So, as a preface, I think I am probably wrong. I don’t think I’m correct in this. I think I learned a technical term that was regional or already watered down, it makes excellent sense to me because it exactly describes how I execute the technique, and it conveys the correct meaning to the majority of people reading the instructions, albeit possibly via context.

So having established that I’m wrong, I’m not certain that having done some research into this will change how I use the terms in the future. To me, pick-up-and-knit is less legible than pick up. It may be more correct, but it’s probably not rational to change this on the basis of being asked about it perhaps four times (individually, because boy will two of those four people repeatedly message you) total, even if every one of those times had been sincere—because although it’s uncomfortable to admit this, most of the time people ask in a way that makes it clear they understand what’s happening, and I don’t get the feeling that clarification is the actual goal at all.                

But experiencing a handful of uncomfortable interactions doesn’t there’s no problem for anyone. You might even be looking for interesting ways to approach this. You might be looking for ways to make picking up stitches less of an ordeal. You might be looking for a cool, keyword-friendly pick up/pick up and knit tutorial, even. I could’ve used this at various points.

So here’s some clarification!

Picking Up Stitches/Picking up and Knitting Stitches.

This is how I do it. If you’re looking for clarification, this is the place to find it.

For the photos, I used contrasting yarn to better show what’s happening. I picked up these stitches from the right side (RS) of the fabric.

Literally: pick up a new stitch, usually from a selvedge loop, using the working yarn. If you draw a strong distinction between the terms “pick up and knit” and “pick up,” this is probably pick up and knit to you. To me, pick up 42 sts means using the working yarn to pick up—literally—42 sts, usually from a selvedge edge.

Sometimes (often) I like picking stitches up from the wrong side (WS) because it gives an exposed seam look. The next two photos show the beginning of this from the WS, and then how it looks from the right side, too.

All that being said, there’s something offputting about “pick up and knit” to me—it doesn’t describe what you do, and there’s a natural feeling to “begin by picking up 42 sts” that “begin by pick(ing?) up and knitting 42 sts” absolutely lacks.

I’m kind of starting to suspect that part of this is that I pick up stitches one by one as I go, and would find it pretty painful to loop a whole line of selvedges onto a needle at high tension and then go back to knit them.* Oof.

Picking Up Stitches, Traditional, Distinct from Pick Up and Knit.

If I wanted to describe just getting 42 selvedges onto a needle, I’d probably just say “transfer 42 selvedge loops onto needle by picking up front bar,” because I tried doing it through both bars just for this post, and it was awful. But this would be pick up sts to someone who makes a distinction between these terms! The photo below shows what a traditional “pick up sts” looks like if you need to distinguish this from “pick up and knit.”

To me, these aren’t even stitches—they’re just stressed little selvedges. I don’t think I’ve ever used this technique in a project, original or not. Again, it seems like a painful approach! I could see doing this to knit a pocket or something onto the face of a fabric, but in almost every case, it would just be frustrating to me to pick up X sts and then knit them later. There is (almost!) no utility (for me!) in doing this; I think I’ve done it twice, once to knit a patch, and once to knit a patch pocket.

Pick Up and Knit, Very Literal Version.

Again, keeping in mind that I’m wrong and that I was raised by wolves in terms of knitting: having learned pick up stitches as a literal picking up of new stitches using the working yarn, I have always imagined “pick up and knit” to look like this:

This isn’t pick up and knit. This is a weirder third thing. It’s literal pick up, and then literally knit, and then move on to the next selvedge.

In the photo above, the new stitches are created by picking up one new stitch—and then immediately knitting into it using the same working (contrast) yarn. It’s awful. It’s not too fiddly, but I need to use both needles to do it efficiently. That makes it more difficult than the pick-up/pick-up-and-knit technique I use, because I can do that with just one.

The next photo shows the back:

Awful. Appalling. Yet compelling, somehow.

Conclusion.

I feel like knitting is one of those things where there are often a couple of different ways that are Right, and as long as you get the results you want, it doesn’t really matter how you approach it. Terms can be ambiguous—I’ve seen other tutorials that pick up stitches exactly how I do it, using the same technical term, without acknowledging the existence of a pick up and knit term that’s distinct at all.

But as long as the results are good, I think it’s all right if you prefer one or the other. I don’t want other people to drop pickup and knit if it’s a term that works for them, but I also don’t feel less confident in my use of “pick up.” Precision’s great, but language drift is a constant, and people are smart enough to navigate it.

Overall, this tutorial/definition effort accomplishes nothing, except to insure that in the near future, I’ll probably come up with a design that requires a pick up/pick up and knit distinction to work properly. Or I’ll do something really awful that uses the third, worse option. Maybe both! Maybe all three. In one project.

*If this is the approach you use, I suddenly understand why picking up stitches is seen as so onerous. This is awful. You’d need a much smaller needle to pick up both bars of all selvedge loops along a whole edge.
**The photos shown are from an upcoming project, but this is applicable to the Rock Salt Beanie pattern, and a lot of others, frankly.