Just as knitted decreases allow you to make a knitted object smaller, so do knitted increases make the object bigger. By adding stitches in certain places, you can change the size and texture of your fabric. Increases allow you to shape your knitting for hats, socks, sweaters, and just about any other garment that requires more than a simple rectangle.

Here, we are going to learn the simplest version of an increase: the yarn over, abbreviated as YO in most patterns. In the UK, this is also known as YF, or yarn forward. A YO creates an extra stitch on the needle and will show up as a hole in the fabric. Many beginner knitters accidentally make YOs without realizing it, but when you do it on purpose, the result can be beautiful and interesting. In fine yarn on small needles, the YO makes delicate eyelets for threading ribbon through or just for decoration. On bigger needles with heavier yarn, a YO can become a buttonhole on a sweater. http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer07/FEATsum07TT.html

There are many, many kinds of increases. ttp://www.craftyarncouncil.com/mar06_increasing.html Once you are comfortable with working the YO, try some other methods as well. Each one fulfills a purpose depending on the needs of the pattern.

This video only shows how to make the YO but doesn't show how to work it on the return row. Watch how she wraps the yarn BETWEEN the needles, then continues on knitting. You wrap the yarn in the same way you would to knit, except you don't have your needle inserted into the next stitch as you normally would. On your next row, you would purl or knit (depending on what your pattern says) and the YO will create a hole.

This will sound familiar if you have already read the How To Decrease in Knitting and How To Knit pages here on Mahalo. You will need:

1. knitting needles size US8 or US9
2. worsted weight yarn
3. a few rows of stockinette knitting already on the needles (Knit one row, purl the next, repeat these two rows until you have about 10 rows on the needle and you are about to start another knit row). Try to have about 24 stitches in the row so you can try the decrease multiple times.

If you need help, refer back to How To Cast On, How To Knit and How To Purl before starting this tutorial.

Hold your needles so that you are about to knit the next row. Your stitches should be on the left needle and your empty needle is on the right.

1. Knit the first two stitches. (This is just for the purposes of the tutorial; a pattern may ask you to work more or fewer stiches.)
2. YO by bringing the yarn from the back to the front, BETWEEN the two needles, then over the right needle to the back again. You will now have three loops on your right needle.
3. Repeat these two steps until you have worked the entire row, ending by knitting the last two stitches. If you started with 24 stitches, you should now have 35 on your needle.
4. Purl across, working all of the loops on the needle. You should still have 35 stitches, but there are holes between every two stitches.

You have now successfully increased the number of stitches simply by adding a loop at regular intervals.

Refer to How To Decrease and see if you can decrease back down to your original 24 stitches. Try this: work a few rows of stockinette (knit one row, purl the next) until you are about to start a knit row. Then:

1. (k2tog, YO) across (meaning you will k2tog, YO, k2tog, YO, etc until you run out of stitches). End with k2tog.
2. Purl the next row.

Count your stitches. You should have 23 stitches on your needle. The YO and the k2tog should almost have balanced each other out. If you had worked a YO at the very end, you would have 24 stitches. This is because you increased one stitch fewer than you decreased.

Lace and other textural patterns are worked using the principles of increasing and decreasing in certain places. Whenever you increase, if you also decrease stitches somewhere in the row, you will end up with the same number of stitches with which you started. Some eyelet and lace patterns will have the stitch count change in each row. This is intentional, which is why you should always read your pattern before starting so you avoid confusion.