[Repost of material originally appearing on 14 June 2006]
If you are translating between knitting in the round and knitting flat you may run into a direction to perform something on the right side of the work that you now need to do on a wrong side row (or vice versa).
The absolute best source for this info are the symbol key charts at the start of B. Walker’s Charted Knitting Designs, and A Fourth Treasury of Knitting Patterns (and possibly several of her other smaller books, though not Walker I or II). It’s the most complete, listing a huge number of stitch manipulations and giving directions – sometimes more than one set of directions – for ways in which that same manipulation can be achieved on both right side and wrong side rows. Other books of charted patterns including L. Stanfield’s New Knitting Stitch Library give right side and wrong side equivalents, but I find the Walker set the most complete and the easiest to use as a ready reference.
The info below is abstracted from a small portion of her charts, but without her specific how-to write-ups. Items with asterisks are ones for which Walker gives multiple variants that should be subject to experiment before the optimal one is chosen. Her write-ups are excellent and should fuel countess hours of yarn-y tinkering.
| Right Side Row | Wrong Side Row |
| K – Knit | P – Purl |
| P – Purl | K – Knit |
| (K1-b, K1) – Center double increase into one stitch | (P1b, p1) – Center double increase into one stitch |
| K2tog – Knit 2 together | P2 tog – Purl 2 together |
| SSK – Slip, slip knit | P2 tog b – Purl 2 together through the back of the stitch |
| P2 tog – Purl 2 together | K 2 tog – Knit 2 together |
| (S1, K2tog, PSSO) – Left slanting double decrease | (S1 WYIF, P2tog-b, PSSO) – Right slanting double decrease* |
| K3tog – Knit 3 together, a right slanting double decrease | P3 tog – Purl 3 together, a left slanting double decrease* |
| K3 tog b – Knit 3 together back, a left slanting double decrease* | P3 tog b – Purl 3 together, a right slanting double decrease* |
| (S2, K1, P2SSO) – Slip 2, knit one, pass 2 slipped stitches over, a center double decrease | (S2, P1, P2SSO) – Slip 2, knit one, pass 2 slipped stitches over (Specific method of slipping desribed*) |
String-Or-Nothing 