Well over 2 years ago I wrote a little blog post called Top Ten Least Favorite Knitting Myths that ended up going a bit viral. Some of these myths I bust in Patty’s Knitting Bag of Tricks online / DVD class. Today’s tip is devoted to #5 from the list –
Mattress Stitch Selvedge Edge
In a seamed knit piece, the selvedge stitch, is the one that gets seamed away. When you slip the first stitch of every row, you are moving the stitch from one needle to the other without pulling the new yarn through it. This causes an elongated stitch at the edge that covers two rows.
Although this creates a lovely finished edge if you are making a scarf or shawl, there are two issues that for many knitters (me included) makes our mattress stitch look, less then wonderful.
First, the slack of the elongated stitch, also effects the way the second stitch looks, a bit large and sloppy.
Second, since the edge stitch travels over two rows, the running bars do not come out of each row, but rather two running bars occupy the same space. This means over 10 rows, you will basically have 5 spots to put your seaming yarn.
Keeping the edge stitch in stockinette make a much neater edge. Here, even going under two bars at a time, the seaming is much neater
A picture’s worth a thousand words
Best rule of thumb is, if it’s a finished edge, make it pretty, but if you’re going to do something to that edge, like seam or pick up stitches, don’t add a slip stitch edge . . . stick to the pattern.
For more tips LIVE, join me in one of my live classes. Keep watching the Upcoming Classes page. I update it frequently.
For other knitting tips from Patty’s Knitting Bag of tricks you can learn 2 1/2 hours worth!
To read past Tuesday tips, just click on the Tutorial category of the blog (or here I did it for you!)
If you have a “is there a better way to do that”, or “how do you do that” question, leave me a comment, and I’ll add it to the Tuesday Tip list!
