How to Count Rows in Knitting

Every pattern gets there sooner or later: “work 24 rows even”, “decrease every 6th row”, “repeat rows 1 to 8 five times”. Then the doorbell rings, and when you sit down again you can’t say which row you were on. This guide covers how to count rows in knitting in two ways that back each other up: reading the rows that are already in your fabric, and keeping a running count while you knit. With both, a lost count costs you a minute and never an evening of ripping out.

How to count rows in knitting by reading your stitches

Your knitting keeps its own record. Every row you have worked is still there, stacked on the one before, so any count can be checked against the fabric. The guide to reading your knitting in garter and stockinette goes deeper.

Lay the work flat in good light and pick a column a few stitches in from the edge, where the stitches are neater. Touch each stitch with the tip of a spare needle as you count it, and always count from the bottom up.

Stockinette: count the Vs

On the knit side of stockinette, every stitch looks like a V. The Vs sit one on top of another in straight columns, and each V in a column is one row. Put the needle tip in the middle of the lowest V and count upwards.

On the purl side the same rows show as lines of bumps, which are harder to tell apart. Turn the work over and count Vs whenever you can. If you can’t, follow one column straight up and count only the bumps that curve downwards, like small frowns: one for each row.

Garter stitch: count the ridges

Garter stitch, where you knit every row, makes ridges with a groove between them. On either face, a ridge and its groove are two rows, one knitted from each side. Count the ridges on one face and double the number: 14 ridges are 28 rows.

That can be one row out, because the newest ridge may be on the face you aren’t looking at. When you need the exact row, count the ridges on both faces and add the two numbers together: each ridge, whichever face it’s on, is one row. Include a ridge that sits tight under the needle, which is the row you have just knitted, and leave out the cast-on edge, which can look like a ridge of its own.

What counts as a row

Two things trip up almost everyone:

The cast-on isn’t a row. Most patterns start counting at the first row you work after casting on, so leave the cast-on edge out unless your pattern says otherwise.
The stitches on the needle are a row. The loops on your needle were made by the last row you worked. In stockinette they are the top V of every column, so count them too.

Whichever way you count, count the same way for the whole project, and for both sleeves.

When measuring is enough

Row gauge turns rows into length. At 30 rows to 10 cm (4 in), “work even for 15 cm” comes to 45 rows. A tape measure is fine for a scarf. For pieces that have to match, such as two sleeves, two fronts or a pair of socks, count the rows: knitted fabric stretches, and a measurement can easily be three or four rows out.

Counting rounds when you knit in the round

In the round you never turn the work, so there’s no end of a row to remind you to count. Put a stitch marker where the round begins, and count one round each time that marker comes back to your needle tips. Double-pointed needles and magic loop are covered in how to count rounds when knitting in the round.

Reading rounds from the fabric works as it does for rows, with one bonus: stockinette in the round is knit on every round, so the Vs always face you. Garter stitch in the round is one knit round and one purl round, and a ridge with its groove is still two rounds. The one oddity is the jog where each round ends and the next begins a step higher, so count a few stitches away from the marker. If you count with Rowpip, set the project to knitting in the round and the label over the number says “Round” instead of “Row”.

Keeping a running count as you knit

Reading your knitting tells you where you are. A running count means you seldom have to ask. Every method below depends on the same habit: count at the same moment each time. The end of the row, before you turn the work, is the usual moment; in the round, it’s the marker. A count made somewhere in the middle of a row is the one you’ll doubt later. Another guide sets clickers, paper and apps side by side.

Pencil and paper

Tally marks in the margin of the pattern, four strokes and a slash for every five rows, are still hard to beat. Nothing needs charging, and the count stays with the pattern. The price is a free hand, a pencil within reach and a sheet you mustn’t lose.

Clickers and counters on the needle

A hand-held clicker adds one each time you press it. A barrel counter slides onto the needle, and you turn its dials at the end of each row. There are ring counters for your finger, and counting chains whose numbered rings you move along the needle one step per row. What none of them can tell you is whether you already clicked for this row, and a clicker loose in a project bag gets pressed by everything else in there.

A row counter app

Your phone is probably beside you already, and a good app adds what a clicker lacks: a number you can read from your chair, an undo for the tap you didn’t mean, and a count that is saved as soon as you make it. Rowpip is the one we make, and it’s built on those three things. The whole screen is the button, so a knuckle will do. It’s made for iPhone and Android, and on Android you can turn on the volume keys and count without looking at the screen at all.

A counter on your wrist

A smartwatch gets around the free-hand problem, because it’s already on a hand that is holding a needle. On an Apple Watch, Rowpip adds a row when you tap the screen, turn the Digital Crown or, on watches that have the gesture, double tap your thumb and finger. On a Wear OS watch you tap the screen or turn the bezel or crown. A paired phone and watch show the same count, so you can look at whichever is nearer. Straps, settings and gestures are in the guide to knitting with a smartwatch.

Stitch markers and lifelines: checkpoints in the fabric

A number on a counter can be wrong. A marker in the fabric can’t. Use both, and you’ll never have to recount more than a few rows.

Locking stitch markers. Clip a removable marker into a stitch of row 20, another into row 40, and so on. To check a count, start from the nearest marker instead of from the cast-on.
A marker for the right side. Garter stitch looks the same on both faces. A marker clipped to the right side tells you at a glance whether the row you’re starting is odd or even.
A lifeline. With a darning needle, thread a length of smooth scrap yarn through every stitch on the needle, and leave it in the fabric as you knit on. If you have to rip back, the stitches can’t unravel past it, and you can pick them up again. Write down the row it marks, and it’s also a known place to count from.

How to place them is in the guide to stitch markers and lifelines.

Keeping track of increases and decreases

Shaping is where most counts go wrong, because “increase every 6th row, 8 times” is two counts at once: the rows since the last increase, and the increases made so far.

In the fabric, clip a locking marker into each shaping row as you work it. Later, count up from the marker with the marked row as 1. When the stitches on your needle are row 6, the next row is a shaping row. Count your stitches after each shaping row as well. A sleeve that starts with 60 stitches and gains 2 in each of 8 increase rows ends with 76, so a quick stitch count shows at once whether you’ve missed one.

On paper, a small grid does it: one column for each repeat and a tick for each row. A counter has to hold both numbers. Rowpip does that with a pattern repeat: enter 6 rows and 8 times, and a line under the count names the row you’re about to knit, as in “Next: row 2 of 6 · repeat 3 of 8”. There’s a whole guide on how to keep track of increases and decreases.

Keeping your place in the pattern

The row number is half of it. The other half is which line of the pattern that row is.

For written instructions, tick off each row as you finish it, or move a sticky note down the page so its edge sits under the line you’re working. For charts, use highlighter tape or a magnetic board with a strip magnet. Set the strip just above the chart row you’re knitting, and the rows you have finished stay in view below it, ready to compare with your stitches.

Before you put your knitting down, finish the row if you can and write the number down: on the pattern, on a tag tied to the work, or in your counter. Charts, repeats and sizes are covered in how to never lose your place in a knitting pattern.

What to do when you lose count

Stop at the end of the row. Don’t guess and carry on.
Find the nearest checkpoint: a marker, a lifeline, the last shaping row, the top of the ribbing or the cast-on edge.
Count from there up to the needle, by Vs in stockinette or by ridges in garter stitch, with the row on the needle included.
In a stitch pattern, count whole repeats first and then the rows after the last one. With 4 repeats of an 8-row pattern finished and 3 more rows worked, you have knitted 35 rows.
Put the number back into your tally or your counter, and clip a marker into the row you just counted, so you never have to count that stretch again.

Counting rows in crochet

Crochet rows don’t stack into Vs. Each row is a band of stitches standing side by side, short for single crochet and tall for double crochet (in US terms). When you work back and forth, every other row shows you its back, so the texture changes from one row to the next. Count the bands from the bottom up and leave out the foundation chain, which isn’t a row. The loop on your hook isn’t one either. Keeping a running count works just as it does for knitting, and the guide on how to count rows in crochet reads each stitch in turn.

The short version

Learn to read your fabric: Vs in stockinette, ridges in garter stitch, the row on the needle included and the cast-on left out.
Keep a running count, and always count at the same moment.
Leave checkpoints in the work: a marker every 20 rows, and a lifeline before anything tricky.

Do all three, and a lost count is a one-minute check.