The seed stitch, a.k.a. the moss stitch, is a neat little knitting stitch that gives your work a bit more spice than your standard issue stockinette and garter stitch, while at the same time being easy enough for a beginner.
Knitting is the sort of thing that seems impossibly difficult when you watch someone do it, but it's not that hard to get some basic skills down and make some neat things. Really, once you know how to knit and purl you can do a majority of advanced techniques too.
So say hello to seed stitch. It's a great stitch, it has a nice bumpy feeling, and as a plus is fully reversible and lies flat. Plus it's easy. Seed stitch is just knitting the purls and purling the knits.
I'm going to assume you already know how to buy yarn, cast on, knit, and purl. Assuming that let's see...
Seed Stitch in Action!
Let's set up a sample seed stitch. On row 1 of your piece, knit 1, purl 1 all the way across, just as if you were setting up to do a 1x1 rib. Then on row 2, purl 1, knit 1 all the way across. This will have you knitting
all the purls and purling all the knits.
_ = knit x = purl
4 _x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x
3 x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_
2 _x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x
1 x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_
It might sound a little confusing, but give it a try and you'll see it's not as tricky as it sounds. Once you've got seed stitch under control you can also do double seed stitch.
Double Seed Stitch
I actually like this stitch better than regular seed stitch because it has a more open feeling to it, but still maintains the great look and reversibility of regular seed stitch. It follows the same idea as regular seed stitch, but for this on both rows 1 and 2 you knit 1, purl 1. Then on rows 3 and 4 you purl 1, knit 1. Repeat ad nauseam.
_ = knit x = purl
6 x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_
5 x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_
4 _x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x
3 _x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x
2 x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_
1 x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_
hapax very helpfully reminded me that this only works if you have an even number of stitches in your row! Otherwise you're going to end up making
rib stitch.