Step-by-step Kitchener stitching with a sewing needle: stockinette, reverse stockinette and garter stitch

This is the second post in a four-part series on Kitchener-stitching with a sewing needle.

• The first part is an introduction and also shows the contrasting color (aka "chimney") method.
• Today's post presents a system for analyzing the Kitchener stitch, so you can skip the contrasting-color guide, and work the graft with a sewing needle only.  Today's method works on stockinette, reverse stockinette, and garter stitch.  Today's method also works with ribbing grafted by the double-knitting method, although this may not make much sense until the third post of this series.
• The third post covers two different tricks for grafting ribbing without the half-stitch offset.  
• The fourth and final post covers shaping in last row while Kitchener-stitching, a trick which, among other things, helps sock-knitters get rid of the "donkey ears" at the sides of a toe-graft.
• TECHknitting blog also hosts a related post about grafting stockinette by using only knitting needles.

NOTE:  The illustrations are numbered sequentially across the entire series.  This post begins with illustration 3: illustrations 1 and 2 are found in the first post.

* * *

Kitchener stitch: knitting with a sewing needle

As we saw in the first post of this series, when you unite two fabrics by the contrasting-color ("cc" or "chimney") method, you are actually making a row of knitted fabric with a sewing needle. Odd but true: you’re knitting with a sewing needle. Knitting, as you know, really has only two stitches, the knit and the purl. Because it is possible to duplicate both of these with a sewing needle, this means that many different knitted fabrics can be seamed head-to-head by the Kitchener stitch, and we’ll go to fabric-specific instructions later in this post. Yet, regardless of what fabric we want to graft, there are some techniques common to most Kitchener-stitching, so we’ll look at those, first.

Set up, switching, cycle-sequence and passing

For almost all types of Kitchener-stitching, the live loops to be grafted are set up on two needles. The fabrics to be grafted are held back to back. The yarn to be used for grafting is the running yarn of the back piece, cut to a workable length and threaded onto a tapestry needle, the yarn from the front fabric is dropped and not used.

The Kitchener stitch is performed in a four-stitch cycle: per illustration 3, the four stitches are called Front-1 (F1, orange), Front-2 (F2, green), Rear-1 (R1, blue) and Rear-2 (R2, tan).

Each four-stitch cycle of Kitchener-stitching consists of a six-step sequence:

1) The grafting yarn is switched forward

2) The grafting yarn is passed through the first live loop on the front needle, F1, and F1 is dropped off the front needle.

3) The grafting yarn next passes through neighboring front loop, F2, which is retained on the needle.

4) The grafting yarn is then switched to the rear.

5) Next, the grafting yarn passes through the first live loop on the rear needle, R1, which is dropped from the needle.

6) The 4-stitch cycle ends when the grating yarn passes through the neighboring loop, R2, which is retained on the knitting needle. The cycle begins anew when the yarn is again switched forward.

In sum, the 6 steps are: switch, pass, pass, switch, pass, pass.

We’ll soon get to the details of passing (how and which way) but first, a few trouble spots to nip in the bud.

• In your set-up, learn to hold the front needle below the rear needle. This gives a clear view of the rear loop to be grafted.
• Regarding the cycle: every four-stitch cycle starts with a switch forward. If called away during Kitchener stitching, always work through to the nearest R2 so you’ll know where to start again.
• As to sequence: During each cycle, F1 and R1 are dropped from their respective knitting needles. Therefore, when the cycle begins anew, the old F2 will have moved up in the sequence to the F1 position. Similarly, old R2 will have moved up in the sequence to the R1 position. This sequencing rotation has an confusing consequence, as we’ll discuss below.
• Regarding switching: experience shows that improper switching is the number one cause of Kitchener-stitch failure. Whether switching from front to rear or from rear to front, the grafting yarn is taken around the RIGHT side of the work, in other words, UNDER the knitting needle tips. Do NOT switch over the top of the knitting needles, or you will make a royal mess. Illustration 4.

Direction of passing and the “opposite/same rule”

To emulate the action of a knitting needle, a threaded sewing needle can pass through a live loop either KNITWISE (inserting the sewing needle as you would insert a knitting needle to make a knit stitch) or PURLWISE (inserting the sewing needle as you would insert a knitting needle make a purl stitch) (illustration 5)

Kitchener stitch is based on a simple application of these two possibilities:

If the threaded sewing needle first passes through a live loop in a PURLWISE direction, and then returns in a second pass through that same live loop in a KNITWISE direction, the new stitch thus created by the grafting yarn will be a KNIT stitch.

If the grafting yarn first passes through a live loop in a KNITWISE direction, and then returns in a second pass through that same loop in a PURLWISE directions, the new stitch thus created by the grafting yarn will be a PURL stitch.

The rule to extract is that to regardless of whether you want to make a knit stitch or a purl stitch, the first pass goes the loop in the OPPOSITE direction to the resulting final stitch desired, and the second pass goes through that same loop in the SAME direction as the resulting final stitch desired.

Under this analysis, the 4 combinations of needle insertions of interest for the Kitchener stitch are:

1) First pass: INSERTING THE OPPOSITE, which means

c) insert PURLwise into a KNIT stitch OR

d) insert KNITwise into a PURL stitch.

2) Second pass: INSERTING THE SAME which means

a) insert KNITwise into a KNIT stitch OR

b) insert PURLwise into a PURL stitch

The first pass-opposite/second pass-same rule is simple, but, like many simple things, it gets complicated quickly.

First stitch, second pass; second stitch, first pass

The first thing which complicates the simple application of the opposite/same rule is the rotation through the sequence of the live loops in Kitchener-stitching.

Back in the note about sequence, we said there was a confusing consequence to the fact that, when every 4-stitch cycle begins anew, the old F2 will be in the F1 position and the old R2 will be in the R1 position.

You see, the first stitch, F1, has already received its first pass before it was promoted to its current position. In other words, back when it was in the F2 position, this loop already received a first pass before it was retained on the needle. Now that it has become an F1, it is getting its second pass prior to being slid off the knitting needle. Therefore, when we go to apply the opposite/same rule, we have to remember that even though F1 is the first stitch, it is getting its second pass. Same thing in the rear: although R1 is the first stitch on the rear needle, it is in position to get its second pass.  If you remember this, all of Kitchener stitching with a sewing needle gets a whole lot less confusing.

The zen of the stitches on the rear needle

and

the war between your eyes and your brain

This system for Kitchener stitching is based on applying the first pass-opposite/second pass-same rule. This means we must look at every stitch coming up for grafting and classify it as either a knit or a purl per illustration 6, and then work it same or opposite, as directed.

Yet, as the zen masters say, “what has a front, has a back,” and this front/back issue is the second thing complicating the application of the opposite/same rule.

In set-up, we hold the fabrics to be grafted back-to-back. If grafting stockinette, the stitches below the loops on the rear needle are going to look like purls, because we are looking at the BACK of the stockinette. So, the question arises: should these stockinette-fabric stitches be classified as knits or purls for application of the first pass-opposite/second pass-same rule? The answer is that for our system, we classify by HOW THE STITCHES LOOK FROM THE SET-UP POSITION. Therefore, the stitches on the rear needle when grafting stockinette are purls, because that’s how they look to your eye which sees the back of the rear fabric. If you sneak a peek back to illustrations 3 and 4, you will see examples: the front fabric is stockinette, and the rear fabric shows as the purls of reverse stockinette.

When you come to sort this out in practice, you may find yourself in the middle of a battle between your eye and your brain. See, your brain KNOWS you’re grafting stockinette, so it THINKS it knows those rear stitches are knits, despite the fact that, to your eye, they look like purls from the set-up position. Your brain may scream “you’re grafting stockinette, so that rear stitch is a knit, a knit, I tell you!” Ignore the screaming and trust your eye.

Fabric-by-fabric instructions for grafting by the opposite/same rule

Stockinette, reverse stockinette, ribbing grafted by the double knitting method: Stockinette and reverse stockinette look the same right side up and upside down, and from row to row. They are the easiest fabrics to graft. Ribbing will be covered in the next post of this series, but basically, when you graft ribbing by the double-knitting method (to be explained in the next post) it works the same as grafting a stockinette fabric.

The rule is: F1, same and drop it off; F2, opposite and keep it on; R1, same and drop it off; R2, opposite and keep it on.

Here it is in expanded chart form: (click illustration to greatly enlarge)

Garter stitch: Unlike stockinette, garter stitch fabric changes appearance on the fabric face from row to row, alternating rows of bumps with rows of smooth. Kitchener stitching adds a row, so you must stop knitting when the two garter fabrics to be joined lack the row that would connect them if the knitted item had been knitted all in one piece. In garter stitch, this means that both the front and the rear needles must have the same sort of row showing from the set-up position—either both must have rows of purls below the loops on the needles OR both must have a rows of knits on the loops below the needles. One additional complication: Garter stitch is a backwards application of the opposite/same rule. This is because you don’t want to make the new row you’re adding identical to the stitches in the row above and the row below. Instead, you want to make it opposite, to get the row of bumps in the right place. Therefore, for garter stitch, the rule is first pass same/second pass, opposite.

Once properly set up, the rule for garter stitch is: F1, opposite and slide it off; F2, same and keep it on; R1, opposite and slide it off; R2, same and keep it on.

Here it is in expanded chart form. (click the illustration to expand it greatly)

One last (and important!) thing

This system states that in each 4-stitch cycle, the first stitch gets the second pass-through of the grafting yarn before it is slipped off the knitting needle. This is clearly true for every cycle of Kitchener stitching except for the very first. As to that first cycle (in all fabrics except ribbing grafted to a bound-off fabric) the first F1 which is pushed off the needle has only ever had one pass—worked as a second pass. Some books seek to correct this problem with special passes done only on the very first F1 and R1. However, experience shows that this really does not make a lot of difference to the finished look. Therefore, just treat the F1 and R1 of the first cycle as if they were ordinary second-pass first stitches.

* * *

If these charts and all this theory makes you crazy, not to worry, the contrasting color ("chimney") method (shown in the first installment) works really well, is super easy and produces the exact same result.

In the next post, we'll take up grafting ribbing--without the 1/2 stitch offset (and no complicated charts, either, I promise). 

Until then, good knitting--TK

Kitchener stitching (grafting) with a sewing needle, the contrasting color way (also called the "chimney" method of grafting)

TECHknitting blog has shown how to graft (Kitchener stitch) without a sewing needle.  This all-knitting graft is one of the most popular posts on this site.

Today, however, TECHknitting blog is starting a retro series--going old-school to look at grafting with a sewing needle.  

The next four posts (parts of which first appeared as an article in Interweave Knits magazine a couple of years ago) go deep.  

• The first post (today's) gives background on the Kitchener stitch, and shows how to graft in an incredibly simple way--the contrast color way. (When applied to sock-toes, this trick is sometimes called the "chimney method" of grafting.)
• The second post  shows a system for grafting stockinette, reverse stockinette or garter stitch.  
• The third post shows two tricks for grafting ribbing WITHOUT the half-stitch offset--yes it can be done! The graft isn't completely perfect, but these two tricks make grafting ribbing a whole lot better than the offset mess which usually results. 
• The fourth and final post shows how to shape during grafting--for sock knitters, this translates into getting rid of the "donkey ears" at the corners of the toe-graft.

So, here we go, starting with...

History of the Kitchener stitch

The British general, Lord Kitchener, was concerned how his soldiers’ seamed socks maimed their toes. The smooth grafting technique which bears his name solved the problem. Today, Kitchener stitching (also called “weaving” and “grafting”) has risen far above its utilitarian sock-toe origins to become a star technique of mainstream knitting. Yet, like many stars, it has a reputation for being temperamental, difficult, or (in the case of ribbing) impossible. This series of posts present a systematized approach: step-by-step, the Kitchener stitch will be demystified, ribbing and all.

Kitchener stitch and duplicate stitch

Kitchener stitch is a sewn seam where the path of the seaming yarn follows the path a row of knitting would take. Done properly, the two fabrics are literally grafted into one longer fabric—a fabric nearly indistinguishable from one knitted all-at-once. Although it seems magical, its roots are in the humble duplicate stitch.

Per illustration 1, in duplicate stitch, a threaded tapestry needle (blunt tip, large eye) is drawn along the face of the fabric. As you see, in order to duplicate each underlying purple stitch, the red yarn must pass twice through each stitch.

Contrast-color (cc) method of Kitchener stitch

Kitchener stitch is so very related to duplicate stitch that we can actually Kitchener-stitch BY duplicate-stitching, a technique called the “cc (contrasting color) method.” Here’s how:

• End each piece of fabric with a cc row. In illustration 2, the bottom piece has a blue cc, the top a green. These cc yarns provide a visual path for the grafting yarn to follow.
• Bind off each piece. The illustration shows a simple looped bind-off in tan, but any bind off is OK. For ease of handling, you may choose to add a few rows past the cc row before you bind off.
• Fold the cc rows under, then hold them close, as on the right side of illustration 2.
• With the threaded tapestry needle (red in illustration) follow the path traced by the TOP of the blue stitches, and the BOTTOM of the green stitches, as shown.
• When done, pull or snip out your cc yarn (the bind-off yarn will come away, also). What remains is a single length of fabric, grafted together by the Kitchener stitch. Of course, in real life, you would use a yarn of the same color to do the grafting—the red is only for illustration purposes.

Illustration 2 shows stockinette Kitchener stitching, but the cc method works for other fabrics also, such as garter stitch and reverse stockinette.

This cc method is sometimes called the "chimney method," and this is because you can work a variant of this trick to graft sock toe.  Let's say you are at the end of the sock, and the only stitches on your needles are the ones which are to be grafted together. Arrange matters so that the running yarn comes out of the right side of the back needle.  Cut the running yarn to about 10 inches and thread it onto a tapestry needle.  Let that yarn hang on the outside of the sock.

Now, instead of grafting directly, switch yarns to a contrasting color, and knit a few more rounds on the toe-stitches, going around and around with no decreasing or other shaping.  You are knitting a sort of a tube--a contrasting color "chimney."  Once you've gotten five or six rounds done, simply pull your needles right out of the work, no need to bind off, even. 

Next, tuck the chimney rounds down INSIDE the sock toe and hold the two sides tightly together.  At the very fold where the sock yarn meets the contrasting color yarn, you will be all set up to contrast-color graft as shown above.  In other words, by taking in hand the threaded needle previously prepared, and using it to follow a path along the TOP of the folded-back top cc stitches, and the BOTTOM of the folded-back bottom cc stitches, you'll have a guide for grafting, just as shown above. 

When the graft is finished, you can unravel and pick out the contrasting color chimney stitches.  What remains is a beautifully grafted toe.

The cc method is easy to understand and works great.  If you like this method, there's no reason to use any other, and you can simply skip the rest of the posts in this series.  However, for those who like theory and complication, stay tuned for the next post, which analyzes the Kitchener stitch is all its gory detail, and presents a method which works for grafting stockinette, reverse stockinette and garter stitch, too. 

'til next time --TK

PS:  Here is a link to a post by the famous knitting teacher Lucy Neatby, which shows a little bit different way to do the chimney method, and has many fine tips for good success. 

Autumn leaf salad for the Thanksgiving table (tk cooks)

In the previous post, TECHknitting blog featured the Swing Scarf--an easy gift to get ready for the holidays.  Today's post is about getting ready for a different holiday, one coming up even sooner--Thanksgiving.

Once every couple of years, the urge to post something kitchen-related becomes overwhelming.  In the past, this blog has featured no-mess muffins, as well as peach crumble.  This bi-annual installment of "tk cooks" offers a quite, quite beautiful (and very easy) addition to the Thanksgiving table: autumn leaf salad.

Don't those look like real leaves?  The trick is, they're made from colorful sweet peppers.

Here's the how-to:
Step 1. Choose the most colorful peppers you can find.
*Bonus points for finding two-tone peppers.

Step 2. Cook the peppers in a covered bowl in the microwave with a small amount of water, or steam them in a basket over a pot of boiling water.  You want the peppers to become soft, but not discolored or mushy, so keep a sharp eye out.

These peppers were roasted (see next
illustration) before being microwaved

*Bonus points: If you have a gas range or a bar-b-q grill, you can first roast the peppers in a char-broil pan, as shown below.  Roast them for only a couple of minutes before microwaving or steaming: roasting improves the taste.  (If you have no char-broil pan, you can still roast the peppers:  put them directly on the pot-grate over the flame, turning them constantly with a long-handled tongs.)  However, again, it is a bonus to roast the peppers: the salad is very good made with steamed, but never-roasted peppers, also.

Step 3. Once the peppers have cooled, remove the pepper core through the top of the pepper, then slit one side to create as large a flat sheet as possible. Work in a shallow bowl, saving the "pepper-juice" (pepper-juice = the clear liquid which weeps from the cooked pepper as you cut it).

Step 4. With a sharp knife, scrape away any pepper char, and peel away any pepper skin you can get off without tearing the flesh. (Pepper char is the blackened skin, uncharred pepper skin is a clear-ish outer layer which sometimes comes loose in the cooking process.)  Char comes off very easily, but skin not so much.  However, the more mature the pepper, the easier it is to get the skin off when cooked: red, yellow and orange peppers are the easiest, green peppers the hardest.  With some varieties of cooked peppers, peeling them with your fingers under running water works very well, and this makes it easy to wash the seeds out, as well.

Step 5. Lay the clean, peeled sheet of softened pepper on a plate or cutting board. Using leaf-shaped cookie cutters, cut leaf shapes out of the pepper pieces. Half leaves can be used, too, peeking out from under a larger leaf.

The mottled appearance 
comes from roasting

Sometimes, the cookie cutters don't want to slice all the way through, especially if there is skin left on the pepper.  In that case, use a small sharp knife to cut away the stubborn scraps along the outside of the cutter, before removing the leaf from inside the cutter.

Step 6. Dice the leftover scraps.

Step 7. Use any clear salad dressing you like, or make one up by mixing together a bit of olive oil and all the pepper juice, then add salt to taste.  Some like a splash of vinegar, too.

Step 8. Toss the diced pepper scraps with some dressing, drain and make a layer of these on the serving plate.  Pull each cut-out leaf through the dressing--you don't want these to tear, so work carefully. Arrange the leaves over the pepper-dice, the larger leaves on the bottom, smaller on top, try to arrange so different colors set one another off.

Three final notes:

• If you need to store this before serving, keep it overnight in the fridge with plastic wrap on top.  It tastes best at room temperature, so take it out a couple of hours ahead, but if you forget, just eat it cold--it's pretty good that way, too.  Just before serving, re-shine the salad by spooning any pooled dressing back on top, or drizzle or spray a little extra olive oil.
• Super short cut:  Instead of messing around with cooking the peppers, start with bottled roasted peppers from the store. 
• Instead of making this into a stand-alone salad, the pepper cut-outs make an excellent decoration for the top of a green salad or other room-temp vegetable dish.

Good appetite, TK

Swing scarf

"You walk, it swings"

Swingy cords with little weights on the bottom adorn the most ancient garments ever found, and these retain their allure right up the present day.  Swing scarves are made entirely out of I-cord, with various weights on the bottom of each cord.  The weights make the cords swing when you walk--very pretty.

You can knit the I-cords by hand, or with an old-fashioned spool knitter but I recommend using an I-cord mill. With the mill, you can make a whole scarf in a single afternoon--very good for wardrobe additions or last minute holiday gifts.  The I-cords are not sewn together, but attached by a new method called "interweaving."  Interweaving makes a fine flat seam which does not show on the outside.  Interweaving is also very quick.

Any sort of sock-weight yarn works well, and Swing Scarves are a great way to use up odds and ends.  If you're buying yarn to make these, long-color-repeat yarns, like Crystal Palace mini-mochi, make lovely color-coordinated scarves: each cord features a gradual fade from one color to another, and so brings out the real beauty of these yarns.  Another way where Swing Scarves really shine is hand-painted yarns with colors which look SO lovely in the skein, but just don't play nicely together when knit up.  Because the I-cord is so thin (4 stitches per row) the colors can't pool and make icky designs. Swing Scarves are a truly good way to use up that hand-painted sock yarn which just can't seem to find a home in other patterns.

There are a great variety of little weights you can put at the bottom: beads, buttons, old subway tokens, shells, silver rings, Oriental coins--anything with some holes and a little weight.  Because of the pretty weights, swing scarves are a little bit like jewelry.

• You can see more projects made with this pattern on the Swing Scarf Ravelry page.
• The pattern has 7 pages and costs $3.50.
• 
• Here's a peek at the cover and the pattern:

I hope you will have as much fun knitting and wearing these as I have had inventing them and writing the pattern.

Good knitting!
-TK

Addendum:  A lovely commenter, Lynne, found this you-tube video, showing how to make industrial quantities of I-cord using a power drill to spin an I-cord maker. If a person wanted to make all their holiday gifts in a day or so, or make tons of scarves for an art fair, this would be the trick to use!  Check this out:

Thanks to Lynne for the link, thanks to Dutch Hollow Acres for the video!

Fringes--how to wash knitwear so the fringes don't get tangled

Say you have a scarf or other knitted item with a fringe (tassel-style or continuous-style), and the item needs to be washed.  How do you protect the fringe while washing?

Scarf with tassel-style fringe

Scarf with continuous-style fringe

Here are several tricks:

If the fringe-strands are long enough, protect them from tangling by tying them in one or more loose overhand knot(s).  After washing and drying, undo the knot(s).

If the fringe is too short to tie in a knot, snap a hair-tie around the fringe.  If the item is wide, make several hair-tie bundles, side by side, as shown below.

Before washing, snap fringe
into bundles with hair ties
(this works for continuous-style fringe, also)

No hair ties handy? Bundle the fringe using scrap yarn, instead.  If the fringe is super-long, tie the bundles together in a couple of places along their length.

After knotting or bundling, the yarn of the fringe might have a kink where it was tied, especially if it was tied tightly.  Lay the fringe on the ironing board and LIGHTLY steam the kinks out. In other words, hold the steaming iron ABOVE the fringes, steaming until they are damp and hot.  Pat flat. Do not actually iron the fringe. If working with acrylic, steam very sparingly or the texture of the yarn will change.

Here's another alternative:  instead of fussing around before washing, just wash and dry however you like.  At the end, re-wet the fringe and slap the strands against the side of the tub.  Smack the fringe hard enough and the wet strands--whether they make up a tassel-style or continuous-style fringe--will magically untangle.

In addition to any of the above alternatives, you might like to consider knotting off the end of each strand with a simple overhand (granny) knot.  This prevents the strands from un-plying during washing or drying (or wearing).  Knotting ends is a wonderful occupation during a dull lecture, boring meeting or any kind of bus ride.

One final option: you can make fringes nearly tangle-proof by tying them off into knotted patterns along their length, as shown below.  If your fringe is continuous, the first row of tying is used to knot up tassel-style bundles of fringe.  Once the fringe is tassel-ated, the knotted pattern is worked as per the illustration.

Fringe tied into knotted patterns

To further research knotting/tying patterns, type the term "macrame fringe" into your browser's search window. You'll get a wide variety of quite lovely fringe options, some an art form in themselves.

'til next time
--TK

You've been reading TECHknitting blog on "washing a scarf with fringes."

Skimming in ends with a knitpicker

Are you looking at an almost-finished project and dreading working in all those dangling ends?

Dangling ends waiting to be worked in
on the back of a stockinette fabric.
Look familiar?

You COULD have worked your ends in as-you-go, you know! Then you wouldn't face the problem of how to work them in at the end of the project. But if you didn't work them in as you made them, and you're now staring at a lot ends waiting to be worked in, here's a whole new, much easier way than anything I've come across previously.

But before we get to the new way, let's look at the old ways of dealing with the problem--I believe that will best show when to use the new way.

THE OLD WAYS

There are two main methods for working in dangling tails of yarn: weaving-in and skimming-in. Weaving-in is a fine old method, very well adapted to projects with both sides showing (scarves, for example.)  Weaving-in is brilliant: just fine as it is.

It is the other old method--the skimming-in method--which is the subject of today's update.

Unlike weaving-in, skimming-in shows.  Therefore, it is used for garments with an inside and an outside. To skim in, the dangling tail is threaded onto a sharp needle. Starting near the root of the tail, the needle is pushed through the back face of the fabric, piercing through the stitches along the way, thus drawing the tail behind it. When the needle is withdrawn, the excess tail is snipped off and the part you've parked is buried, hopefully forever, in the thickness of the fabric-back. Adding a zig-zag (a change of direction) as shown, helps the tail stay buried even when the fabric is stretched and stressed.

The old way: Skimming the end (red) into the back 
of a stockinette fabric along a zig-zag path, 
using a sharp needle

Today's post is about a new way to do skimming-in.  The great thing about this new method is that it does not involve threading a needle. Instead a "knit-picker" is used to do the job faster, better and easier. And did I mention? Faster. Also? Better.

KNIT-PICKER

A knit-picker is a teeny-weenie latch hook.  Its original purpose in life is pulling snags in  commercial knitwear to the fabric back, there to hide: a knit-picker has saved many a snagged polo shirt to live another day. But knit-pickers can do so much more.

Extreme close-up of the knit-picker showing the hook and latch.
In real life, the hook and latch assembly of a knit-picker are
very very small

Knit-pickers, you see, exist to draw loops of yarn through fabric.  Since hand-knitting is nothing but an endless series of loops, the knit-picker's ability to put loops where you want them opens worlds. In the immediately previous post, TECHknitting blog showed how to pull loops through a zipper tape using a knit-picker, thus studding the tape with loops.  Loops lined up in a row can then be treated just like any other row of live stitches, so a loop-studded zipper can be KNITTED into a garment, rather than sewn in. For this ability alone, every hand-knitter ought to have a knit-picker in their tool kit.

But adding loops to zippers is not the only trick a knit-picker can do. The knit-picker's ability to draw loops through fabric also lets it substitute for a needle when skimming-in ends. Yup--we now have skimming-in ends without the hassle of finding, threading, and handling, a very sharp needle.  Snow White's mother can prick her fingers all she wants: with a knit-picker, those days are over!

SKIMMING-IN WITH A KNIT-PICKER

This loaded and locked knit-picker is ready to pull the tail
through the fabric

• Working from the fabric back, and holding the knit-picker's little latch-gate open with your thumbnail, insert the knit-picker into the fabric, pointing towards the dangling tail.  
• Wiggle the knit-picker through the thickness of the fabric back, splitting right through the yarn of each stitch you come to.  Once the knit-picker gets moving through the fabric, the little latch will stay open all by itself, so you can let go of it. 
• To prevent the tail from showing on the front, as you wiggle along splitting through plies, keep the knit-picker pretty close to the surface of the fabric back. 
• When you've wiggled the knit-picker's little head to a spot very near where the tail emerges from the fabric-back, shove it forward so that the hook and the latch assembly pop out of the fabric, thus exposing the hook and freeing the latch.
• Catch the tail under the hook, then latch the hook shut with your fingernail. 

The illustration above shows the knit-picker at this stage: wiggled through the split plies of the yarn, then shoved forward until the hook and latch both popped free, then the yarn caught under the hook. Amazingly, even though the hook is extremely tiny, most hand-knitting yarn is lofty enough to compress under the hook--it's like a magic trick, really. Once the tail-yarn is caught, the latch is closed around the yarn tail. The closed latch prevents the yarn from escaping or shredding as the hook pulls the yarn through the fabric. This knit-picker is loaded and locked.

• Gently withdraw the loaded hook, thus drawing the tail-end through the thickness of the fabric-back. Keep tugging until the tail-end pops free. (See "geek notes" below for more info.)

Knit-pickers have a relatively short stretch of insert-able handle, meaning you can't work in a very long stretch in any one draw-through. Therefore, after the first draw-through, you probably ought to repeat the operation to draw though an additional stretch of tail.

I usually draw through two or three times, each time in a different direction, with the idea of really burying the tail and making it much harder for a stretch from any one direction to pop the tail loose. This is called "zig-zagging the tail." (The illustration of needle-skimming, above, shows an example of this change of direction.)

BETTER THAN A NEEDLE for SLICK or THICK

Not having to thread a needle makes skimming in both faster and easier. But where the knit-picker really shines is when it comes to burying the tails of slick yarns (acrylic, linen, cotton) or thick yarns (worsted-weight or heavier).

Work plies in separately--spiderwebbing a tail

The fibers of slick yarns (acrylic, cotton) don't want to stay parked in the fabric.  The fiber is so slippery that the friction between the tail and the surrounding fabric is simply too low to hold the tail firmly.  Every time the garment stretches, the end slides.  Eventually it pops free in the most annoying way. Zig-zagging slows this process.  Yet in a really slick fiber, even zig-zagging may merely delay the inevitable.

With a knit-picker, you can go one better. Not only can you zig and zag in a different direction with each quick pull-through, but you easily separate the strands or plies of the tail, then work each individual strand along its own zig-zag. The overall effect is like a spiderweb of ends in the fabric.

Spiderwebbing with a knit-picker

By spiderwebbing the split tail into your work, the chances of the tail popping loose is less (although some fibers--I'm looking at you, Caron Simply Soft--want to pop loose no matter what). True, you COULD spiderweb the split ends with a sewing needle, but then you'd have to thread the dratted thing three or four times.  The knit-picker is so much faster that you'd be more likely (or at least, I'd be more likely) to actually do it.

In thick yarn, too, you can spiderweb the tail.  The advantage in thick yarn is bulk-reduction: rather than one thick tail, you have several thinner strands radiating away from one another, all neatly buried with a knit-picker.

Easily work in too-short tails

One final trick where the knit-picker shines:  if your tail is too short to thread onto a needle, the old way was to use the dressmaker's trick for threading, shown in a previous TECHknitting post.  But with a knit-picker, you can work in any length of tail, even the shortest, no awkward maneuvers required.

GEEK NOTES

1) After each zig, adjust the tension of the tail in the fabric before setting off on the next zag.  Zig-zagging or spiderwebbing makes it harder for the tail to pop loose, but it also makes it harder to adjust the tension at the end--best to adjust as-you-go to avoid puckering.

2) The illustration of a knit-picker skimming shows the knit-picker catching the tail close to its root, where it protrudes from the fabric.  In fact, it's easier to pull the loaded and locked knit-picker back out of the fabric if you catch the tail closer to the other end--the cut-end, tensioning the loop between the knit-picker and the root of the stitch with your fingers. The illustration shows catching the root because that makes the most visual sense, but in practice, catching the tail further along reduces friction because the tail-yarn doesn't have to slide through the "eye" of the closed latch as you withdraw the knit-picker: all that has to be dragged is the (gradually shrinking) loop of yarn you are tensioning. 

Good knitting --TK

Zippers in knitwear, the no-sewing way

IMPORTANT UPDATE 2016: there's a new Dritz zipper which is DESIGNED for knitting into garments.  Somebody over at Dritz was really thinking smart!  As you read the below, realize that if you had one of these new zippers, the whole project would be SO much easier, as you could pick the stitches straight up through the band, ignoring the whole knit-picking process.  AMAZING!!!  One downside: it seems to only come in tan, and in two lengths, but wow, what a great start on a new product.

Ahem....now back to the original article, below...

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This article about installing zippers was featured in the winter 2010 issue of Interweave Knits.  TECHknitting blog has had a few posts which refer to this technique, but the details have never been actually published to the internet. The copyright has now reverted to me, and TECHknitting blog is publishing all the details for the first time, complete with illustrations.  There is also an accompanying video in which Knits' editor, Eunny Jang, demo's the how-to.

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Do you avoid making zippered knitwear because of the sewing involved? Here's a way to install zippers with no sewing at all. Instead, you literally KNIT the zipper in. To prep the zipper to perform this magic trick, we'll borrow a tool used in rug-making and machine knitting--the latch hook.

INTRO TO LATCH HOOKS (KNIT-PICKER)

Latch hooks come in many sizes, but the one for us is a miniature version called a "knit-picker" or "snag-fixer." Available in fabric stores for a couple of bucks, these are meant for pulling snags to the inner surface of industrial knits such as polyester polo shirts. We, however, are going to use this mini-latch hook for our own hand-knitting purposes: to pull yarn loops through the fabric tape of the zipper--perfectly spaced loops which can then be picked up and knitted (or bound off). 

In essence, a latch hook is nothing more than a foolproof crochet hook--foolproof because the little latch can swing open to catch the yarn, then swung shut, trapping the yarn under the hook.  Once the yarn is safely caught under the hook and the gate latched shut, the loaded hook can be drawn through even the tightest hole without any danger of the yarn fraying or splitting, because the latch locks the yarn in.

Close-up of knit-picker, with latch open (L) and shut (R)

Specifically, in our use, the latch is going to be swung open, then the hook is going to be poked through the zipper tape at a pre-marked spot, shown by red dots on the illustrations below. Next, the latch will be closed to lock the yarn onto the hook. The locked, loaded hook is then drawn through the zipper tape. Once drawn through, the latch opens and the hook is removed, depositing the yarn loop neatly on the front of the zipper tape.

KNIT-ABLE OBJECT

As you know, any two pieces of knitting COULD be attached by sewing, but there are also NON-SEWING ways of attaching knitting together. For example, if two pieces of knitting have open (live) loops, the three needle bind-off can be used to seam them together.  To seam together a line of open loops to a line of closed loops, or to seam together two lines of closed loops (closed loops=bind off edge, or cast-on edge, or side selvedge) you can use slip-stitching.

By using the knit-picker to insert loops (open OR closed) onto the surface of the zipper tape, you're turning the zipper tape into a knit-able object.  Once the zipper is knit-able, it can be seamed or attached to a piece of knitting just as easily as any other two pieces of knitting could be, with no sewing necessary.

INSERTING OPEN (LIVE) or CLOSED LOOPS via the KNIT PICKER

There are two basic methods for inserting loops into a zipper tape--open (live) loops or a chain of closed loops. For open loops, you can simply pick up loops as you draw them through to the top surface of the zipper tape, then deposit them onto a knitting needle, as shown below.

Creating open (live) loops

In order to get a line of closed loops (a chain of loops on the surface of the tape) you pull loops up, each through the previous loop, leaving a chain of slipped stitches on the top surface of the zipper tape. These chain stitches provide the anchor for further manipulation.  As indicated above, the open-loop method is analogous to a line of live loops, while the chain method is more like a bound-off or cast-on edge, or a side selvedge.  Choose the method of drawing through loops depending on what your planned method of attachment will be.

Creating closed (chained) loops

NOTE: In the illustrations above, the latch hook is not to scale: in real life the hook and latch assembly is FAR, FAR SMALLER than shown. The head of a real knit-picker is tiny!

In both the open-loop and the closed-loop illustrations above,

• "a" indicates the position of the latch hook--open to insert, closed to withdraw; 
• "b" indicates the loops pulled through: looped over a knitting needle for the live-loop method, or chained onto the face of the zipper tape for the closed-loop method; 
• "c" indicates the method of inserting the latch hook--directly through the zipper tape, then lifted onto a knitting needle for the live loop method; or through the previous loop and the zipper tape for the closed-loop chain method. 

In both illustrations, the green dotted line indicates the path of the yarn running under the zipper tape--both methods yield what looks like a neat row of running stitches on the back of the zipper tape

With the loops pulled through the zipper tape via the
live-loop method, this closed-bottom zipper is ready to be installed,
perhaps in the top of a purse, for example

SPACING

Once you determine the finished zipper length needed (more on zipper length below) you count the number of rows or stitches along the garment edge where you will install the zipper. Mark off dots, one for each loop wanted, evenly spaced. 

Keeping the marks in a straight line is easy. Zipper tapes are usually woven with sewing guide lines right on them--a sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious pattern running lengthwise up the tape, shown as light gray dotted lines in the illustrations.

LOOP SIZE

In the open (live) loop method, each loop will necessarily be the same size because they are caught around the barrel of a knitting needle. In the closed loop (chain) method, however, it is a bit more difficult. Because the barrel of the latch hook is tiny, drawing up each loop snug around the hook's barrel would over-tighten the loops. You can proceed freehand--drawing up each loop just so, as shown in the illustration, or for a more sure thing, you can temporarily insert a dpn of appropriate size into each loop as you make it, then snug up the loop over the needle barrel, then remove the dpn.  This makes each loop the same size, as long as you're careful to not over-tighten the slack away as you draw up the next loop. 

ADJUSTING ZIPPER LENGTH

Zippers rarely come in the exact length wanted. To shorten a non-separating (closed bottom) zipper --the kind you'd install in a purse-top, for example--shorten it by working from the bottom, as shown:  First, sew a new stop.  Then, snip to length.  The snipped end is hidden inside the purse.

Sew a new stop (top picture) then cut 
(bottom picture) to shorten a closed-bottom
(non-separating) zipper

For a separating zipper--the kind you would use for a sweater front, for example--you can sew a new stop at each top in a similar manner, then snip away the excess zipper tape. Alternatively, if there's only an inch or so of excess at the top, simply fold the excess zipper out of the way at a 90 degree angle to the top of the garment, then sew the excess along the garment edge with the teeth pointing down. If you cut a nylon or polyester zipper tape, consider lightly heat-sealing the edge with a match: for safety, work over a sink with the water running, just in case the tape flares.

TROUBLESHOOTING and TIPS

*Latch hooks take some getting used to. To control the latch's tendency to poke and tangle, use your thumb to flip and hold it it down (open) for insertion and again for yarn-catching, then snap it shut once it's loaded with yarn and before withdrawing through the zipper tape.

*Because of its stiff and inflexible nature, nylon or polyester zipper tape will fold over on itself along the line of the pick-up. With use and wear, the tape will eventually soften.  Washing first might soften an excessively stiff zipper tape.

*Although tiny, the latch hook can pull along yarns up to and including most chunky-weights. However, the thicker the yarn pulled through the tape, the more zipper-buckling you will get. To reduce buckling, create the loops on the zipper tape using a thinner color-matched yarn: sock yarn is perfect because it is both thin and strong. Alternatively, you can catch one loop through the zipper tape for each TWO stitches wanted. This reduced buckling by halving the amount of yarn inserted into the zipper tape. With this two-for-one trick, you must double the stitch count in the next row, perhaps by inserting a backwards (or forward) loop increase alternate with each loop on the tape, or working each loop as a kfb. 

*Whether you are working with a closed-bottom (non-separating) zipper or a separating one, it's best to pick up stitches with the zipper opened or separated: makes the work go easier.

*Poking the latch hook through a tightly-woven zipper tape goes quicker if you've used a large sharp sewing needle or small awl to pre-poke the holes.

*An INGENUOUS method of poking holes and getting perfect spacing at the same time involves using a sewing machine--but not to sew the zipper in.  Instead, you run the sewing machine blank (no thread) adjusting the stitch length to the gauge you want, and thus punching a line of perfectly-spaced holes in a straight line down the tape.  Putting a huge (like for sewing leather) needle into the machine makes the punched hole bigger and easier to see.  Thanks to reader Valsew for this tip.

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Coming up: Knit-pickers aren't just for adding zippers.  They can be used to work in ends, also.  The next post shows how. 

Until next time, TK

Stuffed Mittens

Today's post is just showing off a little: as promised last summer, TECHknitting has a new pattern published in a nationally distributed magazine. Specifically, Interweave Knits Holiday Issue contains a TECHknitting pattern for stuffed mittens, made a new way.

These stuffed mittens are loosely knit in the main color, using worsted weight yarn.  Once the mittens are finished being knit, they are turned inside out for stuffing.  Although these look like thrummed mittens (which have the tufts knitted in) adding the tufts afterwards makes it easier to add more of them: unlike when they're knit-in, tufts added afterwards don't interrupt the knit fabric's structure. Made extra large to accommodate all that stuffing, they are offered in sizes C,W,M (child's small and medium, as well as women's and men's).

inside and outside of the stuffed mittens
(inside out--at right--they look handy for dusting, don't they?)

The child's medium mittens featured here and in the magazine are knit from Brown Sheep yarns: the main color is Lamb's Pride worsted Mulberry M162, the contrast color tufts are Lamb's Pride bulky Prairie Goldenrod M240.

The fuzzy mitt to the right in the bottom picture is inside out, to show what the tufts look like once they've been fastened into place.  As you can see, stuffed mittens are massively insulated.  For kids, they would be perfect for a snowball fight.  For adults, these would be handy to keep in the car for when you have to scrape the windshield or touch the freezing metal of the gas pump--good for yourself and a great gift for anyone who drives in the cold.

Interweave Holiday Gifts magazine is currently on sale nationally until December 10, 2012, and is also available in a digital version. The copyright will revert to me by next year, at which time TECHknitting will publish the pattern (all four sizes).  However, if you don't want to wait that long, you might like to check your local newsstand or library for the instructions.

Here is the Ravelry link to see other photos of these mittens.

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Coming up next post, more in an Interweave Knits theme.  In the winter of 2010, Interweave Knits published an TECHknitting article on installing zippers in knitwear, a new non-sewing way. Although this blog has referenced that article and the accompanying video, the full text has not been reprinted until now.  The copyright has reverted to me, and the very next post will have the full text and illustrations of that method.  Free on the web at last.

Until next time, happy knitting! --TK

A museum of knitting and crocheting

Welcome to the 7th season of TECHknitting blog!  Summer's over, the garden has been put to bed and the knitting season has begun. This year's installment of the blog begins with an important public service announcement about a possible museum in the works.  Read on...

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If you could wave a magic wand and set up a museum of knitting and crocheting, what would you include?  Fair Isle or yarn bombing? Bohus or math knitting? Irish lace or hyperbolic crochet? How would you organize it--profit-based or non-profit?  Would it include a conference center? Classrooms? A yarn shop?  Or would it be part of another museum, a historical museum, say?

Or how about something new? What would you think of an on-line museum?  A searchable digitized data base of knitting and crocheting through the ages? How about a K/C swat team of experts trolling through garment collections languishing in museums all over the world, sorting through, then putting knit and crocheted garments on-line with high resolution images of the front and back?

A flight of fancy, yes, but it might not be...someday.

The idea of a knitting museum, real or virtual, is the brainchild of a knitter named (in a delightful bit of nominative determinism) Karen Kendrick-Hands.

Karen is thinking about these issues and more, and she's put together a symposium, taking place in Madison WI November 8-10, 2012, and open to anyone who has an opinion or an interest (and can come up with the registration fee, or is willing to volunteer in lieu of fee).  Karen's ideas have been found worthy of support by TNNA, which gave her a grant to run this symposium and by the Wisconsin Historical Society, which is a co-host and site-provider.  Some VIPs from the world of knitting and textiles have also been attracted to the idea--Trisha Malcolm (Vogue Knitting) as well as Jack Blumenthal (Lion Brand Yarn) will be part of the panel discussion, along with with museum and textile experts.  A keynote speaker will be Susan Strawn (author, Knitting America).

Are you interested?  Here's the link for further info, and thanks to Karen for taking the lead on this exciting project.  Maybe one day knitting and crocheting will have their own museum.  And maybe it's not so fanciful after all: if the quilters can do it, why can't we?

PS:  If interested, hurry.  Registration closes soon.