Machine knit skirt with the Half Fisherman's Rib stitch on Brother 260 -

Here is a machine-knitted skirt with the Half Fisherman’s Rib stitch on my Brother 260 bulky knitting machine with a ribber. Machine knitting a skirt can be practical and quick. I use rainbow color variegated yarn for this project just for fun. A basic neutral color yarn will match your wardrobe easily.

This project is very simple in construction. It is basically 2 rectangle pieces of ribbed fabric. For the waistband, I knit stockinette stitches and fold them over to enclose the elastic.

You can make it longer, shorter, with a slit/vent on the side, or with different yarn weight for different looks.

The Fisherman’s stitch creates a wider fabric. If you don’t have enough needles on your machine for the width of the fabric, consider the Half Fisherman’s Rib stitch. You do need a ribber attachment to knit this stitch.

Watch machine-knit skirt with Half Fisherman’s Rib stitch on a Brother 260 knitting machine

Tools and materials for machine knitting the skirt

You can switch out the yarn and machine. Just do a swatch first to see if you like the look and feel, and calculate the stitch and row count from it.

Yarn: Caron Skinny Cakes (Number 3 in yarn category).

Machine: Brother 260 bulky with a ribber.

Elastic: 1.5 inch wide elastic band for the waistband

The simple machine-knit skirt picture tutorial

This machine knitted skirt is based on the Half Fisherman’s Rib stitch. You can use other stitches such as 1 × 1 or 2 × 2 ribbing. The Half Fisherman’s Rib has a Tuck stitch on one side so the whole fabric will be shorter and wider. It is useful when you don’t have enough needles on the knitting machine for a wider fabric.

See the 2 sides of the Half Fisherman’s Rib below.

Construction

The design is basically 2 rectangles knitted from the bottom up. In the waistband area, we switch to stockinette stitches. Sew the side seams up and then sew up the waistband channel with the elastic inside.

Half Fisherman’s Rib

The set up of the half fisherman’s rib stitch is the same as the 1 × 1 ribbing.

Start by setting the pitch to P3. Pull out every other needle as shown below. The end stitches should be on the knitter.

I started from left 47 to right 48 on the knitter. The ribber needles are in between the knitter needles.

Set knitter to tension 0, set ribber to the lowest tension (Star). Knit one row.

After knitting the zigzag row, hang the ribber comb and weight.

Change the carriage setting as follow:

Knitter: tension 0, press left Part button.

Ribber: tension 0, press right P.R. button.

Knit 3 rows.

After the 3 rows, change the carriage setting for the Half Fisherman’s Rib stitch.

Knitter: Main tension (I have T2), cancel Part button.

Ribber: Main tension (2), switch R dial to P (Tuck stitch), II to I for a looser tension.

Add the L-shape hangers and weights on both ends.

Now it is ready to knit to the length you like. My measurement is about 22 inches long, or 190 rows. I end us knitting only 170 rows for a shorter skirt (above knees).

After finished the length you like, transfer all ribber stitches to the knitter with a double eye transferring tool.

Waistband

Change the connector arm to the knitter’s arm and knit the stockinette stitches for the waistband. I use tension 1 so it is a little tighter.

It should be at least twice the height of your elastic. Mine is 1.5 inch elastic, so the band will be at least 3 inches. Add some ease and you will need about 4 inches total.

After knitting the waistband, knit a few rows of waste yarn and take it off the machine.

We can fold the waistband down in half to form a channel for the elastic.

Cut the elastic the size of your waist. Overlay about 3/4 inch or 1 inch and sew the ends together. The final elastic should be a little smaller than your actual waist so it is comfortable and stay on.