TECHknitting

Friday, January 11, 2008

Provisional tail method of 1 x 1 tubular cast on

includes 8 illustrations
click any illustration to enlarge
There are several versions and variations of 1x1 tubular cast on. A popular method is Italian tubular cast on, and that is done over a knitting needle. Another method is like a long tail cast on, and here is an excellent link, with a video. Yet a third method is involves a provisional casting on, then picking up the loop tails, and here is a link to that (scroll to last method).

And yet: even with all this expert, well-thought-out instruction available, and with all these lovely methods and videos, I still (stubbornly, perhaps) prefer my own method best, a method I will call the "provisional tail" tubular cast on (to distinguish it from the "provisional" method of the last link, above).

I find this method fast, easy to make and easy to withdraw the tail from. Like all tubular casting on, this method creates a springy edge--as springy as if an elastic were inserted--and has a pleasant-feeling rounded edge which stands up well to wear and looks well.

Provisional tail tubular cast on is done in THREE PHASES:

The first phase consists of the cast on.
The second phase consists of four foundation rows: two on the front and two on the back.
The third phase consists of the true 1x1 ribbing.

PHASE 1: CAST ON

1. (below) The first step is to knot together the casting-on yarn (the yarn for the garment, blue in the illustration) with a piece of yarn of a contrasting color--the provisional tail yarn (green in the illustration) You should be able to recover the provisional tail yarn, so you can take any ball from your stash--but choose a thin yarn, a sock yarn if possible.

Arrange the yarn on your hands as shown. Your right hand tensions the knotted-together yarn ends AND operates the needle, your left hand anchors the other end of both yarns, keeping them spread apart. (This will conceivably be easier for continental knitters than for English-style.)

The hand set-up is very reminiscent of long tail casting-on, but the action is different. Specifically, with the needle in your right hand, reach the needle's tip UNDER the provisional tail yarn (green) and OVER the garment yarn (blue). This will hook a loop of blue over the needle. Withdraw the needle with the blue loop on it by moving the tip of the needle once again UNDER the contrast yarn. The complete path of the needle is shown by the red arrow. (To see greater detail, click any illustration, and each will enlarge to a close-up.)

2. (below) The result step 1, above, should be a single loop of blue yarn on the right needle, anchored in place by the green provisional tail, as shown below.

To make the next blue loop, simply hook the needle tip UNDER the blue yarn, following the path shown by the red arrow.

3. (below) Repeating steps 1 and 2 will result in blue loops over your needle, alternating as "front side" loops and "back side" loops. In other words, there will be a loop which has both tails stands IN FRONT of the green provisional tail, followed by a loop with has both tail strands BEHIND the green provisional tail. In the illustration below, the first stitch visible at the right is a "front side" loop, the second, a "back side" loop, and so on, alternating.

As you can see, it is necessary to end with a front side loop, as back side loops (the result of step 2, above) are not anchored.

PHASE 2: FOUR FOUNDATION ROWS

At the end of the first three steps (above) you have completed phase 1. In other words, you have competed the cast on phase. We turn now to the second phase, the four foundation rows.

4. (below) When you turn the work around after the cast on, you begin the first of four foundation rows. As you can see, the first stitch on your right needle will be a back side loop (ie: the reverse of the front side loop with which you ended in step 3). It would be my advice to keep this stitch as a selvedge stitch, the foundation for a side seam of chained selvedge stitches. Whatever edge treatment you choose, however, it will be necessary to knit this first loop, in order to anchor it onto your needle. Specifically, to work the foundation row, transfer the needle loaded with loops to your left hand, take an empty needle in your right hand, and knit the first stitch, following the path of the red arrow, as shown. The illustration shows continental knitting with its left-handed yarn feed, but if you are knitting English style (throwing) the action of the right hand and the path of the needle is identical--the only difference is that the yarn would feed off the other hand.

5. (below) a. Knitting the edge stitch will anchor the first loop on your right needle, as shown in illustration 5.

b. Once this selvedge stitch is knit, you will begin to establish a pattern, the first step of which is to knit the front side loops--the "knit" looking loops. To knit, follow the path shown by the red arrow.

ADDENDUM 12-12
I see from the comments that there is a certain lack of communication with steps 5 and 6. In step 5, as illustrated below, the knit-looking stitch is knit as ALL knits are knit, that is, with the yarn held in the BACK--that is the blue yarn with the arrow hooked around it.

6. (below) The second step in the pattern is to SLIP the "purls," the back-side loops. Illustration 6, below, shows that the back side loop is simply being transferred from the left needle to the right needle, while the working yarn is brought to the front, and then held out of the way of the fabric--in the illustration, the yarn is being held below the fabric--the point being that the "purls" are to be slipped, without involving the running yarn in the process. In the transfer, the tip of the right needle inserts PURLWISE into the loop to be slipped, which keeps the transferred back-side loop "open" (untwisted).

ADDENDUM 12-12:
Again, the comments show that steps 5 and 6 are, perhaps, not well communicated. Here's the thing: AFTER you knit the knit-looking stitch (as shown in step 5), you bring the yarn to the FRONT and THEN hold it out of the way while you slip the purl-looking stitch to the right needle. When you let go of the yarn (in other words, after you have slipped the stitch and you're done holding it out of the way) the yarn remains on the front, yes. After step 6, however, you go back and repeat step 5, which, if you'll recall, is a knit sort of stitch. But, you can't knit with the yarn in front of the fabric, so you FIRST have to SWITCH the yarn to the BACK OF THE FABRIC before you can do step 5. As stated, step 5 is then again followed by step 6, so you'd once again switch the yarn forward to perform step 6, then switch back again for step 5, then switch forward again for 6, and so on to the end of the row. If this addendum still doesn't clear things up, someone write to me again in the comments, OK? Thanks!

7. Continue knitting the front-side loops, and slipping the back-side loops until you get to the end of the row. This completes the first foundation row.

8. For the second foundation row, turn the work. Repeat steps 5 and 6. In other words, turn the work as you did in step 4, then knit the front-side loops (which are actually the loops you slipped in the first foundation row) and slip the back-side loops (which are actually the stitches you knit in the first foundation row).

9. When you get to the end of the second foundation row, turn the work. You have now established a pattern where the columns growing out of the front side loops are to be knit, while the columns growing out of the back side loops are to be slipped. Repeat this pattern for an additional two rows, alternating knits and slips. You should have now worked a total of 5 rows: ONE cast on row, TWO rows of knitting the front side loops and slipping the back-side loops, and TWO rows of knitting the stitches in the columns growing out of the front-side loops, and slipping the stitches in the columns growing out of the back-side loops.

PHASE 3: THE TRUE 1X1 RIBBING

10. This step is easy! You now knit the knits and PURL the purls (no more slipping.) Continue until the band is as wide as you want.

11: The last step is to remove the provisional take. Specifically, After you've gone worked a few rows of the 1x1 ribbing, undo the knot holding the provisional tail onto the garment yarn, and pull out the provisional tail.

In the illustration at right, the provisional tail is the maroon yarn. The 3-picture sequence shows the tail in, the tail half drawn out, and the tail all the way out.

We'll end with a little ...

Q & A

Q 1: What is all the slipping about? Why not just purl the back-side loops, instead of slipping them?
A: The photo below shows the very edge of the tubular cast on: white stitches are cast on over a maroon tail. As you can see, what you have actually done is cast on in the middle of a fabric. In other words, the cast-on is a series of stockinette stitches which lay across the provisional tail, and the loops on either side of the provisional tail are actually the "heads" (front-side loops) and "tails" (back-side loops), of those stitches.

When you slip the back loops, you are skipping the tails, and knitting into the heads only. When you turn and work back, you are skipping the heads, and knitting into the tails only. By knitting and slipping, then slipping and knitting, you are knitting the fabric out from the middle (In technical terms, you are creating two rows of "double-knitting.") This fabric is half as wide on each face as single knitting, and twice as thick. Now stockinette is very stretchy, and, this proportion: 1/2 the number of total stitches along a thick edge, widening out to a single thickness fabric after several rows luckily turns out to be the correct proportion for lovely stretchy edge. If you were to purl right away, you would not have an nice, thick edge to stretch, you would have an thin, but wider edge, which would tend to flare and ruffle.

Q 2: Why is this called "tubular" cast on?
A: By casting on in the middle of the fabric, you are actually knitting outwards in both directions from the middle. When you begin the true ribbing--the k 1, p 1 ribbing, you are uniting the two sides of the fabric, with the little scrap of knitting between the two sides thus folded into a mini-tube. (The tube is the part where the provisional tail lies, and when you pull out that tail, you are sliding the tail out of the tube.)

Q 3: Are there any tricks to this to improve the tubular cast on further?
A: YES! As stated in the directions, you ought to cast on over a thin yarn, but in addition, you ought to cast on over a SMALL NEEDLE. I use a needle 3 sizes smaller than the size in which I will knit the garment. I switch to a needle 2 sizes larger after I have knit all four foundation rows--in other words, on the first true row of knit 1, p1 ribbing. By starting with a very small needle, I get a really springy cast-on which draws in as well as if an elastic had been inserted.

Q 4: Why are the directions for back-and-forth knitting? Why no directions for circular knitting?
A: Casting this on by this method on a circular needle will lead to a twisted mess where the cast-on slides over onto the cable. I find it best to make the cast-on and four foundation rows over a straight needle (or the straight portion of a circular needle) and then switch to a knitting in the round. At the end, I use the hanging tail to sew up the little gap at the bottom. (BTW: it is easy to hide the tail after sewing--just run it into the tube at the edge of the ribbing!)

If you are a purist determined to try tubular cast-on in the round, consider casting on over double pointed needles rather than circular needles. When you join, the first foundation round is the same as the first foundation row (steps 5 b and 6) : knit the front-side loops and slip the back-side loops. However, the second round differs. On the second round, you must PURL the previously slipped stitches, while slipping the previously KNIT stitches. Repeat these two rounds once more for a total of four foundation rounds.

Q 5: Does this work for socks?
A: Socks are a subset of the circular knitting referred to in question 4. It makes a lovely edge but it is a little fiddly to get the sock cuff started. Therefore, if I want to make socks by this method, I work the cast on and the first four foundation rows back and forth, then start the circular knitting with the first round of true k1, p1 ribbing.

Q 6: Last question: this post started with three different methods of tubular cast on: Italian, long-tail, and provisional and you have described a fourth method in this post--provisional tail. Why are there so many ways to create tubular casting on?
A: Actually, all four methods create more or less the same final result. I prefer the provisional tail method detailed here because it goes faster than some; because it is more elastic than some; because experience has shown me that 4 foundation rows are just about right, and these foundation rows are easy to work (and count!) by this method; and because the provisional tail is in a contrasting yarn, making it easier to find and pull out. (However, truthfully: having tried them all, all these methods for tubular cast on make a pretty good edge. Probably the most important reason of all that I prefer this method is because it is what I am used to! And did I mention? It is fast.)

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This is part 8 of a series. The other parts of this series are:

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Zig-zag bands

includes 7 illustrations. Click any illustration to enlarge

Knitting better bands the TECHknitting way:
ZIG-ZAG BANDS

Way back in October, as this series on better bands and cuffs started, I told you that garter stitch does not curl. (Neither does seed stitch. Neither does ribbing.) Yet you know from experience garter stitch bands on a stockinette fabric DO curl. You see, it is the stockinette fabric to which the bands are attached which curls. (For more about WHY stockinette curls, click here.) The end result is that the bands on your scarf, sweater or afghan are prone to flipping AND curling.

So far in this series, many cures have been recommended: rolled edges, or seaming the garment or steam blocking and/or ironing. Today, yet another recommended cure: zig-zag bands.

The fact is, that bands want to curl along the edge where the bands meet the stockinette. If you break up the line, you'll have less curling. The same is true about flipping: If you break up the line where the band meets the stockinette fabric, you'll be less likely to have flipping.

As you can see, the scarf in the photo above is a stockinette stitch scarf with a garter stitch border all around. Yet, the scarf does not curl, and the borders do not flip, and here is why:

The rolled stockinette edge along the bottom of the garter stitch horizontal (bottom) band adds stability--by curling up so markedly, the rolled edge counteracts the inward curl of the stockinette fabric in the middle of the scarf.
Zig-zag bands both vertical and horizontal, where the garter stitch meets the stockinette stitch. By interlacing areas of garter stitch and stockinette, the "fault line," for flipping/curling is eliminated
A slipped selvedge helps prevent future ruffling along the outside vertical edges of the garter stitch border. (Click here for more info about slipped selvedges.)
Also, the scarf has been steam blocked.

Due to these four tricks, the scarf photographed above does not curl very much, and nor does it flip. Below is a close up of the corner, showing details of the curled bottom edge knitted in stockinette which rolls up below the garter stitch part of the bottom band, a bit of the zig zag design in the garter stitch part of the bottom band and a bit of the the zig zag side edge.

One more close-up for good measure:

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Here are two diagrams showing how to make these non-curling bands. The diagrams show garter stitch, but you can readily adapt these for seed stitch.

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One last note: The zig-zags have to be in proportion to the amount of stockinette stitch in order to provide a non-flipping edge. An empirical rule of thumb seems to be that ON A GARMENT WITH TWO EXPOSED EDGES (SCARF, AFGHAN) the peaks have to extend approximately 10-15% of the way into the stockinette along each edge you want to prevent from rolling, in order to prevent flipping. So, in a a 250 stitch afghan knit all in one piece, for example, that would be a side zig-zag which protruded 25 to 38 stitches into the stockinette at the tip of each peak, along both vertical edges. The bottom edges also have to have zig-zags with peaks just as high as the side zig-zags in order to prevent flipping. Obviously, the wider/higher you make the tip of the peaks, the less likely is flipping, but the minimum seems to be about a 10-15% protrusion. Of course, that means that you have to adapt the above two diagrams to the width of your garment.

FOR THE FRONT BANDS OF A CARDIGAN (one exposed edge), a rule of thumb seems to be that peaks extending about 1.5 or 2 inches into the stockinette will do the trick, and this is true regardless of gauge or yarn weight.

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This is part 7 of a series. The other posts are:

--TECHknitter
(You have been reading TECHknitting on: zig-zag bands)

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Your steam iron: a mighty weapon in the fight against curling and flipping

Dear Reader:
Today TECHknitting has a Christmas present for you--a maybe new use for an electrical appliance you probably already own: your steam iron. The bulk of this post is about the uses of a steam iron in improving your knitting, and particularly in making hems and bands behave. But before we plunge into all that, I thought to take a brief look at the iron itself.

Steam irons, 101

Steam is vapor from boiled water. In order to make steam, your iron boils water inside a little chamber. Water generally contains minerals. Sometimes, the mineral load of the water will cause problems. If you always use the same pot or kettle to boil water, you already know whether your particular water has troublesome amounts of minerals by the presence or absence of mineral deposits. If your kettle stays clean regardless of how much water you boil in it, you have no worries. But if your kettle is mineral-encrusted, then so will the inside of your iron be.

Now, a new iron will not give you trouble, even if you put in high-mineral-content water. This is because when water turns to steam, it leaves behind its mineral load. But as the inside of the iron's heating chamber becomes coated with minerals, the steam channels get clogged, and the iron starts spitting bits and flakes. Where I live, the water is hard from dissolved limestone, and tap water in a steam iron = little bits of whitish powder spraying out with the steam. In other areas, more staining minerals might be in the tap water: iron (the metal) dissolved in water would cause your iron (the appliance) to stain your clothing in nasty gray or brown splotches. This might be OK on some old underwear but would be disaster on your handknits. (And let's get real, who irons underwear nowadays, anyway?)

Therefore, if you have an new steam iron, keep it new by topping it up only with distilled water--a gallon from the supermarket will last a LONG time in most households. If you are reading this post at 2 A.M. and are struck with a sudden yen to start steam ironing, boiled COOLED water is a near substitute. Boil the water, let it cool in the pot, and pour the cooled water off, leaving the minerals behind. DO NOT USE BOILING WATER--first of all, you will hurt yourself, second, you might wreck the plastic parts of the iron, and third, the water does not shed the minerals until it cools.

If your iron is old, you should also use distilled (or boiled, cooled) water. Fill the iron with fresh water and go steam-iron some old towels on the highest heat setting and the highest steam setting. Run at least three or four refills of water through the iron (this won't take that long--steam irons have tiny reservoirs). This will get the worst of the minerals out. If the iron seems to be getting clean, you might trust it on your woollies, but if you have any doubt, it would be prudent to use a pressing cloth or a flour-sack kitchen towel between the iron and the woollies. (This is also a good idea to prevent scorching, as discussed further, below.)

Another problem with irons is gooky sticky stuff melted onto their sole plates. This arises from ironing synthetics on a high setting: they melt. There are various commercial remedies, and these work well. The old fashioned remedy, as practiced by my grandmother was this: after every round of ironing, grandma would stand the iron on a old rag, and rub an old candle end on the sole plate. (She used white paraffin "household candles" of course, not colored candles or tapers.) The melting wax dissolved any sticky, ironed-on gook, and she'd clean the excess by ironing it off onto the old rag. However, she did this in front of an open window (it smokes) with the iron unplugged, and on a distinctly low-tech iron--no teflon plate or anything like that. Also, the sole plate of her iron covered the bottom of the iron--there was no offset between the sole plate and the heel of the iron for the wax to drip off onto. Nowadays, you are probably better off with the commercial remedies. If you do resort to candle ends for spot cleaning in a particularly tough case, do it CAREFULLY--hot wax is a BURN hazard. It is also a FIRE hazard as are old waxy rags. And of course, with any remedy, home made or commercial, be sure to iron all the residue off onto rags before you would dream of letting that iron near your precious knits.

Well, if you've got the iron in good shape, let's see what problem we want to fix with it...

GETTING THE CURL OUT (or at least taming it)

Stockinette curls. If you want to know more about why, click here. The very worst, the very most annoying curl of all comes when a flat object (scarf, afghan) is edged with a non-curling fabric--an edging which is SUPPOSED to stop the problem. Up flip the edges, or down they curl, or maybe both. The one thing they don't do is lay flat. Almost as annoying is the curl and flip of sweater hems, bands and cuffs.

Now, if you've been following along for the last several posts, you'll know that part of the secret of making non-curling knitwear is by improving your cuffs and bands. The big secret is moving the edge of the fabric away from the edge of the garment by doubling back your bands and cuffs, letting them roll, or hemming them, then knitting them shut or sewing them shut. However, most patterns today do not call for such bands and cuffs. Typically, a garment pattern will call for a band of a non-curling fabric to be knitted onto a stockinette fabric, garter stitch bands on a scarf, say.

The chain of logic behind non-curling stitch bands is this: the garment designer notices, correctly, that stockinette stitch curls like mad, but that garter stitch (seed stitch, ribbing etc.) does not curl or flip. "Ah ha!" says the designer, "I will put a garter stitch band on this stockinette item I am designing, and then the stockinette fabric will be tamed, and the garment edge will not flip or curl."

This is a logical conclusion, and, in fact, garment edge itself will not curl up. However, that does not mean that the GARMENT will not curl up. As disappointed knitters in knitting forums all over the internet can testify, the most likely result of a garter stitch band on a stockinette stitch garment is that the bands either flip up, or the whole garment continues to curl, taking the "non curling edge" right along with it.

"How can I block the curl out of my scarf?" has to be one of the most frequently asked questions on every knitting forum out there, followed by "how can I get the front bands of my cardigan to lay flat?" Of course, the fact that the bands are curling and flipping has as much (or more) to do with the stockinette fabric to which the garter stitch bands have been attached, than with the bands themselves. However, most knitters think of curling and flipping bands as a band problem, so that's why this issue is included as part of a series on bands and cuffs.

One last note before we plunge in: TODAY's post lays out a method for dealing with already existing curled edges, like the scarf or cardigan bands in the above example. The NEXT post will show how to knit edges which are less likely to want to curl in the first place.

Helpers in the fight against curling:
CHEMICALS, BLOCKING and STEAM IRONING

Although the idea of using these methods on one's hand knitting may seem beyond strange, chemicals, blocking and ironing are all actually very common knitwear treatments, albeit commercial knitwear. Think about it: don't you wonder why machine-made items of stockinette consent to lay flat, while hand knits want to curl so badly? The answer is partially because machine-made knits are generally knit from finer yarn than handknits, and so the thinner yarn from which they are made can exert less curling force. However, that is not the whole answer.

In fact, machine-made knits have the same tendencies to curl as hand knits, but industrial processes overcome this tendency. In other words, machine-knit fabrics have chemicals applied to relax them, or have the bejabbers stretched out of them or steam ironed out of them, or all three. Hand knitters faced with a wildly curling scarf, or brazenly flipping cardigan bands will be able to persuade these ill-behaved hooligans to better manners with a page out of the commercial knitter's playbook.

A good soaking spray with fabric relaxer is a good start. Fabric relaxer (or wrinkle remover) is a relatively benign substance sold under various trade names. Evidently the relaxer is essentially a wetter, which lets moisture into the fabric fibers, causing them to swell a bit, and de-kink.

Once damped with fabric relaxer, the item can be further wetted with a spray bottle of water, or even a quick trip to the sink for a brief soak, and this treatment can be followed by some serious wet-blocking. When I say "serious," I mean blocking to the edge of the capacity of your blocking board to hold the fabric outstetched, and to the edge of the capacity of your blocking pins or wires to hold without deforming.

Are you surprised by this advice? Many are. And yet, this sort of extreme blocking is not new. Hand production knitters of the past have traditionally employed extreme blocking. Those picturesque sweater forms in the old photos of the Shetland Islands had a very serious purpose, and couture knitting today also employs these techniques.

Of course, extreme blocking like this is going to make the fabric grow. Commercial knitwear factors this in, but unless you first blocked and stretched your swatch and then knit to the blocked dimensions, you probably have not--blocking and stretching swatches is not part of most hand-knitters' repertoire. For this reason, extreme blocking by hand knitters is best reserved for items where size is NOT important such as scarves and lap robes.

This brings us to the main alternative. For items where fit IS important, the steam iron is the most mighty weapon against curling bands, or against a garment which is curling and taking the band.

Now, a steam iron in the hand of a knitter is capable of producing three things:

steam,
heat, and
pressure.

Each of these factors has the capacity to alter hand knit fabric, sometimes fatally, so the first rule of using the steam iron on your woollies is BE CAREFUL. Increase these factors one by one, each in tiny baby steps. In other words, DON'T start with high steam, high heat and lots of force when you come to improve your knitting with the steam iron.

STEAM

On wool and acrylic, the steam has as nearly as much effect as the pressing, so be sure that the STEAM setting on your iron is set on "high" right from the start. It may be that steam with hardly any pressure at all will do the trick. This is called steam blocking, and if it works, you lucky thing, then you need never actually iron at all. In other words, on acrylic and wool, the ideal is to start with a steaming, billowing iron held just above the fabric, and only if this does not work, would you next progress to light dabs, and only then to pressure.

If your item is silk, bamboo, cotton--anything but acrylic or wool--do NOT start with billowing steam. Instead, start with the absolutely lowest steam AND the lowest heat AND the least pressure. Increase the steam in the same manner as you increase the heat and the pressure: in tiny increments.

HEAT

Heat is a powerful tool on fabrics. Most obviously, a too-high heat can burn your precious hand knits. Even at non-burning temperatures, Heat can "set" woolen fibers--kink them permanently. It can melt acrylics, and can change the very composition of these and other fibers. Therefore, be careful. If the garment is woolen, be careful of scorching--maybe use a pressing cloth or flour sack kitchen towel between the garment and the iron. If your item is acrylic (or another synthetic) use the cloth or towel PLUS be careful of melting--increase the heat by VERY slow degrees, and realize that non-wool, non-acrylic fibers are generally even less resistant to heat, so SLOW is the watchword for increasing the heat.

PRESSURE

All knitting three-dimensional, so ironing has the capability if flattening it. When ironing on stockinette garment with garter stitch bands, remember that the garter stitch itself has no tendency to flip. It is the stockinette which presents the problem. Luckily, the stockinette is far flatter than the garter stitch, and less likely to show the effects of ironing. Keep the iron on the stockinette part of the fabric, and the greater the pressure you are exerting, the more careful you must be of this.

COMBINATION OF ELEMENTS

For wool and acrylic, start with a fully steaming iron. Progress in pressure and heat carefully. For other fabrics, start with the bare minimum of steam, and progress in steam pressure and heat carefully, increasing each in tiny baby steps. It MIGHT be that you have the stubbornest garment this side of China, and you MIGHT wind up pressing your stubborn garment with all your force at the highest heat. However, although this might be the place that you end, this is CERTAINLY NOT the place to start.

Steam ironing is a big gun--it certainly has the power to persuade curling stockinette to mend its ways. However, as with all things, there is a trade-off. Although steam ironing will certainly help with curling bands, the price is a rather listless fabric. I knew a production hand- and machine-knitter who HEAVILY ironed all her garments--and she made many, many garments over the years that I knew her. All those many garments did her bidding. They lay flat, yessiree, no question: never a curl, never a flip, no misbehavior at all, and the bands got up to no tricks. However, all those garments were oddly limp, with none of the spring normally associated with knit garments. Therefore, although steam ironing unquestionably works (especially when combined with fabric relaxer) this isn't a method to use if you can avoid it. Better, more elegant, would be to knit the garment with a band which doesn't want to curl or flip in the first place (or at least--doesn't want to curl and flip as much), which is the topic of the next post.

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This post is part 6 of a series. The other posts are:

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Sewing shut hems and facings (part 5 of better cuffs and bands).

includes 4 illustrations--click any illustration to enlarge
Today's post is about sewing shut a hem or facing: it is part 5 of the series "better cuffs and bands."

After the last post in this series (about knitting shut hems and facings) you may wonder why, if it is possible to KNIT shut a hem, a knitter would want to SEW shut a hem. Here are three reasons--reasons I believe are good enough to convince even knitters to hunt out a large-eyed, sharp-pointed sewing needle and get sewing.

First, and most obviously, it is not always possible to knit shut a hem. Knitting shut a hem only works for items started on the same edge as the hem (a bottom hem on a bottom-up sweater, a top hem on a top-down sock). Knitting shut a hem on the cast-OFF edge isn't very feasible.

Second, you can't knit shut a hem facing made of a different color. If you are asking why you would WANT to knit a hem facing of a different color, here are two reasons:

A. plain old good looks. Have a look at the top of the man's sock in the photo below. From the outside, this is a practical black sock, suitable for business wear. But on the inside, it features a flaming red hem facing which makes its wearer smile when dressing.

B. Another reason why a hem facing might be a different color than the main body of the garment is when you reduce bulk by knitting the hem facing of a thinner yarn. The birthday sweater (click HERE) from the last post had a thinner hem facing than the outside of the hem, and so do the socks, above--the red of the hem facing is a thinner sock yarn than the black of the sock body. It would be unusual to find a perfect color match between a thinner yarn and a thicker one, so this bulk reduction trick is often going to land you with a hem facing of a different color.

If you are wondering WHY a hem of a different color cannot be knitted shut, I believe this illustration says it all.

This is a close-up of a knitted shut hem. At the black arrow, you will see that knitting shut a hem draws a little "collar" of the hem stitch (hem made in red) to the fabric surface (knitted in green). In the illustration, the red of the hem facing shows as a little collar around by each green stitch where the green and red come together in the blue "knit-together row." The knit-together row is illustrated in blue so you could see it easily, but even if the knit-together row were green, like the rest of the garment front, that little red collar of the red hem facing would still show around the base of every stitch in that row--not a nice look. Moral of the story: You cannot successfully knit shut a hem when the hem is knit in a different color than the garment.

The third reason you might want to sew shut a hem or facing instead of knitting it shut is the most important, imho. You see, a sewn hem is FAR LESS LIKELY TO FLIP than a knitted-shut one. This is a BIG consideration, as many garments suffer from hem, band, or cuff flip. Cardigans with flipping front bands, and sweaters with flipping bottom bands are one of the banes of the knitter's existence, yet a sewn shut band will not flip with anything approaching the abandon of a knitted shut band.

If I have convinced you of the virtues of a sewn band or hem facing, here is how to do it:

Begin the hem by casting on via the long-tail method.
Knit the hem. You may use the same yarn as you will use for the body of the garment, OR you may use a thinner yarn for bulk reduction. If using a thinner yarn, knit the facing loosely on the same number of stitches as you will knit the garment OR on a larger number of stitches with a smaller needle, with the plan to get rid of the extra stitches before you turn the hem.
If using the garment yarn for the hem facing, knit the hem as deep as you would like it, then purl one row. For a slight refinement, you may cast on and knit the hem on slightly fewer stitches (5% or so) than the garment, increasing to the necessary number of stitches TWO rows before the purl row.
If using thinner yarn for the hem facing, switch to the garment yarn when you are one or two rows shy of the ultimate depth you desire, work a row or two in the garment yarn, then purl one row. If you are using knitting the hem facing on MORE stitches, and a SMALLER needle than the garment, the row to get rid of all the extra stitches is the row where you switch to the garment yarn.
The reason to purl one row is to make a nice fold, as seen here.
After the purl row, you will be knitting the first row of the garment--that part which is on the FRONT of the hem. You may knit this portion in ribbing, as is traditional, OR you may knit it in stockinette--because you are going to sew the hem facing to the back of the garment, this will prevent rolling, regardless of which stitch pattern you use.

On the illustration below, the knitting has been finished. The hem (white) has been folded up over the back face of the garment fabric (purple). As you can see, the "knit" side of the hem shows, while the "purl" side of the garment fabric shows. Thread a sharp pointed needle with a thin yarn (in the picture, green). In real life, of course, you would not use a green yarn to sew up a white hem to a purple garment, you would use a sewing yarn as close as possible to the color of the garment face--the sewing thread is green in order that it shows in the illustration. In other words, if I were sewing this hem shut in real life, I would do it with a purple yarn. As far as that goes, I also would probably have made a purple hem to go with my purple garment, rather than a white hem, but in illustrations, a white hem is a lot easier to see than a purple hem facing sewn with purple yarn onto a purple garment.

As you can see on this illustration (above) the action of sewing is as follows: with the sewing needle, reach under one arm of the long tail casting-on at the very edge of the hem, then pierce (skim) through the top of a purl "bump" on the target row--the row TO which you are sewing the hem. Draw the needle through, and repeat this action, adjusting the tension of the green yarn as necessary. Be gentle in your adjustment, you want to avoid any puckering on the outside. As you can see, it isn't difficult!

The photo on the left side of the illustration below shows the back of a sewn hem "in the wool." The hem is made of the same yarn as the garment face, but sewn shut with dark yarn, so you can see the path of the sewing. The right photo of the illustration below shows the front of this same hem. As you can see, even though this swatch is stockinette, the sewn hem has tamed the dreaded "stockinette roll," as well as the feared "hem flip." You can also see that the sewing does not show on the outside--this is the front of the same swatch on which the hem is sewn shut in dark yarn.

One final point: Hems combat "hem flip" best when the hem facing is SLIGHTLY shorter than the outside of the hem AND when the hem is sewn shut very slightly (1 row) ABOVE any ribbing or garter stitch on the outside of the hem.

* * *

This post is part 5 of a series. The other posts are:

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Negative ease and positive ease

Two phrases much in the air on internet knitting discussions are "positive ease" and "negative ease." Do you wonder what these mean? You are not alone.

Ease is the amount of extra room built into a garment which allows the garment to slide over your skin as you move--it is the extra bit of room which stops your shirt from riding up as you lift your arm and stops your pants from tearing when you do something athletic. When the garment is larger than the person wearing it, the garment is said to have "POSITIVE" ease.

Logically, you would think that garments made from woven cloth need more ease than knitted garments, because woven cloth does not stretch as readily as knitted cloth does. This is true, but all ingenuity of the dressmaker's art is bent on narrowing the difference: darts, bust shaping, plackets, zippers, gores and slits are all devices which allow woven cloth to fit the body closely without tearing or ripping. Yet with all their tricks, the best that the dressmakers can do is create garments with NO ease: gowns so close-fitting that the wearer has to be sewn into them.

Knitters can go dressmakers one better, and make garments SMALLER than the person wearing them, garments with NEGATIVE ease. A knitted gown can be constructed which fits so tightly as to leave no anatomical feature unseen, and yet require no darts, slits or sewing to get into. (This is because knitting is stretchy, having a good deal of "reserve" yarn built into the fabric: for more info, click HERE.) When the garment is smaller than the person wearing it, the garment is said to have negative ease. You need not go as far as exotic gowns to use the concept of negative ease in knitting: hats are an every-day example of NEGATIVE ease: made SMALLER than heads, hats cling because they have to stretch to fit.

Despite the fact that knitting stretches, however, knitters are not restricted to garments with negative ease. The "boyfriend sweater" is a familiar example of POSITIVE ease: made BIGGER than the wearer, it should fit as if the wearer had borrowed the garment from a big fellow--her boyfriend. (Or maybe his boyfriend????)

It is not always the case that a garment with negative ease is better suited to flattering its wearer's anatomy than a garment with positive ease. A garment with positive ease is said to "drape" and this means that the excess fabric which creates the ease hangs in a potentially very flattering manner off the wearer's body. A shawl worn by a stately woman is a lovely example of a garment which flatters the figure perhaps better than a garment with negative ease could do. Garments with negative ease, of course, do not have any drape, they cling, rather than hang.

Knitted garments go in fads about ease, as do all other fashions. The "sweater girls" of the 1940's certainly wore garments with negative ease, and the fashion is now embraced as the most modern trend, spawning a raft of popular books. No doubt, the pendulum will swing back shortly, and close fitting garments will be considered SO last year, while baggy sweaters with lots of positive ease will be the most modern trend--indeed, the trend seems to have started already.

Ease and drape are not only about fashion, however, they are also concepts important to utility garments. Hats have already been mentioned, and hats with negative ease are indeed a familiar concept to knitters. Most socks are made with negative ease, and most cuffs, whether sweater cuffs or mitten cuffs, have negative ease.

For more information about ease and fashion (and the related concept of gauge) click HERE.

--TECHknitter
(You have been reading TECHknitting on "Negative ease and positive ease")

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Knitting shut hems and facings (part 4 of "knitting better bands")

There are two ways of tacking down a folded-over band. One way is easily done with knitting needles--today's post. The other way (cue scary music!) requires a sewing needle--that's the next post.

The knitting needle method of
knitting shut doubled-over
hems (and facings)

The knitting needle method of knitting shut hems is similar to a 3-needle bind off. The stitches in the first row of the hem or facing are knitted together with the stitches in the last row of the hem or facing.

Here's the TECHknitting method for this trick in 4 illustrated drawings:

1. (below) LOOSELY cast on the hem using the long tail method or the long tail method for LOTS of stitches (casting on is shown in red, below). Work the ribbing (shown in green, below) to TWICE the desired height. Arrange to finish your hem so that the long tail cast left over from the casting-on is on the left, and the running yarn (shown in blue, below) is on the right, as shown below.

2. (below) The live loops of the hem are on the purple needle. Pick up the right arm of each bottom loop onto a different needle, as shown in light blue, below. If the cast-on edge is a bit tight, use a smaller needle to catch these bottom loops. (Although this is illustrated on a ribbing hem, this also works on a stockinette hem, a seed stitch hem or any other stitch, and the action is the same--you pick up the same loop of the long tail cast on, and do everything else the same, too.)

3. (below) Hold the cast-on stitches on their light blue needle at the inside "behind" the live stitches on their purple needle. As you can see, the cast-on stitches on their light blue needle present LEFT arm forward when they are held inside-out behind the live stitches on the purple needle. Use a third needle (the golden needle in the illustration below) to knit together each live ribbing stitch with the cast on stitch held behind it, as shown below.

4. (below) The finished product: the "knitting together" row is shown in blue, the cast-on stitches which are caught into the back of the hem facing (the "inside" of the hem) are shown in red, the balance of the fabric in green. Of course, in real life, the row of live stitches in front and the cast row behind would be the same color, and the cast-on row would therefore not show on the front of the fabric, unlike the red cast-on stitches in the illustration below.

* * *

The finished product "in the wool" is shown in the photo at right.

By knitting the top and bottom of each column of ribbing together in this manner, the hem is fastened down in a folded-over manner, and no sewing is required.

However, as slick as it is, this "knitting needle method" of shutting hems and facings has a limitation.

This knitting-together method has an incurable tendency to FLIP, and this is true regardless of whether the band is in stockinette, ribbing (foldover ribbed band) or any other fabric. Therefore this trick is best on narrow tubes (socks, sleeves) where the shape of the garment counteracts the flipping. You can try this on a hat, too, but it works best with deeper, longer hats--you may get flipping on a shallow beanie-type hat. The long runs and loose shapes of a bottom band or a front band will allow a knit-shut band to get up to the kind of shenanigans it prefers: flipping straight over. (On these longer runs, the more successful method is the sewing method, the subject of the next post.)

* * *

We'll end this post with a Q and A:

Q: Why do you use a long tail cast on, instead of a provisional cast on for this trick?
A: Many knitters (most knitters, probably) DO use a provisional cast on, as follows: Remove the provisional cast on and put the live loops on the second needle (the light blue needle in the above diagrams). Holding the live loops at the back of the hem, use a third needle (the golden needle in the above diagrams) to work together a stitch from the front of the fabric (on purple needle in above diagrams) with a live loop from the back of the fabric, using the same method as shown above for long tail.
NOW: despite the fact that most knitters DO use a provisional cast on for this trick, the reason I DON'T is that the live loops created by the provisional method have a nasty tendency to run out.
To explain further: Near the end of the row, the needles holding the stitches, especially the rear needle (light blue) want to slide out because there are very few stitches left to hold them in. When the inevitable happens, and the rear needle slides out with only a few stitches to go, I don't have to worry: because my rear stitches are secured by the long tail cast-on, when those rear stitches come off the needle, they can't run because (ta da!) they aren't live stitches.

Q: What about the fold line? Are there any tricks for that?
A: Certainly there are: You can knit a simple fold-over hem as in the 4 opening drawings of this post. OR, you can knit a hem facing of stockinette, then create a single row of purl and then knit the outside of the hem--in a texture pattern if you like. The row of purl makes a lovely sharp edge for folding. The gray ladies' sock in the photo at left shows a stockinette hem facing, a purled edge row, and a ribbed outside of the hem. (For an additional image of a purl fold row, click here.)

Q: Any other tricks with a hem?
A: You bet! A knitted hem is a tube--and you can run a drawstring or an elastic through it. Socks made with an elastic garter in the hem will simply not fall down--nearly all my socks are made this way--including the one in the previous illustration. Here is an entire post about elastic in socks.

Another trick: As shown on this commercially knitted sweater, right, you can run an elastic drawstring through the hem--a good idea for a heavy outdoor sweater to be used in sporting or working conditions--shown is a ski sweater.

Next post: SEWING down the hem on the inside.

--TECHknitter

PS: Addendum October 2014: Since this post was written, some valuable comments have been left by readers...maybe take a look?
You have been reading TECHknitting on knitting shut hems.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Hems and facings: part 3 of "better bands and cuffs"

Includes 9 illustrations
Q. Why do the edges of cuffs and bands want to stretch out?
A. In this series on improving wonky bands and cuffs, the first two posts have established that stretched out bands and cuffs are NOT YOUR FAULT--the edge of any knitted FABRIC wants to stretch out. Click here or here for more information about the whys and wherefores of stretched-out edges.

Q. If the fabric edge wants to stretch, how can I stop it?
A. Short answer: you can't. Because the stitches at the edge of the fabric are unsupported, the stretching is structural. Your best bet is to accept this property of knitting, and work with it: avoid putting the edge of the knitted FABRIC at the edge of your knitted GARMENT. (A note to perfectionists: This series will cover the tubular cast-off, which is something of an exception to this rule. But for now, the short answer is to separate the fabric edge from the garment edge. )

Q. The previous post showed a rolled stockinette edging. Is that always the best solution?
A. Although a rolled edging may be the easiest way to achieve separate the garment edge from the fabric edge, a rolled edge is not useful in every garment, or in every fiber, or at every edge.

Some knitters find the rolled edge too informal or too bulky. Some knitters just plain do not like it.

Also, a rolled edging may suffer from one structural defect of its own: In certain fibers, when used as a bottom edging of a long sweater, it MAY become squashed from sitting on it, so that the rolled edging in the back looks flatter that that in the front.Usually, this flattening is cured by washing and reblocking--stockinette's tendency to curl is simply one of the strongest forces in all of knitting. Yet, after constant wear in such "slippery" fibers as cotton, linen, or synthetics, a rolled edge on a hip-length garment may become permanently flattened around the seat.

Q. Is there another way to separate the fabric edge from the garment edge?
A. Yes. If a rolled edge will not work for you, the next easiest solution is HEMS AND FACINGS. With a hem or a facing, the edge of the FABRIC is held inside the garment--the cast on (or off) edge is the inside edge of the hem or facing, and knitting from several rows inside the fabric edge is folded over to make the garment edge.

Q. What is the difference between a hem and a facing?
A. In woven cloth, a hem is usually a self-facing (made from the same material as the garment, but folded over and tacked down) whereas a facing is usually, but not always, made from a different fabric sewn to the garment fabric at the fold-edge of the garment. In knitting, however, there is no real structural difference between a hem and a facing--they are both backings to bands of various sorts (bottom bands, cuffs, front bands). However, a hem is usually at the bottom edge of a garment (bottom hem, cuff hem) and usually CANNOT be seen while the garment is in normal wear. By contrast, a facing is usually at the front edge of a cardigan or sometimes at the neck (front band facing, button band facing, neck facing), and MAY be seen during normal wear.

Q. I thought that hems were always tacked (sewn) down, while facings sometimes are sewn down, but more often are left loose.
A. This is correct for woven garments, where front band facings typically are not attached along their long edges. In fact, this is even true for knitted garments with woven facings.
Below is a drawing showing an inside view of a famous-maker Norwegian sweater--a commercially knitted garment. This garment has a woven fabric facing for the neck and zipper. The neck facing IS tacked down, but the neck opening facing, around the zipper, is NOT tacked down, it is loose along both long edges, being tacked down only at the collar and the bottom of the zipper placket.

However, while a woven facing may not be tacked down, a knitted facing almost always is. (Actually, I've never seen a loose knitted facing, but as soon as I assert that ALL knitted facings are tacked down, someone will e-mail an example to the contrary!) Due to knitting's tendency to curl, a stockinette facing would curl up to become an rolled edging if it were not fastened down, while a non-curling facing (garter stitch, seed stitch) would prove too bulky for most situations. Bottom line: while woven facings may not be tacked down, knitted facings almost always are.

Q. Start at the beginning: what's the easiest kind of hem or facing?
A. The very easiest band backing (whether hem or facing) is a folded-over ribbing band. The ribbing is simply knitted twice as long as wanted, then folded over and tacked down on the inside of the garment. There is no fold mark at the halfway point--the band simply rolls over, presenting a broad, fat edge. Like the rolled stockinette edge, this broad fold-over edge can really take the abuse. Below is a photo of the cuffs and bottom bands of a little sweater jacket that's been through several kids, and is ready for more.

This kind of band is not restricted to ribbing--there are other fabrics well suited to "life on the edge," and these (seed, moss, garter) can be used for a doubled over band also (although ribbing works best, IMHO).

Q. A rolled over ribbing band seems awfully thick. Is there any way to reduce the bulk, but still have a ribbed band at the edge of my garment?
A. Yes. Instead of doubling the entire band, you can knit a few round of plain stockinette, then fold this little strip over and tack it down. After this short edging of doubled fabric, the rest of the ribbing is knit in a single thickness. The idea is very similar to a rolled stockinette edging, but instead of the rolled edging being left loose, it is tacked down. Below is a close-up of a mitten cuff made this way.

It also seems to me that this, or something like this, was a traditional method of starting fisherman sweaters. Below is a closeup (detail) of a photo found on page 21 of Gladys Thompson's masterwork "Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys & Arans (Dover Books, NY, 1971). The bands on this very old (1920's) sweater are doubled, perhaps by this method, or perhaps by simply using two yarns to cast on the edges, as was done with other guernseys pictured in the Thompson book.

The notes with the guernsey photo state that the garment was 40 years old when the photo was taken (1955) and that its owner wore the garment in the British Navy during WWII, when the garment would already have been over 20 years old! I believe that both of the above photos shows why it really pays to strengthen the edges of your bands.

Q. Are there other kinds of hems besides ribbed ones?
You bet here are, lots of them! Since hems are not a new idea, many traditional hems have developed--look in a good fabric dictionary book, and you'll see examples. Of the classics, a picot hem has to be one of the prettiest and daintiest. The method is simplicity itself: for bottom-up sweaters, cast on and knit the hem. After the inside of the hem is as long as you want it, on the"right" (knit) side of the fabric, work a row of *k2tog, yo." For top-down garments, reverse the procedure. A few rows or rounds of plain knitting past the yo row, you will see that the fabric wants to fold on the line of yo's, and the prettiest little lacy edging will show at the fold. (see photo below).

Another important kind of hem is the stockinette hem folded on a reverse stockinette (purl) fold-line. (addendum, February 2011: more about folds) This is a classic hem because it works like a dream--for various esoteric structural reasons, stockinette WANTS to flip right up and fold at a line of purling--it is a force of knitting as strong as the desire of stockinette to curl and stay curled. This classic stockinette hem takes advantage of this property, which looks very well (see photo below).

BTW: Here is a TRICK to avoid a big "bump" at the end of the fold (purl) round in circular knitting. When you get to to end of the purl round, slip the first purl stitch which you created at the beginning of the round . That's right, simply slip that first purl stitch from your left needle to your right needle, without knitting it. Magic! The bump will never appear and the beginning of the round will not show.

This classic foldover stockinette hem is made by working a length of stockinette as long as you want the inside of the hem or facing to be, working a purl row on the face (knit side) of the fabric, and then continuing in plain stockinette. The short part of the fabric before the line of purl is the hem or facing, and is tacked down on the inside. A variation is to knit the inside portion of the hem in a thinner yarn than the outside (garment) yarn, and this reduces the bulk of the hem considerably. This very common in commercially made garments, but is a trick which can also be used by hand knitters (see photos below).

Q. You talk about "tacking down" the folded over hem or facing. How is that done?
A: Tune in for the next post--this one is getting W*A*Y too long.

PS: A BIG thanks to MARTHA in the comments--who caught a typo in the directions for the picot edge (now corrected).

* * *

This post is part 3 of a series. The other posts are:

--TECHknitter
You have been reading TECHknitting on: "hems and facings for knitted garments."

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Why bands and cuffs are wonky, and what to do about it (part 2 of "knitting better bands")

Includes 7 illustrations
The previous installment of "knitting better bands" showed that stitches along the edges of garments, stitches such as Wanda and Lon, stretch out because they have a lack of family support. Instead of being supported by 8 adjacent stitches as are stitches in the middle of a fabric like Norm, edge stitches are supported by only 5 stitches. In other words, edge stitches have a completely exposed edge along which there are no stabilizing stitches.

Without stabilizing stitches, edge stitches want to S-T-R-E-T-C-H out, and this is true no matter what KIND of stitches these are--ribbing, garter, seed stitch--the edge stitches will stretch regardless. So, when the edge of the FABRIC is the edge of the GARMENT, the garment edges--bands, cuffs--will be wonky and stretched out. The good news is that this is a structural problem: it's NOT YOU! No! It's the structure of the fabric edge to WANT to stretch and wonk-ify, and this is an unavoidable, built-in characteristic.

Now this problem is nothing new to knitting, and there are two solutions. The first solution is the most common: This is the oft-repeated advice to carefully adjust the amount of yarn IN the edge stitches. In other words, this is the "Goldilocks" solution: cast on (or off) your edge stitches "just right," not too tight and not too loose.

The obvious problem with this approach is that it can take years of experience to find that happy medium. Expert knitters can do this, but beginning and even intermediate knitters often RUIN their otherwise lovely garments trying to follow this advice.

When the error is NOT ENOUGH yarn supplied to the edge stitches, the result is a TOO TIGHT band. Who has not seen a lovely sock, the cuff of which is biting painfully into the flesh of its proud creator? Who has not seen a lovingly hand knit sweater with a neck cast off so tight as to be a nose scraper when dressing or undressing?

When the error is TOO MUCH yarn supplied to the edge stitches, the result is a TOO-LOOSE band. Who has not seen a cuff which flops over the wearer's hand, no matter how often the cuff is pushed up onto the forearm? Who has not seen socks with saggy bands which will not stay up?

If the Goldilocks solution of getting the fabric edge "just right" tends to be a challenge for non-expert knitters, what is the second alternative? Well, if edge stitches are inherently objectionable, do not make the fabric edge the garment edge. That's right--if edge stitches are icky, just banish the nasty little creatures from your garment edges.

Edge stitches like Wanda and Lon, with their precarious 5-stitch support system, are a poor choice to locate at the edge of a garment. It would be far better to have the garment edges be the far superior kind of stitches with an 8-stitch support system, the kind of stitches normally found inside the fabric--a stitch like Norm, of the previous post in this series.

I will admit that the first time you hear this solution, it sounds like a magic trick. Knitted fabric has to start somewhere, right? So how can the edge of a garment not be the edge stitches? In actuality, this is no kind of trick at all--the knitted FABRIC will have an edge, but that edge will NOT be the edge of the GARMENT. The stitches at the edge of the garment will be 8-stitch supported (or some equivalent) and will therefore be far less likely to want to stretch, bag, roll or sag.

There are several variations on this theme, and today we will start with the simplest: the rolled edge. Additional alternatives will be covered in future posts.

ROLLED EDGE

A rolled edge is nothing other than a few rows or rounds of stockinette stitch at the very edge of a garment--there is a gallery of rolled edge photos at the end of this post. As you know if you have been knitting for any length of time at all, a wide piece of stockinette fabric will roll up lengthwise, showing the reverse stockinette side. (For the reasons this is so, click HERE.) This property of stockinette can be harnessed at the edge of a garment by knitting enough rows or rounds so that the casting on (or off) is completely hidden in the roll of the fabric. A loose cast on (or off) is desirable: it will never be seen, and, being loose, it cannot constrain the natural roll of the fabric. By this trick, the fabric edge is NOT the garment edge: The garment edge is an 8-stitch-supported rolled bit of stockinette.

If the stockinette fabric is not elastic enough to "hold in" the edge of the garment on its own, there is nothing to prevent you from adding a few rows or rounds of stockinette to border a very firm ribbing indeed. The ribbing will hold in the garment edge and the rolled edge of stockinette creates a border to the ribbing while eliminating all possibility of a too-tight or too-loose cast on (or off).

Three final points:

First, it is easy to modify any pattern whatsoever to begin and/or end with a stockinette roll. Simply cast on loosely and knit several rounds or rows (usually somewhere between 5 and 12) until you can tell for sure that the cast-on will be hidden in the roll of the fabric. Then, proceed to whatever instructions the pattern commences with--whether it be a band of ribbing, garter stitch, seed stitch, or whatever. At the cast-off edge, simply make the band as directed by the pattern, and then continue on with several rows or rounds of stockinette, casting off loosely after knitting a matching number rows/rounds to the cast on.
Second, a stockinette roll garment edge assures that the cast on edge will perfectly match the cast off edge, because it matters not at all whether the casting hidden in the fabric roll is a cast-on or a cast-off. This perfect match may be hard to obtain with other combinations of casts on and casts off.
Third, a rolled garment edge is extremely sturdy. Powerful forces make stockinette want to curl. As anyone who has tried to block the curl out of a stockinette fabric knows, that is an impossible task. By harnessing this powerful curl, you actually protect the fabric edge. The curl is relatively broad--far broader, at any rate, than the single row of stitches at a cast-on or -off edge. This relatively broad edge means that a slightly different part of the curled fabric presents each time the garment rubs against wrist or counter or coat or pants leg. Compare this broad rolled edge to an exposed cast-on or -off edge: the unsupported yarns in the cast edge stretch out and so wear away on one another. Also, the same part of the cuff is always exposed to being rubbed, which accounts for the relatively common sight of frayed and running cuffs and bands, particularly in children's clothing. By contrast, rolled edges will typically last the life of the garment, even for utility garments such as hand-me-down children's mittens.

Below is a little gallery of stockinette rolls "in person," showing how effective this simple little trick can be on garments ranging from classy garments knit in luxury fibers to utility garments like booties, mittens and hats.

A GALLERY OF ROLLED EDGES

1. (below) This simple silk garment is knit with rolled edges. As you can see, the edge of the garment is not the edge of the fabric--the stockinette roll meets the wrist and lower edge some rows in from the fabric edge, resulting in 8-stitch supported garment edge stitches. Strictly speaking, this garment does not have bands, the rolled edges take the place of bands. This garment is not a new one--it has been extensively worn, and the rolled edges have held up very well over time.

2. (below) This baby bootie has a rolled edge: very cute, very simple, very practical. There will be no struggle to insert floppy little baby feet into this generous cuff, and the rolled cuff has maintained its shape through countless washings. (Note the tie-lace--the stockinette roll is not sufficient to hold the bootie on, because it does not "draw in" like a ribbing does.)

3. (below) This hat band demonstrates a rolled edge as a border to ribbing. The hat is held on the wearer's head with an ordinary ribbing, yet the edge of the ribbing cannot be cast off too tightly due to the rolled edging. The wearer of this hat will not complain of ears feeling pinned to their head!

4. (below) These mitten cuffs also show a rolled edge as a border to ribbing. Snowballs, sled runners, zippers, velcro, mitten clips, teeth (used to pull on that second mitten) and all around little-boy tomfoolery would all spell doom for a simple cast-on (or off) edge: these wear out before the end of winter (at least around here--Wisconsin). By contrast, the broad curl of a rolled edge protects the lower cuff edge through many wearings (and wearers).

5. (below) "Fishsocks." The broad rolled borders makes the very edge of these socks stand out, and the ribbing draws them in again, giving this type of socks a "fishy" profile. They fit very well, however--the ribbing stretches to match the diameter of the rolled border when the socks are put on. Kids find these socks easy to draw on--the rolled border provides a handle.

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