The “Shadow Wrap” method for short rows has been “unvented” by Alice Yu. I discovered it when knitting some of my first pairs of socks out of her great book Socktopus (2011, ISBN: 978-1861088529). The Shadow Wrap is a clean method to execute short-rows, which looks neat on both sides of the fabric and doesn’t create any holes.
“sh-w-k” and “sh-w-p”
For ease of use in my patterns, I have “unvented” the abbreviations sh-w-k and sh-w-p to indicate a shadow wrap worked into a knit stitch, or into a purl stitch.
- sh-w-k: knit into the stitch below next stitch, without dropping next st from left needle, place new stitch back onto left needle, turn work. Twin stitch is now on right needle. (shadow wrap on the knit side)
- sh-w-p: slip next stitch as if to purl. Purl into the stitch below the stitch just slipped, slip new stitch along with its twin back onto left needle, turn work. Twin stitch is now on right needle. (shadow wrap on the purl side)
Triplet Stitches
I have extended the vocabulary of the shadow wrap method to include triplet stitches, with reference to Alice Yu’s “twin stitches”. A triplet stitch is created when a shadow wrap is worked onto a twin stitch.
- sh-w-k onto a twin stitch to create a triplet stitch
- sh-w-p onto a twin stitch to create a triplet stitch
Working into a twin (or triplet) stitch
When knitting or purling the twin (and triplet) stitches to close the short-row, one must knit or purl the twin (or triplet) stitches together, as if they were one. In other words, all the “children” of the “mama-stitch” should be knitted (or purled) together.
- Working a twinned stitch on the right side (knit)
- Working a twinned stitch on the wrong side (purl)
The Auld (Woolly) Alliance 