In County Galway there is a small sheep-farming family that runs Joyce Country Wool. They sell wool of local sheep, whose wool is often unvalued, hand-spin it and either leave it naturally coloured or dye it with plants and vegetables from the area, such as berries, lichens and onion skins.

To make my beanie, and learn the purl stitch, I bought some wool from Joyce Country Wool and I thoroughly enjoyed using it (my genuine opinion - I’m not sponsored!). One of the many things I loved about using the wool was its sheepy smell! The yarns I purchased were naturally coloured black, white, cream, grey and brown wools, and yellow and orange wools dyed with onion skins and lichens. I used 5mm needles when knitting the beanie with this wool.

The purl stitch

The purl stitch is another fundemental stitch that, when combined with the knit stitch, can produce stitch patterns such as the stockingnette and rib stitches.

The purl stitch and the knit stitch are actually two sides of the same stitch. If one stitches a purl stitch, the back side of the stitch will look like a knit stitch. If one stitches a knit stitch, the reverse side will look like a purl stitch.

When used in combination with the knit stitch on the same row it becomes necessary to take notice of where the working end of the yarn is. Before a knit stitch, the yarn must be behind the working needle and before a purl stitch it must be in front. For example, if you are about to purl after a knit, you must first move the yarn to the front of the needle (without wrapping it around the needle).

How to purl stitch:

After completing a knit stitch, the working thread is behind the needle.

To begin a purl stitch the working thread needs to be in front of the needle.

The right-hand needle is inserted into the loop from the side closest to the tip of the left-hand needle.

The working yarn is wrapped around the right-hand needle counter-clockwise.

The working yarn is pulled tight.

The right-hand needle is pushed through the loop on the left-hand needle.

The right-hand needle is completely pulled through the loop.

A new loop is formed on the right-hand needle.

The loop on the left-hand needle is pulled completely off. A purl stitch has been made!

References