How to Purl Front and Back | Pfb & Pfbf Beginner Knitting Lesson | Increase Techniques

This simple tutorial walks you through the steps of knitting a pfb (purl front and back) and a pfbf (purl front, back and then front again) increase. I also then show you how to do an alternative to the pfb (the pbf) which is a good alternative if you find the pfb too awkward to do.

Increases are essential in knitting as they allow you to add more stitches to your needles mid-way through your project; allowing you to make an infinite number of knitted shapes.

The pfb and pfbf are ‘left-leaning bar increases’ because a) they cause stitches to lean a little to the left in your knitting, and b) a ‘bar’ of yarn is visible on your knitting where the increase occurs; they are visible increase techniques.

The pfb is a single increase, whilst the pfbf is a double increase. These increases are the purl row equivalent of the kfb and kfbf increases.

I hope you find this video helpful…and thanks for watching!