The Tulip Stitch: A Little Loop of Spring in Your Knitting

There's a stitch I keep coming back to, and it's the one behind my Tulips colourways. It's not a difficult stitch once you understand what's happening, but it looks like it took hours of concentration. That contrast is exactly why I love it.

The tulip stitch works by picking up a series of loops in a contrast colour, then gathering them together into one small, sculptural bud. The result sits proud on the fabric, like a tulip about to open. It's a wonderful way to use assigned pooling yarn, since each loop can pick up a different part of the colour sequence.

Prefer to watch it in action? Watch the video tutorial here.

What you'll need

A pattern that keeps increasing or decreasing, a yarn that has been dyed so it's suitable for assigned pooling, and your regular needles. For my own yarn, I'm using a 3.5mm needle, which is a US 4.

For my sample, I used the Flax Sock pattern by Tin Can Knits, a free top down raglan sock pattern that's a good fit for this technique. You're not tied to that one though, any top down raglan pattern worked in the round will do the job just as well.

Why do I need a pattern with increases or decreases?

Assigned pooling only works if the colour changes land in a predictable place, row after row. A flat piece with a fixed stitch count will repeat the same colour sequence in the same spot every row, which is what you want for a pooled effect. The moment you add a shaping row, an increase or a decrease, the stitch count shifts, and that shift moves where each colour falls on the following row. That's actually the trick behind planned pooling: the shaping is what lets you steer the colour changes into the tulip clusters exactly where you want them, rather than leaving it to chance.

How to work the tulip stitch

RS

Bring your RHN from front to back through your fabric, seven stitches below the first stitch on your LHN. Pick up your working yarn with your RHN and bring it through to the RS of your fabric. This creates a loop.

Repeat this step one stitch above the one you just worked. Continue creating loops in this way, working your way up, until you have made seven loops in total, or until you've used up almost all of your contrast coloured yarn.

You should now have seven loops sitting on your RHN.

To form the tulip, pick up the loop furthest from your needle tip with your LHN, and lift it up and over all the other loops, passing it between your needles. This decreases one stitch. Repeat this lift over step until only one contrast coloured stitch remains on your RHN.

Bind off that last stitch by slipping it over the first stitch on your LHN. Knit that stitch once, and your tulip is complete.

Continue on in your main colour until your yarn changes again, and work the next tulip the same way.

WS

Turn your work, so you're facing the RS. Slip the first stitch from your RHN to your LHN. Follow the RS instructions above as you normally would. Turn your work again, and slip the first stitch on your LHN to your RHN. This should be the stitch with the tulip attached.

A note on the number of loops

The instructions above describe seven loops, but that number is a guide rather than a rule. If you're working with assigned pooling yarn, every skein dyed for this technique behaves a little differently. Colour lengths shift slightly from skein to skein, and even within a single skein, depending on how the dye took and how the yarn was wound. That means the exact number of loops you can comfortably make before the contrast colour runs out may be six, seven, or eight. Watch your working yarn as you go, and stop creating loops when you're nearly through the contrast section, even if that means adjusting the count. The tulip will still form correctly with a slightly different number of loops. What matters is using up the colour change cleanly, not hitting an exact number.

A small note: I haven't tried this with crochet myself. I'm sure it would work, I'm just lousy at crochet, so I'll leave that experiment to someone with steadier hook skills.

A ruffled variation

If you'd like your tulip to look less sleek and more ruffled, this is my personal favourite version. Instead of always picking up the loop furthest away when you're lifting the loops over, alternate between the furthest loop and the second furthest. It breaks up the neat stacking of the sleek version and gives the tulip a fuller, more textured edge.

Why it's worth the effort

The first tulip always feels fiddly. By the third or fourth, your hands know what to do, and the rhythm of picking up loops and lifting them over becomes almost meditative. It's one of those stitches that rewards patience with a result that looks far more complicated than it was to make.

If you'd like to try this in one of my hand dyed colourways, you'll find the Tulips range in the shop, along with the yarns dyed specifically for assigned pooling projects.