- Horizontal pick ups are discussed in part 2,
- a future post will discuss combo pick-ups.
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The most common place for a vertical selvedge pick up is along the "long edges" of a cardigan sweater, in order to knit the button bands (darker green, below). |
| The different types of picking up--today's post is about picking up through the vertical (dark green) "selvedges" which are the "long" fabric edges on this schematic of a cardigan sweater. Future posts will show horizontal and combo pick-ups. |
FABRIC METHOD--TWO VERSIONS
There are two methods of picking up stitches along a selvedge. The first, called the fabric method, involves actually picking up loops out of the fabric itself. The fabric method comes in two versions: the every-single-row version and the every-other-row version.Below, the every-single row version. In this method, you pick up one arm of every stitch along the selvedge. Trace up the first full column of knitting, and pull onto the knitting needle, the innermost arm of each stitch in that column.
This is a fairly primitive process. There's little slack in these edge stitches. After catching the first one or two, brute force is required to squirm the loops onto the knitting needle.
Several tricks can make this easier. Picking up onto a very slim dpn helps release more slack. Another trick: "pick up and knit." This is where you park only one or two stitches on the holding needle, then knit those off right away, and then pick up another one or two, knit those off and so on. Obviously, pick-up-and-knit gives the same end result as picking up the stitches all at once, but knitting each stitch as you pick it up releases more slack. Yet, regardless whether you use a slim dpn or the pick-up-and-knit trick, pulling every stitch right out of the side edge distorts and stresses the underlying fabric, and I do not recommend it.
The second, somewhat more refined version of the fabric method involves missing a row, then picking up a loop. Repeat to get a loop from every other row. This fits with the actual structure of knitted fabric better--along a knit selvedge, the edge generally falls into a pattern of a longer loop paired with a shorter, so you'd (obviously) pick up the longer loop. Every-other-row is an improvement over the every-single-row method: with more slack, there's less stretching, less brute force.
If you are running a slipped selvedge, where one edge loop spans two rows, you might want to consider ignoring the actual loops of the slipped selvedge. They are so large, the danger is that they'd get stretched out if you used their arms to pick up onto the holding needle. Instead, consider moving in to the first full column past the selvedge for your pickup.
ADDED YARN METHOD
The second method of picking up stitches is called the added-yarn method. Classically, this is worked by holding a yarn behind the fabric. As illustrated below, you then reach between the arms of the first full column of knitting with a crochet hook to fish forward a loop. Each loop is parked onto a knitting needle as it is formed. Some knitters prefer to draw the added-yarn loop up into the space between the first and second full columns of knitting. For that method, you'd draw up loops by inserting the crochet hook as indicated by the two red dots.
The added-yarn method stresses the fabric less than the fabric method. Further, the line of yarn traveling up the entire length of the selvedge helps spread stress evenly along the column of knitting, which isn't true of the fabric method.
There is another added-yarn method which is much better for picking up when you are planning to knit a layer of fabric, such as a facing. Because I already wrote an entire post about my "beautiful method" I won't repeat that here. If you go look, I'll wait here til you return.
WHICH IS BEST?
Given the amount of stress and distortion of the underlaying fabric, the every-single-row fabric method is probably one to avoid. But, for a quick item which receives no stress or tugging (edging on a neck scarf muffler) the every-other-row method works well enough. In fact, if you do this enough, you get to where you can simply knit right through the edge loop without even bothering to anchor it on a knitting needle first--a true "pick-up-and-knit" trick.However, from a structural--and even from an aesthetic viewpoint, the added yarn method is all-around better: less stress and a prettier back-of-fabric. For the front bands on an adult's cardigan sweater, which get tugged all the time and are always on display, the added-yarn method is really going to be better. For this high-end use, I would not use the fabric method.
RATE OF PICKUP
Now comes the question of the RATE of pickup. The basic problem is that stockinette (the most common knit fabric) isn't square. A typical gauge in worsted weight yarn is 5 st/in, 7 rows/in. Attaching two stockinette fabrics via picking up stitches along a selvedge creates a gauge mismatch between rows and stitches: picked up at a rate of 1:1 (one loop per row) you'd get 7 loops where you need only 5. |
| The blue square and the red square are both knit in stockinette, but they are 90 degrees offset. You can see the mismatch between the row and stitch gauge where they adjoin. The gray arrow shows the direction of the knitting on each square. |
So, how to adjust the rate of pickup? Lots of different opinions about this! Probably the most common trick is to simply skip rows on the pickup process. So, if using the added yarn method for a 5-stitch:7-row pickup ratio, you'd skip drawing up loops in 2 of every 7 rows. This would reduce your live stitches on the needle to the number you need for a 5-st/inch gauge. So, it works, but, IMHO, this isn't the best approach. If you think about it, skipping rows makes for an uneven gappy edge, and the underlying fabric responds by flaring or puckering.
I myself would strive for the most even pick-up possible. After I had live loops, I would then worry about my gauge. An even pickup followed by an increase or decrease has less of a gapping problem because the foundation, at least, evenly tensions the underlying fabric.
With the every-other-row fabric method, I'd be picking up only 3½ stitches per 7 rows, or more realistically--since I can't knit ½ stitches--I'd picking up 7 stitches per 14 rows. This is lower than my target rate of 10 stitches picked up for every 14 rows. (basic algebra--I hated it too--says 10 st picked up for 14 rows is the exact same as 5 stitches picked up for 7 rows.) So, I must INCREASE the number of loops on my needle. In the first row (the one I'm going to knit into the fabric selvedge loops) I'll make this adjustment. Into every group of 7 stitches on my needle, I'll add three, more-or-less evenly spaced loops via the backward loop method (or any other increase you like).
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| The spacing isn't even, I fudged the spacing to be able to illustrate two increases |
With the added yarn method, I'd pick up through every stitch. Obviously, I'll get one loop per row, a 1:1 ratio. At this rate of pickup, I have 7 picked-up stitches on my needle for every seven rows, but I really want to have 5. So, I have to DECREASE the number of stitches on my needle to get to the target pick up rate, by getting rid of 2 stitches per group of 7. On the first row knit right after the loops have been picked up, I'll work the decreases: k2tog's or ssk's are very handy and easy to use, and I'll space the two required decreases more-or-less evenly across each group of 7 stitches.
If knitting BANDS, an even better trick (imho) is to sufficiently change the GAUGE of the knitting you are going to add on the newly-picked-up stitches, so that this new knitting is at the natural pickup gauge of 1:1. With the added-yarn method, this means you need not decrease. With the every-other row fabric method, you would double your number of stitches by k1, m1 in the first row to get to the same 1:1 ratio as added-yarn method (one stitch picked up for each row of selvedge).
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| The band-facing is picked up via the "beautiful" method, which is an added-yarn technique. |
In my experience, tighter gauge + a 1:1 pickup rate yield a very professional result for knitting bands on picked up stitches. See for yourself: here's a photo of a front band-facing tightly knitted at right angles to the main fabric (showing on the purl side) on a 1:1 ratio of picked-up stitches. The knit stitches line up straight across from the purl stitches of the main fabric, even though the knit stitches were picked up and knit at right angles. Bottom line: by going down several needle sizes, the band-facing was knit tight enough to make its stitch gauge identical to the row gauge of the underlying fabric.
I end with an aside on garter stitch which has the unique property of being "square." For this reason, it's a great choice for modular knitting, meaning, squares, triangles or strips attached at various angles to one another. Garter stitch is naturally picked up and knit at a 1:1 ratio without having to perform any tricks at all.
However, as The Provisional Kitchener wrote to say, this is only an APPARENT 1:1 ratio, it is actually a 1:2 ratio because...
"[garter has] got as many stitches as ridges in a square - one ridge being made up of two rows. Which means you pick up one stitch every second row (which is every ridge)."
(Thank you PK, for this good catch!)
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Addendum, 2025:
Pamela D writes: "Hi! You know what works great for picking up the stitches [with the added yarn method]? A Tunisian crochet hook from the same interchangeable set as your knitting needles. When you’re ready to knit just change to the knitting needle. No fussing with separate tools! ..."
(What a great tip. Thanks for writing, Pamela.)
(What a great tip. Thanks for writing, Pamela.)
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--TK
You have been reading TECHknitting on picking up knit stitches along a selvedge, (also spelled selvage and selvedge, go figure!)