how to knit the horizontal herringbone stitch

Hi friends! I’ve knit a beautiful herringbone stitch in the past, but was excited to find a simpler method! You can also find an easy bag pattern (here) on the blog so that you can practice this stitch while making something fun and useful. ?

For this stitch pattern, you can use any yarn and corresponding needles. And about the needles – you might want to go up a size or two to make it a bit easier to knit. This stitch tends to become tight, so a little extra room with the needles can help. It makes a very thick fabric, so I’d avoid getting too super duper bulky, but I’ve used super bulky yarn here and enjoyed it! The stitch itself looks quite complicated but it’s pretty simple. It may be a challenge when you drop a stitch or make a mistake, but otherwise it’s very straight forward and uses easy knit stitches. If you’ve never done the slip, slip knit, you’ll find it to be a breeze. You can see how it’s done (and see how to make the entire horizontal herringbone stitch) in the video from New Stitch A Day. It’s a two row repeat so it’s fairly easy to memorize once you’re a few rows in. So let’s get started! I’ll show you a few pictures, and then get into the specific pattern details. ?

step 1 cast on stitches (multiple of 2)

step 2 follow the row 1 pattern, you will slip slip knit across the row while leaving the first stitch on your needle each time


step 3 follow the pattern for row 2 where you purl two together across the row while dropping the first stitch only off your needle each time (this one is sooo easy)

skills & abbreviations:
knit – knit

Ssk – slip slip knit

p2tog – purl two together

horizontal herringbone stitch pattern
(For this swatch, I’m using Lion Brand Hometown USA Super Bulky Yarn (HERE) and US Size 13 needles. Please note, for the bag pattern I used larger needles.)

Cast On Stitches (keep a multiple of 2)

Row 1: *Ssk, drop the first stitch off your needle, repeat from * to last st, knit.
Row 2: *P2tog, drop only the first stitch off your needle, repeat from * to last st, purl.
Repeat rows 1 and 2 as long as you’d like.

Cast off and weave in ends.

Like I mentioned earlier, New Stitch A Day has a great tutorial using this same method HERE. You can find several online tutorials showing how to make the herringbone stitch, and it’s interesting to see the variations! Like I said, I find this to be the easiest.


I used this stitch when designing this fun little bag pattern! (You can see it here)