We have seen what racking is and how to work in the Stitch view. This article will help you to rack the rear bed which you will need for specific stitches.
As an example, if you’d like to Knit Front & Knit Rear (also known as 'double jersey') you need to rack to a half number to the right or left. This way, any needles that sit opposite of each other on the needle beds, are in a staggered position.
To easily rack an extended number of rows quickly, set the racking in the top row that you'd like to rack. Drag the square in the corner of the cell down to set the same racking for all rows selected while dragging. See the video below:
In this recording, you can see that "Knit Both" is not allowed. This will cause the canvas to turn grey, which means it's forbidden to draw your current selected stitch type unless you change the racking value in the most left option column to a half-racked position.
The same will happen with all these options from the stitch menu:
- When knitting a regular double jersey, you would rack the bed 0.5.
- Racking with more distance is usually used for making cables, lace, or other structured knits.
- Racking is not necessary when knitting tubular, jacquard or ribs, even though you're knitting on both the front and rear bed. The opposing needles will never be knitting at the same moment, so there is no risk of collision.