Knitting Tips: Finishing and Embellishment

1. Afterthought Bobble
2. Kitchener Stitch
3. More Kitchener Stitch
4. Kitchener without a Darn Needle
5. How much of a Difference should I Expect in Blocking a Shawl?
6. Blocking Questions?
7. More Blocking
8. Blocking Nylon?
9. Blocking Mohair?
10. Three Needle Bindoff
11. Zippers
12. Bind Off - How Many?
13. Knit cord bindoff vs bindoff in knit cord
14. Ends of Stripes
15. Buttons on Knit Fabric

Liz Adams (with thanks to my student Connie Ciulla who suggested it)

So you have a piece of knitting and you've decided you'd really like to put some bobbles on it - as ornaments on a christmas stocking, contrast color dots on a field of plain knitting, whatever. Figure out the spot where you want to place the bobble. Pick up and knit one side of the stitch where that spot is. Knit into the front and back and front of the stitch. Turn and purl 3. Turn and knit 3. Turn and purl 3. Turn and knit 3 together. Cut off the yarn, leaving a 3 inch tail or so, and poke both the beginning tail and the ending tail down through the knitting (yarn needle, crochet hook, whatever). Tie those ends together on the wrong side. Weave in. Voila! (this only works with relatively small bobbles, gigunda ones not so well)

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Take two colors of yarn and make a little stockinette swatch like so, a few rows of the first color and a single row of the second, then a few more of the first color.

See how the single row of the different color moves between the stitches it interlocks with, see how it moves between the rows it interlocks with? That is how the strand you use to do Kitchener interlocks with the rows and stitches it interlocks with.

Notice how as it goes from stitch to stitch it is UNDER the strand it interlocks with and how as it goes from row to row it is OVER the strand it interlocks with.

Now, for me the needles holding the stitches get in the way so I do away with them in one of two ways. The easiest is to take waste yarn and just make four or five rows more just going round and round in a tube. Whoever first told me about this called it a chimney. Okay, call it what you will. Once you have this chimney made pull the needles out, tuck the chimney inside the sock and line the two parts of the sock up and "sew" it closed following the over under as above which you will see happening with the waste yarn, too. Natch, take the waste yarn out.

And, here's the weird but foolproof way I usually do it. It is worth the time it takes to set up because once it is set up it goes fast. Stick a small round something (I use a football out of a Happy Meal) inside the toe of the sock and line the stitches up. Then using long straight pins, I used quilting pins with big heads, put one pin in each stitch then remove the knitting needles. Pull the sock tight around the ball and the stitches will open up a bit. Now remembering the over under business just sew the seam closed.

I tried a styrofoam ball once and it does work. But, there are two draw backs. It is hard to get in because of the texture (I got around that by sticking it inside the toe of an old pair of panty hose) and after a while the styrofoam breaks down from being stuck over and over.

I hope this is worth trying for anyone who cannot get their mind around the knit on purl off method. Somehow that never clicked for me and my way works perfectly every time.

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Joan Schrouder 1/25/03

It's Kitch-e-ner, after Lord Kitchener)..... Elizabeth Zimmermann's simplificaton of it was to take it off the ndls. Then it was simply a matter of going down thru 1 st and coming up thru its neighbor, then going to the opposite piece and doing the same,

1. back to the first piece, going down thru the st you came up out of last time, and up thru its neighbor,
2. then back to the second piece and going down thru the st you came up out of last time, and up thru its neighbor.

Keep repeating 1 and 2. This way you don't have to remember "as to purl" or "as to knit", since it's merely a "down and up" all the time. She advocated knitting a couple of swatches of ~30 sts in chunky wool and working in stockinette for several inches, then machine stitching across the live sts at their bases to prevent them from raveling. Use a blunt large-eyed yarn ndl and practice.

After you get the hang of doing it on the Knit side, turn the swatches over and figure out out to do it in purl. You can also make swatches that have ribbing or garter. The big Vogue Knitting book has good directions and illustrations.

I'm trying to remember when I learned to do Kitchener - I guess it's been a long time ago, because the specific instance escapes me. Suffice it to say that I have done so much of it that I can do it well in my sleep. It's saved my bacon too many times to recall, including the time I screwed up a pattern on a model garment for a book. Being on a tight time schedule, I snipped a st in the offending row, and unpicked it to the tune of nearly 300 sts, then rewove in K3, P3 combination. I've used it to lengthen/shorten all kinds of things, and once hemmed a square shawl having ~600 sts using Kitchener to whip the hem down.

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Sidney 1/26/03

I learned Kitchener out of Mary Thomas and have always enjoyed it. The only thing wrong with toe up socks is there's no Kitchener involved, unless you decide to work the ribbing from a tubular cast on and graft it.

I do have trouble with my darning needle, which seems to need a great deal of solitude, which it finds in the crevasses between the arms and seats of chairs. I figured out how to work Kitchener by knitting and purling the stitches out of necessity probably 40 years ago. I haven't seen the method described anywhere, perhaps because it's faster and better done with a darning needle, but maybe an explanation might help someone who is having trouble with it.

Arrange your stitches on two needles in the usual manner, equal number of stitches on each, purl sides together, both needles pointing the same direction. The last stitch worked, with the yarn coming out the bottom, should be closest to the point of the needle which is furthest away from you (the back needle), just as if you'd just come to the end of a row and turned your work. These are your front and back holding needles. You will need a third needle as well. (If it doesn't work out for you, you will be nearly set up to do a three needle bind-off.) You'll do better if you try this in worsted or dk the first time.

Do whatever you want to eliminate dog ears, and cut the yarn, leaving the end long enough to knit another row and enough extra to hold comfortably to knit.

The first stitch on each needle gets special treatment the first time through.

Take the yarn between the points of the holding needles to the inside of the work and knit the first stitch on the front needle with the third (working) needle, but don't slip the stitch off the front needle.

Pull the cut end of the yarn out of the stitch you just worked by pulling up on the working needle to loosen the stitch on it till there's enough slack to grasp the loop. Pull on the loop till the cut end of the yarn pulls through and out of the stitch on the holding needle. You no longer have a stitch on the working needle. Don't forget to do this after each and every stitch or you'll have a mess.

The yarn is coming out the middle of the first stitch on the front needle and hanging down the front of the work. Take the yarn around under the point of the front needle and up between the holding needles.

Purl the first stitch on the back needle, but don't let it drop off that needle. Pull out the cut end of the yarn.

Special treatment of the first two stitches done. You have worked half a stitch in the first stitch on each of the holding needles.

From here on, you will work the stitches in pairs, first two on the front needle, then two on the back.

* Purl the first stitch on the front needle, dropping the old stitch off the needle, pull the cut end of the yarn through.
Knit the next stitch on the front needle, don't let it drop off the needle, pull the yarn through and take it under the needle points to the back. Keep the yarn on the outside of the fabric.
Knit the first stitch on the back needle, letting the old stitch drop off the needle, pull the yarn through.
Purl the next stitch on the back needle, don't let it drop off the needle, pull the yarn through and take the yarn under the needle points to the front, keeping it on the outside of the fabric.

Repeat from * till you've worked all but the last stitch.

If you have a lot of stitches to work, you'll develop a sort of syncopated version of the same rhythm you fall into with K2 P2 ribbing. Don't forget to pull the end of the yarn out of the stitches as you work them.

When you take the yarn under the needles to work the last stitch, stick your finger between the yarn and the fabric, so there's a loop. Sort of yarn over your finger. After you've worked the stitch and pulled out the cut end of the yarn, thread the end down through the loop you made with your finger, so it goes from the outside of the fabric to the inside.

If you use a mantra, you'll be knitting when you should be purling if you don't reconfigure your mantra. Just substitute knit for purl, and vice versa.

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Joan Schrouder 1/25/03

Somewhere between 10-35% probably. It depends on how loosely/tightly you knit it. A looser knit can be stretched farther than a tighter knit.

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Joan Schrouder 1/25/03

I *always* completely wash a sweater after I've finished knitting it. This is because the washwater shows that it really needed it, as in soil from hands, etc. Maybe the rest of you always wash your hands frequently before/during knitting, and your knitting doesn't pick up that much dirt, (cookie/cracker, etc. crumbs (;-)) ergo doesn't need it. But I plead guilty to fitting knitting into odd moments, often away from washing equipment, etc. Anyway, it's made a firm believer out of me that knitting does require it. I would never steam something that I hadn't washed, as the steaming would permanently set in any soil.

When you should wash your sweater is up to you. You could do that to the pieces, then block them and stitch them up. If everything looks A-ok to you, then you're done. ie not necessary to reblock, maybe only press the seams. Or if you don't mind seaming up the unblocked pieces, then do that, and then wash & block afterward.

I rarely knit sweaters in pieces; my preference is for circular knitting, or join-as-you-go. So there is no option to wash/block before it's all joined up.

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Joan Schrouder 1/28/03

Please, everyone, know that ANYTIME you have a question re whether blocking will solve a problem (NO MATTER THE PROBLEM), you can go ahead and block now. In any given week there are several questions relating to this, which means that the posters have to take the time to write the question, send it in, then wait for an answer, which may not come for a day or two. If everyone files this bit of info away, then, when the time comes (and it comes to most of us), you can immediately get on with the solution.

You can leave the sts right on the ndl, if they're not too bunched up. In a situation like this, you don't have to block the entire piece. Just block a portion over both the "old" and "new" yarn, for example, so that you can compare the results. Of course, if you're using steam, don't do it over the sts that are still on the ndl.

On other projects, eg need to know if a cabled patt will relax enough to get the proper width, then go ahead an shift some of the sts onto a piece of waste yarn or another circ ndl. That way you can spread everything out to tell.

You don't even have to cut your yarn. Just leave it attached. If you find out everything looks good, then merrily knit on. And by blocking, I mean either steaming or soaking in water and squeezing excess out in towels, or spritzing, and then allowing to dry.

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Joan Schrouder 3/20/03

I've just enough Zen to knit a cardigan on the Berroco website. The gauge is 13 stitches to 4", which makes a swatch that is frankly a bit cheesy looking, or maybe I just haven't got the hang of knitting with ribbon yet. Also noticed that the bottom of the cardigan is in stockinette, which tends to roll. I'm wondering whether the finished cardigan can be blocked to eliminate rolling, inasmuch as the yarn is partly nylon. Can nylon be steamed without melting? If anyone has made the cardigan, or has tried knitting with Zen at a loose gauge, I'd greatly appreciate your input.

Blocking doesn't always entail steaming. You could try wetting your swatch, and pinning it down to dry. If you have blocking wires, they'll hold the edges more smoothly than pins, where it's easy to end up with scallops. Once it's dry, you'll have your answer.

If it still rolls, you have a couple of options. You can pick up and work down, adding a ribbed border. You can use a thinner yarn but the same size ndls, K up a st in each cast on st from the wrong side, then make a hem for ~2". Whipstitch the live sts down to the inside of the sweater.

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Joan Schrouder 3/23/03

I block mohair pretty much like I block any other wool fiber. Wash first, either spin out excess water in the machine or foll in a towel and walk on it, then smooth it out on dry towels to dimensions and let dry. Turn over a time or two while drying.

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Joan Schrouder 1/25/03

• Right sides facing each other - BO ridge will be on the inside of the garment, there will be a slight indentation on the outside.
• Wrong sides facing each other - BO ridge will be on the outside of the garment - BO in K - side facing you will have a chain running sideways.
• Same as #2, but BO in P - side facing you will have a purl ridge.

If you look at #2 from the back side (ie turn it arnd), it will look like #3's front side, and vice versa.

If this isn't clear, maybe the best way is to do 2 mini swatches, ie about 30 sts each. Just do in stockinette for ~an inch. BO the center 10 sts, and cont on the shoulders for another inch. Then do 3NBO on the two mini-shoulders between the two swatches.

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2/10/03

Sheila wrote, "I have avoided putting zippers in sweaters all these years, because I am not a seamstress and don't like to sew. I was wondering if others sewed them on by hand or by machine. Which works best for hand knits?"

Bonne Marie wrote, "I like using the machine because I think it is easier and faster than doing it by hand. Both are strong and durable."

I have a slightly different perspective from Bonne Marie. I have found that a hand sewn zipper often looks better on a knitted garment than one done by machine, especially if the yarn is very soft or has a lot of loft (e.g. mohair). However, I do generally machine sew in zippers for kids' garments because they're so darn hard on sweaters - there's no question that you lose a bit of durability with a hand-sewn zipper unless you really reinforce your stitches.

Sheila, if you want to try hand sewing in a zipper, open the zipper up and position the teeth along the edge of the garment. Pin the zipper in place using straight pins. (Hint: Put the pins in perpendicular to the edge of the zipper.) Then you can sew in the zipper by doing a column of whip stitches from the twill tape of the zipper into the leg of each knit stitch in the adjacent column of stitches. Be sure to sew into only one column of knitted stitches, or the finished garment could look wonky from the outside.

Once the first side is done, close the zipper. Butt the two finished knitted edges together and pin the second side of the zipper into place. Open the zipper and repeat the whip stitch process. Voila; c'est fini!

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Dawn Brocco 3/28/03

How do you count when BO...meaning when they say BO 22 stitches....well you bind off by knitting 2 stitches...then taking the first stitch and pulling it over the second and so on and so forth...so does this count as 2 stitches or 1 bound off...so in other words you would actually be binding off 23 stitches instead of 22 or do you count the first 2 as 2 and then it is 22 stitches in total you are BO....hope that is clear, just thought it would be helpful to know exactly how you count it.

This is a good question, because, as you've seen, it is easy to not know exactly the BO count.

Now, as you know, to *start* the BO, you need to work 2 sts, pull the first over the 2nd = 1 st BO.

There *is* 1 st remaining on your RH ndl, though.

So, after you have *pulled over* 22 sts, count the remaining sts.

The remaining sts are *not* just what are left unworked on your LH ndl, but also add in the st that's remaining on your RH ndl.

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Joan Schrouder 4/8/03

What is the difference between these two techniques? "Knit cord bind off" and "binding off in knit-cord" sound the same to me, although I can see that the st sequence is different. Do they look different or yield different results?

It sounds like "knit cord bind off" is used when you have live sts already on the ndl. The second method is when you're attaching I-cord to a selvedge, ie no live sts, so you have to K up one as you go, to have a st to attach to.

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Joan Schrouder 4/10/03

All the stripe ends are hanging out. I have looked at lots of books to find out the best way to weave them in and one book said to whip up the edges. That would be fine if I only had a few strands hanging....HOWEVER, I have lots of ends hanging out--some of the stripes were only 2 rows. What does everyone prefer??? I don't want to have totally bulky seams/edges when I sew the sweater together.

One other option - what about machine stitching up and down the selvedge st on each end where all the yarns strands are hanging? Then simply trim off. It would be quite similar to a conventional steek. Once the seaming was done, the machine stitching would be on the inside and wouldn't show.

Set your machine for small sts (20-30/inch). Make sure that the selvedge doesn't get overly stretched nor "scrunched up" going through the stitching.

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mikeashby

My thanks to everyone who sent advice on sewing buttons to knitted fabric. Because the information was not easy for me to find, I am sending a recap of the answers back to the list. Here we go:

Several people suggested using dental floss for its strength. Embroidery thread and quilting thread were also suggested, and some people use the yarn, or plies of the yarn, from the project. Sometimes threads are covered with a ply of yarn as a final step.

Bias tape, backing tape, and grosgrain ribbon were suggested for reinforcement under the button band, and under the buttonhole band too. Buttonholes would need to be made in this piece.

For stability, sew clear flat buttons to the backside of your button band at the same time you sew on your visible buttons, especially if your button is large.

Some people insert a toothpick or thin crochet hook under the button while sewing it on, then wrap thread or yarn around the sewn threads to make a shaft.

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