Pinstriping: vertical columns of color, added after the knitting is finished.

lots of photos and illustrations plus a video--
Pinstriping on knitting--what is it?

click any picture to enlarge

Pinstriping

Pinstriping is vertical Fake Latvian Braid. Like Fake Latvian Braid, pinstriping is added via a crochet hook and the slip-stitch, after the knitting is done.  Yet, although they are the same basic technique, FLB is horizontal (and stackable) while Pinstriping is vertical (and not-stackable).

Why pinstriping is great

Although pinstriping is worked on a ribbed fabric, once the pinstripe is applied, the fabric  looks like smooth stockinette interrupted by a single column in a contrasting color.  In part, this is because the front side of a slip-stitch looks for all the world like a column of knitting.

Another reason pinstriping looks knitted in is because the pinstriping nestles into into the purl column.  This leaves you with a surprisingly smooth, neat surface.  Have a look at the "horizon" of this pinstriped scarf and see for yourself.

No bumps or ridges are visible along the "horizon" of this pinstriped scarf

Pinstriping looks good on the back, too. When you flip the fabric over, the purl column with the pinstripe worked into it shows as a knit column with a "stitched" appearance down the middle. In the sample below, I think I like the back of the fabric better than the front!  If you like the look, too, the reverse side pops best when you work the pinstripe in a high-contrast color and/or a bulkier yarn than the main fabric (or both).  Even if you don't go as far as using the reverse as the "front," you can still take comfort that a pinstriped fabric looks well enough on the back to be used for reversible items like scarves, afghans and lap robes.

Sometimes, I almost think I prefer the "stitched" appearance of the back--this fabric would be excellent for an understated man's sweater, for example.

Another advantage: because it is applied what is essentially a ribbed fabric, pinstriping helps counteract stockinette curl. Yes, pinstriping allows you begin to approach the knitters' holy grail: a stockinette fabric which does not curl.  In truth, it curls somewhat, but mostly on the edge before you get to the first pinstripe.  Past that, a pinstriped fabric really does lay waaaay flatter than a comparable stockinette fabric.  Again, this is due to the fact that a pinstriped fabric isn't really stockinette, it just looks that way.  In actuality, it is a ribbed fabric, and ribbed fabrics don't curl.

Not completely flat, perhaps, but much flatter than plain stockinette

Why pinstriping is not-so-great

All is not roses. Pinstriping only looks knit-in on a relaxed, undisturbed fabric. When you stretch the knitting, the pinstriping doesn't go along, as you see from the photo below.  Specifically, the fabric behind the pinstripe stretches but the pinstripe itself stays unstretched because it's only connected to the fabric back, not the stitches alongside. I, personally, don't mind this look, but if you would, save pinstriping for knitting which doesn't get stretched: oversized sweaters, neck scarves, afghans or hats with not too much negative ease.

On this stretched fabric, the pinstripe did not go along for the ride

Another thorn in the rose is that pinstriping column after column can get kind of boring.  OK, I'm not going to lie to you, it does get boring. Oh.so.boring. On the plus side: once you get it, you can do it while watching TV or on a conference call. Another plus: the look is good and pinstriping is much easier than other technqiues which give the same look, such a bobbin knitting or standed knitting with floats. Bottom line: it IS dull, but focus on the relative ease and the good result.

Geek notes

Before we get to the how-to, here are a few technical notes.

GEEK NOTE #1:  To counteract stockinette curl, the usual quoted minimum for ribbing is 3/1.  In other words, one in every four columns needs to be a purl column. To really counteract roll on a flat-knit scarf, you might want to go with an even more frequent rib like a 2/1 rib (one in every three columns is a rib). However, as you see, even so wide a rib as a 5/1 (gray scarf with gray stripe in the photos above) lays much flatter than a plain stockinette fabric would.

GEEK NOTE #2:  Ribbing can be formed AFTER THE FACT on a stockinette fabric, so if you have a curled up stockinette scarf laying abandoned in a drawer, rejoice! You can radically transform the scarf to lay flat by dropping ribs, then go further and make it a pinstriped scarf with today's trick.  

GEEK NOTE #3: Machine knitters--who can quickly whip up stockinette scarf-blanks--might find these tricks pretty neat, also. 

How to, VIDEO

Here's a little video (there are step-by step illustrations in the next section of this post)

For further information on the slip stitch, have a look at these TECHknitting posts: Basic Crocheting for Knitters--slip stitch and Neat Little Edging.

How to, ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Start by holding a strand of yarn behind the target purl column, the pull through a loop to the front using a crochet hook

Step 1

2. Keeping the drawn loop over the barrel of the hook, insert the head of the hook into the next purl stitch up, and catch the yarn over the hook.

Step 2

3. Draw the second loop up to the surface of the fabric, then draw the second loop through the first.

Step 3

3A: Close-up of the step 3

Close-up of step 3

4: As in step 2, keeping the drawn loop over the barrel of the hook, insert the head of the hook into the next purl stitch up and again catch the yarn over the hook. By repeating steps 2 and 3, you will create a "pinstripe," which is a line of slip stitches on the fabric surface.

4. Pinstripe on fabric surface

Tension

Start off using a crochet hook of the same size as your knitting needle was. Here is an equivalence chart for hooks and needles.  If your slip-stitching distorts the fabric, move up to a larger (or even MUCH larger) hook.  Eventually, you will find the size which makes a nice even loop when working at your natural tension (and of course, practice pays off--your tenth pinstripe will be waaaay more even than your first one).

Direction of the stitch

Slip stitching yields a V-shaped stitch, pointing towards the original hook insertion point.  If you start the pinstripe at the bottom of a bottom-up knit--as with the blue pinstripe on the below photo--the column of pinstriped slip-stitch fits the surrounding knit columns exactly, looking as if it were worked in place with the original fabric.  If you work the pinstriping opposite to how the fabric was knit--as with the yellow column--you get an opposite-pointing V, a subtle effect.

Dealing with the ends

At the beginning and end of every pinstripe, there's an end to work in. There are several different ways of managing this.

First, you can start and end with a tubular cast-on or tubular cast-off.  The hollow running inside the tube is the perfect place to hide the tails at the end of each pinstripe--simply run 3 or so inches of the tail into the tube--best to use a crochet hook or dull-pointed yarn needle. Tension the yarn slightly, snip close to the surface of the fabric, then stretch the fabric once and the tail will retract, never to be seen again.

Similarly, you can work this exact same tail-hiding trick using an I-cord bind-off and hide the ends in the little tube of the I-cord, as was done on this pinstriped scarf.

The colorful ends are hidden in the applied I-cord edging at the top and bottom of this scarf

Another trick with pinstripes close together is to work up one column and down the next, which leaves only a short horizontal carry on the fabric back. This actually helps counteract the tendency of knitted fabrics to flare along their top and bottom edges.  However, the slack must be adjusted judiciously, you don't want a stiff unyielding edge, either.

Yet another trick is to leave a length of yarn showing at each end of each pinstriped column, thus creating a fringe.  This would be excellent for a scarf, afghan or lap robe. (And here is a bonus link to a post showing how to keep your fringes in good order.)

A final trick is shown in the very next post, which gives the pattern for a colorful hat, featuring yet another method of dealing with ends--in fact, the pattern  completely eliminates ends.

Until next time--Good knitting!
--TK

PS: Pinstriping found in the wild!

-- February 2016: ...Check out these great socks ...    (Russian language blog)

--March 2016, check out this scarf

--September 2022, check out this vest on Knitty (free pattern). 

--December 2025: a wicked green striped scarf on Reddit.

Picking up stitches part 2: picking up along a bound-off edge

Garment finishing often requires the knitter to pick up stitches--to form a new row of live loops at the edge of a fabric where no live loops exist. TECHknitting blog has already dealt with picking up stitches along a selvedge, which is the "vertical" type pick up typical of cardigan bands.  This type of pick up is shown in green on the below schematic.

Today's post deals with a different kind of pick up: horizontal pick-ups (the brown areas on the below schematic).  A future post will deal with picking up stitches along a combo edge (light green).

The different types of picking up--today's post deals with the kind of pick-up marked "horizontal" on the above schematic of a cardigan sweater

There are actually TWO different kinds of horizontal pick ups: picking up live stitches from a provisional cast on, and picking up new stitches through a bound-off (or cast on!) edge. Today's post is only about the second kind: picking up through a bound-off edge.  This is because TECHknitting blog has already covered the first kind, links below.

• COWYAK: a waste-yarn method of provisional cast-on 
• Crochet method of provisional cast-on
• Knitting "up" vs. knitting "down: problems with provisional casting on

PICKING UP THROUGH A BOUND-OFF EDGE

As you can see, the bottom bands and cuffs (brown) were picked up on a horizontal edge.  In other words, the brown back-of-the-neck, as well as the bottom bands and cuffs were picked up and knit in the SAME direction as the knitting to which they are attached (arrows go the same direction on schematic).

Horizontal pick-ups are simple: the rate of pick up is 1:1, meaning one stitch is picked up through the top of each stitch-column in the main fabric.  Below is a diagram of how these are done using the "added yarn" method (very similar to the added-yarn method for selvedge pickups). As you see, the loops are picked up from the back to the front so that the live stitches appear on the OUTSIDE of the garment.  This hides the bind-off itself on the garment-inside, where no one can ever see it again.

The purple yarn is being picked up through the bound-off edge (brown) of the main fabric (yellow) using a crochet hook to draw loops through the top of each stitch column.  The loops are then parked on a knitting needle.

Here is a close-up photo of what such a pick-up looks like "in the wool" with the stitches parked on the knitting needle.

Reality check: how the picked-up stitches actually look "in the wool"

On the picked up stitches shown above, I knit a dozen or so rows to represent a collar, let's say, working one half in ribbing and one half plain (photo below) so you could see how the fabric would look either way.

The stitches picked up in the first photo were worked for a dozen or so rows, as a sample to show what a picked-up fabric--a collar, perhaps-- would look like worked in ribbing (right) or plain (left)

In the above photo, the "ditch" of the pickup (located along the row where the purl columns start)  shows as a disturbance in the smooth fabric, but the stitch pattern remains undisturbed through the pick-up row, because the bind-off itself is hidden on the back of the fabric scrap shown here.  In other words, the bind-off is inside the garment.

USEFULNESS and LOCATION

Where and why would a knitter want to pick up stitches through a bound-off edge?

Picking up through a bound-off edge is probably most common at the back of the neck of a garment. The reason to bind off and then pick up again is to hold the back of the neck from stretching--here is a link to an entire post about this.

Another common location this might happen is when your pattern calls you to bind off stitches at an underarm, followed by a requirement to pick the stitches up through the bound-off edge.

Yet another example of picking up through a bound-off edge can be seen in a scrap-yarn project featured in an earlier TECHknitting post, where the bind-off itself is a decorative horizontal element. This is called "Fake Latvian Braid, bind-off version." In this trick, the pick up is done from the outside to the inside, thus forcing the bind-off to the surface of the knitting where it becomes a decorative element. Using a decorative bind off like this is a particularly great trick to protect the already-knit part of a scrap project from unraveling, while at the same time freeing your knitting needles from a  project which might be knit in spurts, years apart, whenever more scrap yarn becomes available.  Using a bind-off as a decorative element also lets you use scrap yarn of different weights, colors, etc. because the horizontal element provided by the bind-off hides what would otherwise be discontinuities in the fabric.

As to picking up bottom bands and cuffs through a bound-off (or cast-on) edge: in truth, this isn't an ordinary manner of picking up such stitches in knitting. What's actually unusual is not the idea of picking up stitches to add the bands and cuffs afterwards.  In fact, adding cuffs and bands afterwards is an excellent idea because it allows you to custom-fit the garment with you in it.  However, such afterwards-added bands are usually worked "going the other way" on a provisional cast on. Bottom line: it's not the idea of picking up stitches for bands and cuffs which is unusual, it's picking up for these through a bound-off edge which is out-of-the-ordinary.

However, if we're talking children's clothes, it might make perfect sense to pick up the bottom bands and the cuffs in this unusual manner, working through a bound-off (or cast-on) edge.

Kids grow lengthwise a lot quicker than they grow in diameter. Further, the edges of a kid-sweater could use refreshing after a year of so of constant wear. By nipping the bottom bands and cuffs off and knitting brand-new, longer ones, you can keep a kid-sweater going for more years than you can imagine. Band/cuff lengthening  COULD be done on live stitches/provisional cast-on as you would do for an adult sweater, but it's actually easier to rip off the cuffs/bands and knit all-new ones if you don't have to worry about catching live loops.  So, if you'd originally picked up the cuff/band stitches through a bound-off edge, when the time comes for refreshing and lengthening, you'd simply rip merrily away until the cuff/band is all gone, then pick up all-new stitches through that same edge and re-knit.

An overlapping reason is that kids are hard on sweaters.  In fact, kids often wear sweaters  right out--little me sure did (and little-inner-me still grieves all these years later for that one worn-out, rust-colored sweater my mom knit!)   When cuffs and bands are picked up through a bound-off edge, a worn cuff/band can't unravel very far and all damage is constrained.  Instead of having to grieve for a worn-out sweater with runs all over it, your kids will think you are a magician as you simply frog that one worn-through cuff and knit a replacement, 1-2-3.

A final situation is which to use picking up through a bound-off edge arises in the special case of grafting ribbing head-to-head. Generally, such grafting would result in a 1/2 stitch offset causing disruption of the pattern.  However, if you bind off one fabric and then Kitchener-stitch (graft) the live stitches to the bound-off stitches, you can avoid this problem.  Here is a post with more info.

Until next time, good knitting!
--TK

I cord bind-off, I-cord selvedge border

Today's post is about knitted-in-place I-cord bind-offs AND edgings. Along the way, I'll show you a little trick for two-color I-cord.  (Today's post is not about attaching I-cord which was knit ahead of time--that is called "applied I-cord" and is a trick for another day.)  

Below: this little trivet has a two-color I-cord bind-off across the short end, which segues around the corner right into an I-cord border along the long edges (selvedges).

The pattern for the little trivet is at the bottom of this post--a stocking-stuffer, perhaps?

We'll start with the bind-off  (short edges), and get to the edging (long edges) in the second half of this post.

PART 1: I CORD BIND OFF

INTRO

There are many tutorials for I-cord bind-off out there, but I do it a little different, so bear with me.

Here are the pithy directions.  If these make sense to you, no need to crawl through the rest of the post:

At top of work, with right side facing, CO 2 st via backwards loop technique. For same color I-cord, use running yarn from the top st of the fabric, for CC I-cord, use the tail end of a CC skein. K3. * Slip these 3 sts back onto L needle maintaining orientation.  K2, K2 tog tbl.    Repeat from * until all fabric sts are bound off, BO I-cord. 

This differs from the usual instructions by substituting "k2tog tbl" for "sl1, k1, psso."  IMHO, this substitution makes a neater, more tailored cord.

For more detail, read on...

SAME-COLOR I-CORD BIND-OFF

--Step 1: At the top of the work with right side facing, use the running yarn to cast on two backwards loops onto the left needle. These are shown in lighter orange.

--Step 2: Knit three stitches: these would be the two you cast on followed by the first of the fabric stitches--which has been colored brown in the below illustration. After knitting, slip these off your right needle, returning them onto your left needle without twisting or reorienting the stitches in any way. What you have should look like this--

After slipping, the running yarn protrudes from the fabric three stitches in from the edge.  This is not a mistake. Rather, this is how I-cord is made: the running yarn becomes a traveling strand drawn across from the outermost (first) to the innermost (last) of the three I-cord stitches.  Because the traveling strand will take the shortest path, it pulls the first and last stitch together, making the (if you stop and think about, magical) result of a round cord knitted flat. The traveling strand has been shown long, flat (and colored green) in the below illustration, but in reality, the whole 3-stitch assembly is round and the traveling strand becomes invisible.


--Step 3: Draw the traveling strand to the edge of the work, then knit two stitches in a normal manner.  **Working through the back loops** knit the third stitch (brown) together with its neighbor to the left (darker brown) as shown below.  In so doing, the lighter brown stitch becomes the edge of the I-cord and the darker brown fabric stitch has been bound off into the I-cord.

Below: Inserting the right needle into the back loops of the two brown stitches.  Note the running yarn has been colored blue to identify the part of the running yarn which turns into the stitch holding together the two brown stitches.

After knitting the two brown stitches together with the blue yarn, you will wind up with a total of three stitches on your right needle--the blue, which is the last (edge) stitch of the I-cord, as well as the two orange stitches which make up the other two-thirds of the I-cord stitches.  The traveling strands which connect the I-cord's first and last stitches have been colored green, and shown long and flat, but in real life, the cord is round and the traveling strand, invisible.

--Step 4: Slipping these three stitches off your right needle, return them to the left needle. The running yarn will again protrude from the fabric 3 stitches in from the edge.

You can also see that knitting through the back loops not only twists the stitches but also puts the first I-cord stitch (lighter brown) over the top of the fabric stitch (darker brown) thus hiding it.

Here is a reality check: this is what a same-color I-cord in progress looks like "in the wool" at the end of step 4, with the stitches returned to the L needle.

--Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you get to the end of the live stitches.

ENDING THE I-CORD

If working flat, when you run out of live fabric stitches to bind off, bind off the I-cord.  Finish by running the tails at both ends of the I-cord into the hollow core of the I-cord itself, never to be seen again.

If working circular, (ie: around a continuous edge, such as the live stitches at the top of a cowl or live stitches around the bottom of a hat) there are three ways to end the work, depending on your relationship to perfectionism:

• --if you are a perfectionist, you can undo the two backwards loops at the I-cord cast-on, then Kitchener-stitch the beginning of the I-cord to the end where they meet.  Remember that the Kitchener stitching itself has the height of one round of I-cord, so plan to factor that in.
• --if you are an ordinary mortal, then, at the end, knit an extra two or three rounds of I-cord loose of the edge.  Next, bind off the I-cord by threading the tail through the three live I-cord stitches.  Finally, using a crochet hook, pull the end inside the core of the I-cord where the cord first started. The result is like a snake eating its own tail.  I call this a "dive-join" because the end of the I-cord dives into its own beginning. Dive-joins create a little bump, yes, but nobody--except you--will ever notice.
• --if you are somewhere between ordinary mortal and perfectionist,  duplicate-stitch one or two stitches over the dive-join to disguise the break in fabric pattern. Lower in this post, there is a photo of a dive-join which has been disguised in this way.

CONTRAST COLOR I-CORD BIND-OFF

In step 1, cast on two backwards loops using the contrast color yarn. Then, using the contrast color for all the knitting, simply follow all the instructions of steps 3 and 4.   Here is a closeup photo of a contrast color bind off--orange on a white background

The red boxes show where the white blips would be if you pushed the 
stitches of the I-cord apart to see them. 

As you see, the blip of the white stitch (the one being bound off) is pretty well hidden. If the blip shows more than you want it to, sharply pull the I-cord up and the fabric down.  This seats the fabric stitches deeper inside the I-cord fabric.  You can also fluff up the edge stitches with a slim dpn to hide the blip even deeper inside the I-cord.  If you're still having an issue, knit the I-cord with a larger needle or fluffier yarn, or both, so there is more bulk with which to hide the blip.

TWO COLOR I-CORD BIND-OFF

If really want to get fancy, you can work an I-cord bind-off in two (or even more) colors, but it is something of a pain the neck:  you have to work with a cut length of yarn and you'll also need a crochet hook or a blunt-nosed yarn needle.  (OTOH, hiding the ends is easy--you simply slide them into the hollow core of the I-cord.)

I have worked this two-color trick on the live stitches of the fabric ends (a bit lower in this post, that I-cord you see on the selvedge will make a how-to appearance, and the same trick as shown here to add a color to I-cord binding off live stitches can be used to add color on selvedge stitch borders, as well).

OK, so for the color, let's say you want to insert a 4-round-long dash of green into an orange I-cord. Start off working in orange. Go as far as you want to go in that color, ending on a step 4.  Drop the orange yarn and, starting with step 3, work 4 rounds of I-cord in the green, again ending on a step 4.

--Step 5: Now it is time to again knit with the orange yarn.  But, there is a problem: you dropped that color several rounds ago, so how to get at it? If you simply draw it across the back, you'll get a long loop laying on the fabric surface--not nice.

After much fooling around experimentation I think what shows least and is easiest is to actually cut the orange yarn to about a twenty-inch length, thread it onto a blunt needle and draw that entire length THROUGH the four rounds of green you just knit.

Keep pulling the orange through through until the cut ends pops free. Now that the orange is the correct spot, use that for knitting, starting off on step 3.  Continue with orange for four rows, ending on a step 4.  Don't yank the orange through the green: that would distort the last stitch of the orange and would make the green segment stiff and short. Be mild in your tension, this is like adjusting the traveling strands in two-color knitting. (And that's because...it IS two color knitting!) 

--Step 6: Repeat step 5, except thread the green yarn through the core of the orange stitches and knit the desired number of rounds with green.

--Repeat steps 5 and 6.  As you run out of yarn, cut a new length to use.  At the end of the work, you can work in all the loose ends, they will be hidden in the core of the I-cord.

This post does not show an I-cord cast on.  This is because  if you start your knitted item with a provisional cast-on (COWYAK is an easy one), at the end of your project, you can remove the provisional cast on to get live loops. With live loops at both ends of your fabric, you can bind OFF both ends via this trick and get absolutely matchy-matchy ends. 

PART 2: EDGING 

I-CORD as a SELVEDGE BORDER

I cord can be attached to the  selvedge (long edge) as a flat-laying border or trim (a "purfle" as the old folks used to say, as opposed to a "ruffle" which was also a trim, but does not lay flat).

GETTING AROUND THE CORNER

If you are simply adding the I-cord at a single selvedge, you have no worries.  However, if you wanted to go around a corner--such as we are doing here to get from binding off live stitches to edging the selvedge-there is a trick for that.  Specifically, you have to add slack at the corner to avoid cupping and curling.  If you fail to add slack, your corner will never lay flat.

To add slack, simply  knit a round or two of I-cord loose of the edge, by which I mean, knit this little stretch of I-cord as a free-standing cord, not attached to the underlying fabric.  Once you have the necessary slack, you then begin to attach the I-cord along the selvedge.  By knitting this extra row or two, the I-cord can make the bend without distorting the underlying fabric.

Three things to notice about the above photo.  First, you can see the I-cord has been knit loose of the edge in order to create the required slack for getting around the corner.  Second, note the stitches being held in waiting along the upright needle.  This is an every-other-row fabric method pick-up of stitches through the selvedge, and we'll get to that in the very next part of this post.  Finally, if you want to see what the corner actually looks like anchored down, the last two photos below both show a fastened-down corner. 

ANCHORING

Once you have sufficient slack in your I-cord to get around the corner, your work is not done.  The problem is, there are no live loops waiting to anchor the I cord to the selvedge.  You must therefore make some appear, and you have two choices about this.  Confusingly, both choices are called "picking up stitches." May I suggest that you go to this post and read all about both methods?   I'll wait here til you're done.

Anchoring via the fabric method: Choose the every-other row method--the illustration just above shows two stitches picked up this way onto the upright needle.  Then, knit the first picked-up stitch together with the first I-cord stitch just as you did along the cast-off edge. When you get to the second row, where there is no stitch waiting to be picked up, you would knit the three I-cord stitches loose of the fabric edge, just as if it were a free-standing I-cord. On the third row, you'd again knit the I-cord onto the stitch picked up out of the fabric, and so on.

Anchoring via the added-yarn method: As shown in the photo below, with this trick, you have one loop per row, placed on a knitting-needle yarn holder.  Because you have picked up one stitch per row, there is no need to knit every second round of the I-cord loose of the edge.  Instead, simply proceed as if you were working a cast-off edge. In other words, each round of I-cord is anchored to a picked-up stitch loop, just as if it were a live loop being bound off. Here is an illustration of a contrast color I-cord being knit onto live loops along a selvedge, where the live loops were obtained via the added-yarn method.

When you get all the way around all four corners, you are facing the identical situation as mentioned above for circular knitting.  That is, the end of the I-cord has come around to meet the beginning.  You would therefore "dive join" the ends according to those same directions, again--it's just like a snake eating its own tail.   Here is a photo of a dive-joined ending--it is just at the corner, and I took two duplicate stitches where the end of the I cord dived into its beginning .  You might be able to feel it a little bump, but you pretty much can't see it--have a look for yourself. (Also, note how nice and flat that corner lays due to added slack--no cupping at all.)

Dive-joined I-cord, joined just at the corner, disguised via duplicate stitches 

Good knitting

--TK

Bonus stocking-stuffer trivet pattern (this could be made into a neck scarf by simply knitting it longer.  If you want it wider, add stitches in groups of 4) 

Materials: Scrap amounts of worsted weight yarn in three colors, knitting needles which, in your hands, give a nice fabric with this yarn, and also knitting needles three sizes smaller.  Crochet hook and/or blunt nosed yarn needle.

Directions: Using needles three sizes smaller than you usually use for worsted-weight yarn, CO 27 sts in waste yarn.  Work a row or two in stockinette, ending on a knit row.

Switch to main yarn.

Row 1: p
Row 2: k
row 3: p
Row 4: establish ribbing patt as follows: *k3, p1, repeat from * to within 3 st of end of row, k3.
Row 5: *p3, k1, repeat from * to within 3 sts of end of row, p3
Switch to larger needles.
Rows 4 and 5 make up the ribbing pattern.
Continue in ribbing pattern until you have worked a total of 29 rows from beginning of piece.  Upon completion of row 29, you should have just finished a purl row. Switch to smaller needles.
Rows 31, 32 and 33:  continue in rib pattern.
Rows 34: purl
Row 35:k
row 36:p
Turn work, remove provisional cast on from bottom and put those stitches on a dpn or stitch holder. You are now ready to add I-cord bind off as shown in the above post.

Optional: steam block piece before adding I-cord (makes it easier to handle).

Siting the color blips: Obviously, you can put these wherever you want.  I put the color blips on the bound-off ends only, not on the selvedges.  There there are 7 total ribs, and I centered the two green 4-round-long blips on third and fifth ribs respectively.  Due to a quirk of the structure of color knitting, you must change colors one I-cord round BEFORE the rib stitch itself if you want the color change centered on the rib.  This is because the first green stitch actually anchors down the last orange stitch.  Try and see for yourself.

BTW:  you get around to the bottom of the work, where the live stitches were freed from the provisional cast-on, you'll see that the rib seems to growing out the middle of two knit columns, instead of coming out of the middle of one knit column. This is because knitting is 1/2 stitch off at a provisional cast-on edge.

Why knit the first and last few rows so tightly?  Due to the structure of knitting, fabric edges want to flare. A tight first tight rows at beginning and end of the work help counteract this nasty tendency. (Good trick for the cast-on and bind-off edge of any strip of knit fabric: scarves, afghan strips, etc.)

Picking up stitches along a selvedge

Getting live loops where there are none requires you to pick up stitches. But what does "picking up stitches" mean? Part of it depends on WHERE you are picking up stitches. Per below diagram, one common type is picking up along a vertical edge. This is called picking up through a "selvedge" and is the subject of this post (first in a series). 

• Horizontal pick ups are discussed in part 2, 
• a future post will discuss combo pick-ups. 

* * *

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).

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).

The band-facing is picked up
via the "beautiful" method,
which is an added-yarn technique. 

In fact, changing gauge is what I myself nearly always do, especially with front bands on a cardigan, and here's why. The gauge of knitting suitable for the body of a garment is much looser and stretchier than the gauge suitable for the front bands of a cardigan. The front bands should be knit more tightly (and it wouldn't hurt if the cuff, neck or bottom bands of a garment were also knit more tightly). By adjusting the needles down far enough, and knitting tightly enough, the change in gauge makes the 1:1 pickup rate work.

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!)

_________________

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.) 

_________________

--TK

You have been reading TECHknitting on picking up knit stitches along a selvedge, (also spelled selvage and selvedge, go figure!)

Sweater-saver: reknitting the cuffs of a purple sweater

Poking around some drafts of blog articles written through the years, I came upon a sweater-saver  project from several years back. Although I thought this got posted a long time ago, I can't find it online anywhere, so here it is (again?)

* * *

This purple cabled store-bought sweater was beloved of its owner, but the cuffs were baggy and the sleeves too short.  I put on my "Garde Tricot"* hat and fixed it like this---

Below: The start, one cuff removed.  You can see how short the sleeves are.

 first cuff removed    

Below: A little known fact about commercial knits is that they are often knit of several strands of thin yarn simply held (not twisted, not plied) together, much like three-strand "Persian" needlepoint yarn or six-strand embroidery floss. It is possible that the thin yarns which are held together are themselves plied, but until the thin strands are knit together, they remain separate strands. This particular sweater was knit of three stands of two-ply.

three strands of 2-ply

Below: After unraveling the yarn, it was severely kinked.  I made each cuff's worth into a mini-hank, knotted in several places to prevent tangling, then reclaimed the yarn from both cuffs via steam un-kinking.

One cuff's worth of unraveled, kinked-up yarn
wound into a mini-hank 

Below: The problem was, the sleeves were so much too short that the unraveled cuffs contained not enough yarn to significantly lengthen the sleeves.  Further, there was no possible chance of a match.  I could match color with Persian yarn (with over 400 colors, you can come pretty close to matching most solid colors) but Persian yarn was the wrong texture. So, instead of using the reclaimed yarn as it was originally knit (one 3-stranded yarn) I separated ("stripped") one strand of the thin two-ply yarn out of each of the cuff-mini-hanks and  re-did the two hanks of 3-strand into three mini-skeins of 2-strand.  This magically yielded 1/3 more yarn.  Remember: the 3 thinner strands of yarns were not twisted nor plied together, merely held together, meaning it was possible (although tedious) to separate them.

Yarn skeined up as two strands of 2-ply

It is true that the two-strand yarn resulting from this trick is thinner, but there was no choice about this.  There simply had to be more yarn or the sweater sleeves would still be unwearably too short.

Cuffs re-knit narrower and waaaaay longer

Above: The cuffs were reknit narrower and much longer. They feature a rolled edge for sturdiness. I seem to recall there was so little yarn left over that I had to bind off part of the second cuff with a single strand of two-ply.


 Below: Overview of the reclaimed sweater.

Perhaps you know someone whose favorite sweater has a little problem?  What with the holidays coming up, you do realize that as a hand knitter, you are uniquely positioned to reclaim a favorite and beloved sweater?  Also that re-knitting a small part of a sweater takes a whole lot less time (ahem, cough, cough) than knitting a new one?

Good knitting--TK

PS:  Here is another sweater reclaimed several years ago

*In the classical French kitchen, there are various stations, like a battleship, and one of these is "garde manger" which means "guard of the food."  Among other duties, this chef recycles high end food: yesterday's filet mignon becomes today's Beef Salad Pareisienne.  In the same way, I think there should be a "garde tricot," or "guard of the knitting" who takes yesterday's beloved sweater and turns it into a whole new fave. (That could be you!)

The mechanics of slip stitching (Fake Latvian Braid)

Includes 2 illustrations and a video
There haven't been many posts lately (sorry 'bout that...) but the most recent ones have been about applying slip stitching to the surface of knitting, a trick I call "Fake Latvian Braid," FLB for short. Today's post shows more about the mechanics.

The reason for today's post is that after the FLB post was published, quite a few knitters have written in frustration asking how it is possible to apply FLB slip stitching.  Since each slip stitch goes through the fabric, either you have to flip the fabric for every stitch (slow) or work without seeing one of your hands (awkward).

The answer is, for sure, not to flip the fabric.  Instead, the trick is to reduce the awkwardness of working with one hand out of sight.

I've actually been thinking about this for a couple of months because I'd like to be free to explore more slip-stitched techniques on this blog, making this is a matter of some importance to me. I'm thinking that working with one hand out of sight might be a matter of perhaps further developing the innate sense which each person has of their own body.

Over the past several months, I've asked people to touch their hands together with their eyes closed. It turns out knitters and non-knitters, young and old can do so, and this is true even with hands held to the side, behind, over the head: anywhere, really.  I conclude that each of your hands knows where the other one is in relation to itself, even if your eyes can't see both (or either!)

The relationship between your hands is good to begin with, and via practice, it can get even better.  As a matter of habit, hand quilters sew with one hand out of sight: the hand under the fabric rocks the needle back up to the top hand over and over again, each stitch the same distance from the next.  Quilting needles are sharp, so learning hand-quilting involves blood.  Luckily, crochet hooks are dull, so there's no blood-letting in learning to work the FLB slip-stitch with one hand out of sight.

As a background to the slip stitch tricks already published, and as a foundation for the possibility of more, here's an illustration of the L hand position for a right handed knitter who habitually knits "regular" (stitches to be knit held on L needle, completed stitches on R needle, so the knitted fabric moves from L to R.) For those who habitually knit from R to L ("mirror image") the right hand would hold the fabric.

The bottom illustration shows the hand position, the top illustration, 
the same with actual fabric and yarn, and with a crochet hook poked through. 
The right hand (not shown on this illustration) manipulates the 
crochet hook, with only the thumb of the left hand in front 
of the fabric, and the other fingers of the left hand behind the fabric.

I am right handed so my left hand holds the fabric and the yarn.  Admittedly, as a right-handed German-style knitter (yarn fed off the left hand)  using my left index finger to positon and feed the yarn in slip stitching is identical to feeding a knitting yarn, so my hands are used to it. If I were an English-style knitter (yarn fed off the right hand) the learning curve would surely be steeper. (In the silver-lining/lemons-from-lemonade department, learning to feed yarn off both hands makes two-handed color knitting easier)

In the above illustration, the top panel is shown from above the work, with fabric.  The bottom panel shows the L hand as it appears from the front, but without fabric.

The below illustration shows the two hands as they appear from the front of the work with fabric. As you can see, from the front, the only part of the left hand showing is the thumb: the method of of clutching the fabric means the fabric hides the other fingers of the left hand behind it.

The position of the hands from the front.  The only part of the
holding hand (left) which shows is the thumb, the other fingers
are behind the fabric

The right hand is responsible for manipulating the crochet hook, thus drawing the yarn from the back of the fabric to the front in a loop, then pulling that newly-made loop through the previous loop around the barrel of the crochet hook (which is what slip stitching is.)

If you prefer  moving pictures to still illustrations, here's a 2-minute video. Note that in the still illustrations above, I am applying the slip stitch to the reverse stockinette side of a fabric, whereas in the video, the slip stitching is on the smooth face.  However, the action of working the slip stitch (Fake Latvian Braid) through the thickness of a fabric using a crochet hook is identical, regardless of to which face the braid is applied.

Last thing:  The illustrations in this post and the video are meant only to show the hand position, rythym and gross motions. Neither shows the actual mechanics of how to catch the yarn around the hook, where to insert the hook, or anything beyond the barest hint of why FLB is so groovy. Instead, those details are found in these previous posts:

• Basic crocheting for hand knitters 
• Fake Latvian Braid

Good knitting (or should I say, slip-stitching?)
--TK