How to Knit Vertical Pockets [TUTORIAL]
Pockets make everything better! Many of my garment patterns include pockets, such as The Comeback Cardigan, Dilaila's Hoodie, or Soothsayer. But they're all horizontal pockets: the pocket opens towards the top.
In this tutorial I'll demonstrate how to knit a vertical pocket that opens to the side. This method doesn't require any steeking or cutting into your work. What it does require, though, is some planning ahead, juggling multiple skeins at the same time, picking up stitches, and seaming or sewing.
Pocket Placement
Before knitting the pocket itself, you need to make three decisions about pocket placement, that is, where you want the pocket to be on the garment:
vertical placement, or when to start the pocket opening
horizontal placement, or where do you want the pocket on the garment
depth, or how long to make the pocket opening
1. Vertical Placement
Vertical pocket placement determines how high or low you want the pocket opening to be on the garment or, to put simply, where you want the pocket opening to start.
In this example I'm making two pockets on the sides of a cardigan and want to place them somewhere below the narrowest point on the waist. This naturally depends on your body shape and size but on an adult garment around 5–10 cm (or 2–4") below the waist line is a good starting point.
From experience I know I like my pockets to start about 7 cm (or 3") below the waist.
2. Horizontal Placement
Horizontal pocket placement means where to place the pockets on the front of the garment along the horizontal axis between the front edge and side seam (if it's a cardigan) or between the two sides (if it's a sweater). Horizontal placement also depends on the width of the flap or edging you'll be adding to your pocket. Decide the horizontal placement first, then add the flap's width to the initial placement. The edging can be anything you want: i-cord, ribbing, garter stitch, seed stitch… or nothing at all!
If you don't want to have any flap or edging on the pockets, the openings could be made right on the boundary between front and back. But the further out the pockets are, the more awkward it is to get your hands into them. It's more practical to place the pocket openings a few stitches away from the sides even when there is no flap.
In this case I want to add the pockets to the sides near the imaginary side seam (teal stitch marker) between front and back. My cardigan will have ribbed 3.5 cm button bands so I'm using the same on the pockets as well. The pocket openings were made about 4 cm (or 1½") in from the line where the fronts turn into the back.
3. Pocket Opening Depth
Pocket opening depth determines the length between where the pocket starts and where you want it to end, that is, how many rows of knitting to leave for the opening.
If the openings are too small, it's a tight squeeze to get your hands into the pockets. On the other hand, you don't want the openings to be so deep that the whole side of your garment gapes open. A good starting point is to measure diagonally across your (or your recipients) palm and add a little bit of ease to it.
My palms measure around 10 cm (or 4") on the diagonal. Adding one centimeter extra on each end gives me a pocket opening depth of approximately 12 cm (around 5").
Knitting a Vertical Pocket
With those decisions out of the way we can finally start knitting!
Step 1. Knit the Pocket Opening
When you get to the point on the garment where you want the pocket to start (vertical and horizontal pocket placement), the work is divided into three sections: left front, back, and right front. Each of these sections is knit using a separate skein of yarn. The pocket openings are formed because these sections are not joined.
After reaching the desired pocket opening depth, resume working in one piece and knitting across all three sections using one skein of yarn. Break off the other two skeins; you'll have two extra ends to weave in per pocket opening.
Step 2. Knit the Pocket Flap or Edging
Once the rest of the garment is done, it's time to finish up the pocket. For the pocket flap, pick up and knit stitches along the edge of the pocket opening that's closest to the front edge of the garment, leaving a generous tail. It's a good idea to pick up one extra stitch from each corner to prevent holes.
Work your desired edging to the length you decided earlier in horizontal placement. Here I've done about 3.5 centimeter's worth of 2×2 ribbing. Break yarn, again leaving a generous tail. You'll attach the pocket flaps to the garment later.
Step 3. Knit a Shaped Pocket Lining
The easiest type of pocket lining to knit is a square or rectangle. But this is not very ergonomic: it would mean holding your arms awkwardly at right angles to use the pockets. For more comfortable and practical pockets, make the lining somewhat teardrop or puppy-ear shaped. This way you can rest your hands in the pockets at a more relaxed, downward-sloping angle.
Start by picking up stitches along the edge of the pocket opening that closest to the side of the garment, opposite to the flap. Work just a couple of rows even, then start angling the pocket lining downwards. On the top edge of the pocket, decreases are made on every other row. On the bottom, first increase stitches on every row, then work a few rows even, and finally work decreases on every other row to round out the end of the lining.
(The following instructions apply to the left pocket. Reverse shaping for the right pocket.)
Row 1 (RS) K1, SSK, K to last st, M1L, K1.
Row 2 (WS) P1, M1LP, K to last st; 1 stitch increased.
Repeat rows 1–2 until the pocket lining depth measures approximately 1.3 to 1.5 times the pocket opening depth — see the annotated photo above.
Continue decreasing at the top edge while keeping the bottom edge straight:
Row 3 (RS) K1, SSK, K to end; 1 stitch decreased.
Row 4 (WS) P across.
Repeat rows 3–4 until the pocket lining depth measures the original pocket opening depth.
Then round out the end of the lining:
Row 5 (RS) K1, SSK, K to last 3 sts, K2tog, K1; 2 sts decreased.
Row 6 (WS) P across.
Repeat rows 5–6 until the pocket lining depth measures half of the original pocket opening depth. Bind off and break yarn.
Step 4. Assembly
Now it's time to put it all together!
Push the pocket lining to the inside of the garment. Place the right side of the lining against the wrong side of the garment front and sew along the edges of the lining to attach it. Here I've used whip stitch by going through the plies of the stitches on the wrong side so that the pocket is invisible on the right side.
If you wanted to make a feature out of the pocket, you can do surface crochet and slip stitch around the pocket lining from the right side, perhaps even using a contrasting color.
Finally, seam the sides of the pocket flap (with the long tails you left earlier) to the right side of the garment using vertical-to-horizontal mattress stitch. For each sideways V on the garment front, go under two bars of yarn between two columns of stitches on the pocket edging, leaving the outermost stitch as seam allowance. Work a few stitches at a time — this makes it easier to sew in a straight line — then pull the yarn tight to close up the seam.
Vertical pockets are easy to add to any garment that's worked flat, cardigans in particular. On a sweater that's knit in pieces and then seamed, they could be added to the side seams without needing to knit the pocket openings separately. Just leave a section of the side seam open and pick up stitches for the flap and lining like in steps 2 and 3.
For a sweater that's knit in the round, you need to temporarily interrupt the flow of knitting, use two balls of yarn, and work flat until the desired pocket opening depth is achieved. If you don't want to switch from working in the round to back and forth, steeked pocket openings may be a better alternative.
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