How do you do your short-rows? Do you wrap and turn? Are you a Japanese short-row kind of girl? (I really need to try those!) Or are you like me and work yarnover turns?
For patterns like Jovia and Longfellow I incorporate yarnover turns. I feel like they are the simplest methods of working short-rows and I like the way they look in garter and stockinette fabric.

So today I’m going to walk you through how I do my yarnover turns in both sorts of fabrics, with pictures so you can see how things look on garter fabric and on the right-side and the wrong-side of stockinette. Let’s start with garter stitch fabric:

For this example I’ve cast-on 18 sts and knit 6 rows in garter stitch (knit every row)  if you want to play along. For next row (row 7) you work it as follows:

Row 7: k15

For row 7 I’ve knit 15 sts – basically what I’ve done is knit “short” of the entire length of the row – hence why it is called short rows.

I turn the work over and before starting the next row I wrap the yarn around the needle – adding a yarnover (I call it a yot – yarnover turn) to the beginning of the row like so:

Row 8: yot, k to end of row

Here we are getting ready to wrap the yarn around the needle for the yot

Here we’ve worked the yot and knit the first st and are ready to knit the rest of the row.

You can see here how the first three sts (on the right) on the needles remain unworked and you can see the yarnover turn in the space between 3rd and 4th stitch:

Then work the rest of the rows as follows:

Row 9: k12

Row 10: yot, k to end of row

Row 11: k9

Row 12: yot, k to end of row

Row 13: k6

Row 14: yot, k to end of row

Row 15: k3

Row 16: yot, k to end of row

After all the short rows have been worked, your sample will look like this:

For the next row we need to work all the yots back into the work without leaving holes in the work. And this is how we do it. We knit the first 3 sts as normal and you’ll be able to see the yot ready to work:

And then we knit the yot together with the next st in line as shown:

Then you knit the next 2 sts as normal, and then knit the next yot together with the next st in line. Continue in this manner working up the row until all the yots have been worked back in.

You can then continue working in garter stitch for 5 more rows and bind off. You can see where the work has an angle to it, but the short-rows are hidden nicely. Especially after blocking you can barely see them.

But what about stockinette stitch? When working in stockinette stitch the process is basically the same. Except for you knit or purl as is appropriate for the right or wrong side of the work. Wanna knit up a little sample for this?

Cast-on 18 sts. Work in stockinette stitch (knit the right-side and purl the wrong-side) for 6 rows.

Row 7: k15

Here we are looking at the wrong side of the fabric and have the yarn ready to work the yot.

Row 8: yot, purl to end of row

Here we’ve worked the yot and purled the first st and are ready to purl to the end of the row.

Work the rest of the rows as follows:

Row 9: k12

Row 10: yot, p to end of row

Row 11: k9

Row 12: yot, p to end of row

Row 13: k6

Row 14: yot, p to end of row

Row 15: k3

Row 16: yot, p to end of row