Little Cotton Rabbits

Knitted increase methods for LCR Patterns

 

This is a post that I've been planning to write for a good long while. It details the increase methods most used in my range of Little Cotton Rabbits patterns, with pictures for each method and details of their specific characteristics so that they can be compared and contrasted. I've also put together a PDF file that you can download to keep or print out if preferred, Download Increases.

 

 

A comparison of increases:

 

The table above compares six paired and mirrored increases. As you can see they are grouped vertically according to the direction in which the increase stitch leans (either to the left or to the right) and also grouped horizontally as matched symmetrical pairs which mirror each other.

All of the left leaning increases above can be substituted for each other without having to adjust the written pattern. This is because they are all made in the space between two existing stitches. The exact same goes for all of the right leaning increases. However, because each of these increase methods have a different impact on the stitches around them it is worth taking the time to understand the characteristics of each when deciding which will make the best substitute.

Below is a piece of knitting that compares the three left leaning increases detailed above, showing the impact that each of these increases has on the rows above and below it.

 

 

All three left leaning increase stitches are made on the blue row in the centre of the work. You can see how:

A: M1A impacts the row that the increase is made on, and creates the first full stitch on the pink row above
B: M1L impacts the row directly below in gold, and creates the first full stitch on the current row
C: KLL impacts and distorts the 2 rows below in pale yellow and gold, and creates the first full stitch on the current row

If you are making the increases in a pattern of lateral colour change stripes you will want to consider whether you start the stripes on the row prior to the increases or on the increase row itself as your stripes will either have neat transitional lines or steps depending on which of the increase methods you choose to use and where you place them.

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Left Leaning Increases:

 

KLL: Knit Left Loop (also known as LLI: Left Lifted Increase):

 

Method: Knit into the left leg of the stitch two rows below the stitch you have just worked by inserting the tip of left needle into the stitch from behind and bringing the loop onto the left needle. Insert the tip of the right needle into the back of the loop and knit, so making an extra stitch.

One of the ‘lifted increases’, this is an increase to use when what matters most is invisibility, and it works particularly well for knitted toys which are going to be firmly stuffed, as it creates a nice tight fabric without a gap for the stuffing to show through. Along with its symmetrical pair (KRL) this is the tightest increase method, giving the least visible result.

This is an increase best used on single colour stocking stitch. It does not work well with stripes as it distorts the two rows below the increase, so you need to be aware of that when planning the placement of any stripes.

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M1L: Make 1 Left:

 

Method: With the left hand needle pick up the connecting strand between the two needles from the front and knit into the back of the loop. If you find this too tight for your liking you can substitute M1A (make one away) which will give a looser increase.

This is probably the most popular left leaning increase method and uses the strand that runs between two stitches that are already on the needle. If you are a tight knitter this can be quite fiddly to work, so it helps to use needles with very pointed tips. Because you are using the strand that connects two already worked stitches this can cause these stitches to be slightly distorted, as it takes a little length of yarn from them both. To minimise this try to use the narrow tip of the needle when working the increase rather than stretching the connecting strand by pulling it all the way on to the needle.

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M1A: Make 1 Away:

 

Method: Make a loop with the working yarn over the right needle tip so the tail is pointing backwards/away from you. On the following row you purl into this loop as normal in order to create a new stitch.

This creates a similar increase to M1L above but makes the increase one row later in the work and a little looser as the connecting strand between stitches is wrapped around the needle and so has more length to it. This results in a slightly more visible hole which can be minimised if you wrap the yarn tightly.

Its a nice increase to use on clothing as it stretches well and causes less distortion to the stitches around the increase.

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Right Leaning Increases:

 

KRL: Knit right Loop (also known as RLI: Right Lifted Increase):

 

Method: Knit into the right leg of the stitch one row below the next stitch on the left needle. Do this by inserting the tip of the right needle into the stitch from the back and bringing the loop up onto the left needle, then knit this loop as normal, so making an extra stitch.

One of the ‘lifted increases’. This is an increase to use when what matters most is invisibility, and it works particularly well for knitted toys which are going to be firmly stuffed as it creates a nice tight fabric without a gap for the stuffing to show through. Along with it’s symmetrical pair (KLL) this is the tightest increase method, giving the least visible result.

This is an increase best used on single colour stocking stitch. It does not work well with stripes as it distorts the two rows below the increase so you need to be aware of that when planning the placement of any stripes.

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M1R: Make 1 right:

 

Method: With the left hand needle pick up the connecting strand between the two needles from behind and knit into the front loop to create an extra stitch. If you find this too tight for your liking you can substitute M1T (make one towards) which will give a looser increase.

This is probably the most popular right leaning increase method and uses the strand that runs between two stitches that are already on the needle. If you are a tight knitter this can be quite fiddly to work, so it helps to use needles with very pointed tips. Because you are using the strand that connects two already worked stitches this can cause these stitches to be slightly distorted, as it takes a little length of yarn from them both. To minimise this try to use the narrow tip of the needle when working the increase rather than stretching the connecting strand by pulling it all the way on to the needle.

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M1T: Make 1 towards:

 

Method: Make a loop with the working yarn over the right needle tip so the tail is pointing forwards/towards you. Note: In order to get a neat finish you will need to purl into the back loop of this stitch on the following row.

This creates a similar increase to M1R above but makes the increase one row later in the work and a little looser as the connecting strand between stitches is wrapped around the needle and so has more length to it. This results in a slightly more visible hole which can be minimised if you wrap the yarn tightly.

Its a nice increase to use on clothing as it stretches well and causes less distortion to the stitches around the increase.

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Other Increases:

KFB: knit front and back:

 

This is probably the method of increasing that most people learn when they are first starting out with knitting, possibly because it is so simple. It does however make a very visible bar at the base of the increase stitch and so is not the best choice if you want a neat and tidy finished result to your work, (it is also know as a bar increase).

You work it by simply knitting into a stitch as normal and then before slipping that stitch from the left needle you knit into the stitch again, but this time through the back leg, so creating two stitches from one.

Because all of the other increase methods detailed here work by creating an increase stitch between two existing stitches it is not possible to simply substitute KFB without making adjustments. So if a pattern reads:

K2, KLL, K1, KLL (5 stitches)
then in order to use KFB instead of the KLL increase you would need to work:

K1, KFB, KFB (5 stitches).

The KFB increase does have it’s uses as a decorative increase, and I do use it occasionally in my patterns for this reason.

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Other sources of information and tutorials:

There are lots of tutorials and videos available on the internet that demonstrate how to work these increase techniques. These can form an invaluable resource for any knitter who wants to hone their craft. Because it’s not length of time that creates an experienced knitter, but the depth and breadth of their knitting skill base.

Here are a few of my favourite sites which have either good video or step by step tutorials for these increase methods (and many other knitting techniques too):

• Nimble Needles

• Very Pink Knits

• Knitting Help

• Purl Soho

 

 

A neat edge to a top down seam, a tutorial

 

 

There are occassions when you want to create a really neat join between two seamed pieces, especially when this join is at the top of the piece and so very visible. Within my patterns this occurs at the top edges of both the removable shoes (soon to be released) and some of the designs in my 'bags, backpacks and baskets' pattern.

Above is a picture of the top seam that you're aiming to achieve:

And here's a little tutorial on how to work it...

 

Normally when you cast off you cut the work from the ball and thread this tail through the final stitch on the needle in order to secure the cast off row and prevent it from unravelling. But that creates a little nubbin at the end of the row and can interfere with a neat join when you start to sew an attaching seam.

So instead, when you have your last stitch at the end of your cast off row, cut the work from the ball and pull on the loop of this last stitch, like so:

 

 

Keep pulling that loop until the cut tail is pulled all the way through, effectively unravelling half of this final stitch:

 

Then thread a tapestry needle with this cast off tail end and sew through both arms of the edgemost stitch on the opposite side of the seam:

 

Then sew back across the gap and down through the stitch that the tail end is emerging from:

 

In doing this you have replicated a cast off edge stitch to span the top of the seam between the two pieces (see image at the top)

And then you can continue seaming the two pieces together using mattress stitch ( Mattress stitch seaming tutorial can be found here)

 

I hope this helps you to get neat and attractive edges to the seams at the top of your removable shoes and bags, happy seaming :)

J x

Choosing Yarns for the Little Cotton Rabbit Patterns, (part 2)

 

 

One of the challenges of writing a knitting pattern is that yarn manufacturers are constantly changing their collections - developing new yarns, discontinuing others and creating new colourways in existing yarns. It is impossible to keep up with these changes within the confines of a written pattern and so instead I've decided to write up some posts here on the blog with tips on choosing potential yarns for my little cotton rabbits patterns. The beauty of these notes being in a blog post here is that I can keep it updated as time goes on, so that if you check back in the future this post will hopefully reflect more accurately what yarns are available at that time.

For this post I'm going to focus on the yarns for the cotton 4ply/fingering weight yarns that I use for the clothes, there's already a post written about the yarns used for knitting the animal patterns here

Below I've compiled a list of my current favourite yarns for knitting the clothes in, along with descriptions of what in particular I like or dislike about them. For the most part I recommend 4 ply/fingering weight cotton yarns.

 

So, why cotton and why 4 ply/fingering weight?

There are a few reasons that the clothing is worked in a lighter weight yarn than that used for the animals.

• Firstly using a thinner yarn and smaller needles means that there are more stitches across a row to play with, meaning that designs can be more intricate and give a finer appearance than would be achieved by knitting the clothing in the same worsted weight yarn as the animals.
• Secondly, I like the contrast between the knitted fabric on the clothing and that of the animals - this is especially accentuated when the animal is worked in a fuzzy mohair blend yarn with the clothing in a smooth cotton. I particularly like using cotton yarn for colourwork patterns (using 2 or more colours) because with cotton yarns the stitch definition is crisp and the patterns look more defined.

Fingering weight (also known as 4ply) is a light weight yarn. Technically speaking it is designated as 'superfine 1' by the yarn standards from the Craft yarn council with 14 wraps per inch (meaning that if you wound it around say the handle of a wooden spoon so that there were no gaps between the strands there would be 14 wraps of yarn in an inch). In practice there is a great deal of variance between different yarns marketed as fingering weight and even different yarns from the same manufacturer vary surprisingly in thickness and knitted tension, let alone those between different manufacturers. FYI Ravelry has a really useful table with yarn weight comparisons.

 

A note on different cotton finishes:

Cotton yarns come in two different finishes:

1. A soft cotton which retains the natural properties of cotton. It behaves much more like a woollen yarn, with fibres which cause the stitches to bind together, resulting in a softer and more flexible knitted fabric. Many of these are produced from organic cotton (look out for organic certification)

2. Mercerised/mercerized cotton, which is a cotton yarn that has been treated under tension with caustic alkali (sodium hydroxide) and then neutalised in an acid bath in order to impart strength and lustre to the fibres. It tends to be a shiny, rigid yarn which is stiffer and more rope-like than natural cottons as any natural elasticity is removed. When knitted up the stitches stay distinct from eachother because of the lack of soft surface fibres.

Personally I am not a fan of mercerised yarn, it uses toxic chemicals in it's production process and I much prefer the knitted fabric that is created by natural soft and untreated cottons, preferably organically produced ones.

 

A note on comparing yarns:

Although there are industry standards for yarn weights in practice these are only a guide, and I'm sure that if you knit a lot you'll already have experienced anomalies. For instance Millamia naturally soft cotton that is mentioned below is classed as a 5ply/sportweight yarn and yet I find it thinner than most of the 4ply/fingering weight yarns. One way that I judge whether a yarn is likely to work is to compare the length of yarn per ball. Most of the yarns below come in 50gm balls so by comparing the yarn length per ball you can make an estimation of how thick or thin the yarn strand is (please note this only really works when comparing yarns of the same fibre - it would not work if you compare a cotton yarn with a woollen yarn).

So here's a little comparison of the yarns below, with thickness based on length per 50 gm ball, and listed from thickest strand to thinnest:

Yarn and colours must-have 4ply: 125m

Sheepjes Catona: 126m

DMC Natura Just Cotton: 155m

BCGarn Alba: 160m

Drops Safran: 161m

Krea deluxe: 165m

Millamia naturally soft cotton: 165m

Scheepjes Cotton 8: 170m

Scheepjes Sunkissed: 170m

KPC Gossyp: 180m

 

My favourite 4ply/fingering weight yarns for Little Cotton rabbit animal patterns:

Note, I've linked to the Ravelry pages for each of these yarns, as that way you'll be able to see projects made from the yarns, what others think of the yarns and also links to local stockists. At the bottom of each yarn description I've also linked to the manufacturers own website (where there is an SSL secure website).

 

 

BC Garn Alba

This yarn is my number one choice for knitting dresses and sweaters in. There's an array of beautiful subtle colours: softly muted pinks; warmly spiced mustards and misty chalky blues, along with some more vibrant, zingy shades too. The yarn is 100% organic cotton and ecologically produced with GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certification. It's a soft combed cotton, plied with a loose twist.

50gms: 160m (175 yds).

(unfortunately BC Garn's own website is currently not SSL secure so I'm not linking to it here)

 

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Krea Deluxe Organic cotton

This soft cotton yarn is a new discovery for me and I've only been using it for a few months, but it's very quickly become a favourite. It's organic cotton, GOTS-certified and produced in Europe (sown, grown and harvested without use of chemical pesticides and artificial fertiliser) and comes in the most amazing array of pastel shades in very subtle tones.

50gms: 165m (180yds)

Krea Deluxe website

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Drops Safran

This yarn is incredibly good value for money. Soft, S on S plied yarn which holds together well when worked with and it comes in a good usable range of colours. Actually designated 5ply, but is comparable to most of the yarns here designated as 4ply.

50gms; 161m (176 yds)

Drops website

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Scheepjes Cotton 8

A soft plied yarn, very good value and a great range of colours (mostly vibrant and bright shades). A little on the thin side.

50gms; 170m (186 yds)

Scheepjes website

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Scheepjes Sunkissed

Exactly the same as Scheepjes cotton 8 above, expect the sunkissed range is a variegated yarn - nice for extra interest. A soft plied cotton, a little on the thin side

50gms; 170m (186 yds)

Scheepjes website

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Millamia naturally soft cotton

This yarn seems to be classified as 5ply/sport weight (which is slightly thicker than 4ply) but I've actually found it thinner than most of the other cotton yarns mentioned here (see note above about comparing yarns).

Plied with a tight twist it comes in a rather limited range of mostly pastel colours.

50gms; 165m (180 yds)

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KPC gossyp 4ply cotton

Certified by the Organic Exchange, using cotton from certified organic cotton farms in China.

Soft cotton, plied and a little thinner than all others mentioned here and in a great range of colours

50gms: 180 m, (197 yds)

 

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DMC Natura Just Cotton

A great range of lovely colours but it is a splitty yarn (in that the strands easily separate which can make it slightly hard to work with and result in spilt strands) and it's slippery, so the ball has a frustrating tendancy to unwind and get easily tangled. I find it easiest to knit this with blunt rather than pointed tip needles. All cotton yarn, S on S plied.

50gms; 155m (170 yds)

DMC website

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Yarn and colours must-have

Smooth mercerised cotton,

Although this yarn is classed as 4ply/fingering weight (on Love crafts) it's more like 5ply (Ravelry's classification) I find it quite thick, so you might find that it's knitted in this come out a little larger.

This yarn comes in an amazing array of colours. It's also very useful that there are 2 ball sizes as you can collect your favourite shades in the larger 50gm balls and use the small 20gm balls for colour highlights - it's easy to build up a large palette of colours without having to spend a fortune. Good value.

20gms: 25m (27yds)

50gms: 125m (137 yds)

Yarn and colours website

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Scheepjes Catona / Scheepjes Catona Denim

Mercerised cotton yarn in a really great range of colours. It's classified as 4ply but is much more of a sport weight and is one of the thickest yarns mentioned here. I tend to use it for the dungarees and the shorts. It also comes in 10gm, 25gm and 100gm balls.

50gms: 126m (138 yds) / 124m (136yds)

Scheepjes website

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Other 4ply cotton yarn suggestions:

Lang Baby Cotton sport

Plied soft cotton, 181m (198yds)

 

Onion Organic cotton

Certified organic cotton, soft and plied, 155m (170yds)

 

 

Choosing the yarns for little cotton rabbit patterns (part 1)

 

 

One of the challenges of writing a knitting pattern is that yarn manufacturers are constantly changing their collections - developing new yarns, discontinuing others and creating new colourways in existing yarns. It is impossible to keep up with these changes within the confines of a written pattern and so instead I've decided to write up some posts here on the blog with tips on choosing potential yarns for my little cotton rabbits patterns. The beauty of these notes being in a blog post here is that I can keep it updated as time goes on, so that if you check back in the future this post will reflect more accurately what yarns are available at that time.

For this post I'm going to focus on the yarns for the animals themselves rather than their outfits (a second post about the 4ply/fingering weight yarns that I use for the clothes will follow later). 

Below I've compiled a list of my current favourite yarns for knitting the animals in, along with descriptions of what in particular I like or dislike about them. For the most part I recommend worsted weight woollen blend yarns for the animals, although for the pig and the elephant I prefer smooth cotton DK yarns which give a more skin-like appearance (see below). 

 

So, why Worsted weight?

Worsted weight (also known as 10ply) is midway between DK and Aran weight. Technically speaking it is designated as 'medium 4' by the yarn standards from the Craft yarn council with 9 wraps per inch (meaning that if you wound it around say the handle of a wooden spoon so that there were no gaps between the strands there would be 9 wraps of yarn in an inch). In practice there is a great deal of variance between different yarns marketed as worsted weight and even different worsted weight yarns from the same manufacturer vary surprisingly in thickness and knitted tension, let alone those between different manufacturers. FYI Ravelry has a really useful table with yarn weight comparisons. I do find however that overall yarns that are designated as worsted weight are the best to knit my animal patterns in (DK usually being too thin and Aran weight often too thick), worsted weight is usually just right - it's my 'Goldilocks' yarn weight :)

 

Important note on gauge and ball band information:

It is important to note that the information you'll read about recommended needle size and gauge on the ball band of any yarn is written with knitted garments in mind. When knitting garments you want to create a fairly loose knitted fabric that has a nice quality of drape. But when you are knitting toys or other objects that are three-dimensional and are going to be stuffed, knitting at a gauge suitable for clothing would be much too loose and mean that the stuffing showed through the gaps between stitches. This is the reason that I knit the toys with worsted weight yarn on 3mm (US 2.5) needles to give a gauge of 6 stitches and 9 rows per square inch (which is much tighter than recommended on worsted yarn ball bands) as then the resulting knitted fabric is nice and dense and doesn't stretch enough to let the stuffing show between stitches.

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Favourite Worsted weight yarns for Little Cotton rabbit animal patterns:

Note, I've linked to the Ravelry pages for each of these yarns, as that way you'll be able to see projects made from the yarns, what others think of the yarns and also links to local stockists. At the bottom of each yarn I've also linked to the manufacturers own website.

 

Cascade 220 Worsted / Cascade 220 Worsted heathers

A good strong pure wool yarn which comes in a huge range of dependable range of colours (by that I mean that in my experience the colours only vary a little between dye lots). It's hard wearing so doesn't pill easily or shed much fibre and knits up very well. The price is reasonable for the quantity. Put simply, it's a perfect all-rounder yarn and great for knitting my animals.

Particular favourite shades are 2440 Vinci (a warm brown used for the bears and parts of the boy bunny above), 9600 Antique heather (used in the sheep and the boy bunny above), 8011 Aspen heather a lovely light grey good for bunnies or elephants, 9491 Greystone heather - a dark grey.

Cascade's own website.

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Malabrigo worsted

This is a single ply worsted yarn which is beautifully soft and comes in lovely tonal colours. In my experience there can be a large degree of variance between dye lots so sometimes the skein I receive is not the exact colour I'd expected from looking at the computer image. That's because it is kettle dyed in small batches but this also makes for such beautiful colours many of which have variation in tones throughout the skein which looks great on the knitted animals. Being a single ply yarn this is not a strong yarn so isn't great for seaming with. Either use a different yarn to sew up the seams with or give the strand you sew up with a lot of extra twist in order to strengthen it (see the post here about seaming).

Particular favourite shades are Pearl and Polar morn (pale rabbity greys); SFO Sky and Comfy Junkie which have a lot of variance and make for extra interest; Rhodesian and glazed carrot are good for the fox; Roanoke, Dark Earth and Applewood are great for the bears.

Malabrigo website

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Blue Sky Woolstok

This is a lovely soft and strong marled yarn which gives extra interest to the knitted fabric. It's comes in lots of greys, browns and natural shades that are perfect for knitting bunnies and bears in.

Bluesky website

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Quince and Co Lark is a lovely pure American wool yarn. It comes in a great range of colours, is really nice to knit with and has great stitch definition.

Quince and Co Owl

This is a lovely lofty rustic yarn which is soft and bouncy and has subtle variation of tone and texture throughout the strand. It's composed of 50% American wool and 50% New Zealand alpaca. It's a 2ply construction and is not particularly strong so may need extra twisting when seaming or sewing the seams with a stronger yarn. Because it's lofty the animals may come out a tiny bit larger than those knitted in some of the other suggested yarns. There's a great range of greys, browns and neutral colours perfect for knitting bears and bunnies in.

Quince and Co website

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Other noteworthy yarns...

De Rerum Natura Gilliat , a lovely heathered and rustic yarn that knits up beautifully and comes in a great range of browns, greys, creams, rusts perfect for knitting the animals in. Ethically produced and ecological. It is a little on the 'tender' side so can break if used for sewing the seams, so I substitute a similar shade of cascade or similarly strong yarn in order to sew the seams.

Drops Nepal, incredibly good value wool and alpaca mix yarn with a good colour range, a little on the thick side so watch your gauge

Uncommon Thread Lush Worsted, beautifully hand-dyed luxury with a touch of cashmere for larger budgets and very special projects

Madeline Tosh Vintage, beautiful tonal hand-dyed yarn, on the expensive side so great for special projects

Lettlopi, rustic and interestingly textured Icelandic wool in a great range of natural colours

Adriafil Lana Naturale Inca, great natural colours with tweed effects, alpaca wool blend yarn

Rowan Pure Wool Superwash Worsted, good colour range, very similar in character to the Cascade 220 mentioned above

MillaMia naturally soft aran, soft (like it says on the label) and a little on the thick side so you get a little less yarn per ball than with some other brands

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Yarn combinations:

 

I've always enjoyed knitting with 2 different strands of yarn held together. This can give an interesting texture and you can create your own bespoke finish. Most often I enjoy marrying one thin strand of mohair with a DK weight tweedy yarn. Here are some suggestions

1 strand of Rowan Felted Tweed DK with 1 strand of Rowan Kidsilk Haze

1 stand of Rowan Kid Classic with 1 strand of Rowan Kidsilk Haze

1 strand of Willow and Lark Woodland with 1 strand of Willow and lark Plume

1 strand of Orkney angoras St Magnus with 1 strand of Rico Essentials Super kid mohair silk

1 strand of Jamieson's DK with 1 strand of Debbie Bliss Angel

 

Other very thin mohair mix yarns I've used (to be held double with another DK yarn):

Lana Grossa Silkhair

Austermann Kidsilk

ITO Sensai

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Favourite DK cotton blend yarns for the animals:

As mentioned above I prefer to knit the elephants and pigs in smooth cotton yarns that look a bit more like skin than fuzzy fur. With cotton yarns you'll need a DK not a worsted weight. This is because cotton yarns are much bulkier and rigid and so a worsted weight cotton yarn would be too thick to achieve the gauge needed for the animals at the recommended needle size.

Stylecraft Classique Cotton DK, a good range of colours and a nice soft strong cotton

King Cole Cottonsoft DK, very soft cotton but still strong, nice colour range

Katia Cotton 100%, a DK cotton with a wide colour range

Patons 100% Cotton DK, mercerised cotton so has a sheen, strong, slightly thin but a great colour range

Phildar Phil Ecocoton, 100% organic cotton, soft and strong

 

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This is not an exhaustive list and I'll be adding to this in future, so when I come across new yarns that I start using I'll update this post.

Another great source of yarn inspiration is the Ravelry group. You can look at the yarns that others are using and sometimes people also write up notes on what they thought of the yarn. You can see the yarn by looking up each individual project, for instance girl bunny.

Hope this helps, if you've found any yarns that you'd like to recommend please tell us all about them in the comments below.

(last updated on February 5th 2018)

Note: This is an un-sponsored post, I only mention yarns that I've bought with my own money and use in my own work.

 

A mattress stitch tutorial

 

Seaming. You either love it or hate it. Personally I'm a lover of seams, especially mattress stitch because it gives such a professional finish, so I thought I'd write a little about the benefits of using a mattress stitch seam and how best to work it on different knitted surfaces.

Granted, there are times when a seam is not always appropriate. Socks for instance are definitely better without seams but when it comes to toy knitting I'm a firm believer in seams as an integral part of shaping the finished toy.

It seems that for some seams are dreaded and actively disliked and perhaps the main reason is because seaming takes longer and after you've finished knitting something you don't want to spend ages finishing it off. However, I suspect that there are some who don't like seaming because they are never happy with the results. To those people I'd like to offer the following few little tips from my experiences and a few words of encouragement; you can do it, keep at it because practice really does make for perfect seams...

 

So what is mattress stitch?

It's a way of joining a vertical seam with a virtually invisible look on the front of the work, on the reverse there will be a raised selvedge, see here the front and back of a mattress seam:

 

The principles of mattress stitch are very simple, you work in the direction that the piece was knitted in and join the pieces together with right sides facing you, by sewing through one bar between stitches on one side of a seam and then a corresponding bar on the opposite side of the seam. When I say 'bar between stitches' this is what I mean:

In the picture below you can see I have numbered the 3 columns of stitches nearest to the edge of the work. Each single stitch makes a neat V shape with each row of stitches sitting neatly in the V of the stitch in the row below to create columns. Between every column of V shaped stitches there are horizontal bars running from the back of one stitch to the next (on the reverse of the work this is seen as a purl bump). These 'bars' between stitches are what you want to be sewing through when you work mattress stitch, it's commonly referred to as a 'channel between stitches' and the best channel to use is the one between stitch 1 (which is right on the edge of the work) and stitch 2, as shown here. Some people seam through 2 bars each time, now if you have a very long length to join this is probably a good choice but as all my patterns deal with small pieces I always seam through a single bar as I feel it gives a neater seam on most knitted fabrics.

 

What to sew with:

Before you begin, it's best to consider what you are going to sew your seam with and whether you are going to use the cast on tail end from the knitted piece or use a new length of yarn.

Usually I begin seaming with the cast on tail from the work (all of my patterns give instruction to leave a certain length of yarn when you cast on) but sometimes there are reasons why you might not want to do this:

1. the tail end you've left is too short
2. the yarn is not strong enough *
3. the yarn is expensive and you don't want to use it up on a seam.

In these instances you would cut a length of alternative yarn to seam with. This could either be a length of the same yarn your piece is knitted in or one of a similar colour.

*Going back briefly to point 2 above. If you have knitted in a single ply yarn or a softly plied wool you might find that the yarn breaks too easily to be used to sew a seam. I love knitting animals in Malabrigo worsted which is a single ply yarn but I've often found that half way up a seam the yarn just comes apart and then you have to unpick the seam and start again. You can strengthen any weak yarn by giving it extra twist. Do this by simply threading the needle with the tail end and twisting in the same direction as the yarn is plied until the yarn curls on itself. This will now be a much stronger yarn to seam with:

 

So back to seaming. Whether you use the cast on tail or a new length of yarn you need to begin by anchoring the bottom of the seam.

 

Anchoring the seam:

I always lead with piece on the right hand side of the seam, it seems to give a neater finish (but that could just be because I am right-handed), so here's how to set up so your first seam stitch is on the right hand side of the seam...

Assuming you are starting with the tail from the left hand piece:

1, take the yarn across to the right hand piece and sew downwards through a stitch on the cast on edge;

2, now sew upwards through the corresponding stitch on the left hand piece.

If your tail end is on the right hand piece just follow step 2 above.

Now you are ready to start the seam with the first stitch on the right hand of the seam and below are instructions for seaming 4 different surfaces:

 

1. Seaming smooth stocking stitch:

Making sure that you are working into the very first bar above the cast on edge, slide the tip of your needle through the bar between the first and second stitches...

(note: I've used blue yarn as the working yarn here simply for contrast so you can see more clearly, in reality it's best to use colour as similar to the work as possible)

... then slide the needle through the corresponding bar on the left hand piece

Keep working up along the length of the seam, alternating between the right hand side and the left. At this point it does not matter if the stitches are loose (see below).

Every inch or so you can pull gently on the working yarn to tighten then and draw the sides of the seam neatly together...

Unless otherwise instructed don't pull too tightly or the seam will pucker and become rigid (sometimes this will be useful depending on what you are seaming). If you find you have pulled too tightly you can gently lengthen the seam again, as mattress stitch forms a very fluid seam which will compress or stretch as required until you've tied it off at the end.

Once you have completely joined the sides it's best to tie off the end you've sewn with (to the cast off tail from the knitted piece) in order to anchor the seam. Then weave in the ends (I usually weave them in along the seam selvedge although bear in mind that depending on the yarn you've used this can make the seam a little bulkier).

 

2. Seaming stripes on stocking stitch:

Seaming stripes follows exactly the same process as above. The main issue is making sure that the stripes line up nicely. I find that leading with the right hand side gives the neatest alignment, so just make sure that you are sewing the first stitch of a new colour section through the right hand side before the left.

 

3. Seaming reverse stocking stitch:

This is a little more complicated, but only because on one side of the seam you want to sew through the top part of a stitch and on the opposite side you'll need to sew through the lower part. I've heard these referred to as 'frowns' and 'smiles', 'mountains' and 'valleys', 'uppers' and 'downers' and so on, you get the idea. Here's a picture to show what I mean: 1 is a lower bar (smile, valley, u, etc.) and 2 is an upper bar (mountain, frown, n etc) 

In order to seam reverse stocking stitch all you need to do is be consistent. I tend to use the lower bar for the right hand side of the seam and the upper bar for the left hand side but it doesn't matter which side you chose as the 'upper' and which as the 'lower', all that matters is that you are consistent once you have chosen.

Begin as above by anchoring the start of the seam and then beginning with the right hand side slide the tip of the needle through the first lower bar...

and then on the left side slide the tip through the corresponding row upper bar...

Work the length of the seam, alternating between the right hand side and the left. At this point it does not matter if the stitches are loose (see below).

Every inch or so you can pull gently on the working yarn to tighten then and draw the sides of the seam neatly together...

Unless otherwise instructed don't pull too tightly or the seam will pucker and become rigid (sometimes this will be useful depending on what you are seaming). If you find you have pulled too tightly you can gently lengthen the seam again, as mattress stitch forms a very fluid seam which will compress or stretch as required until you've tied it off at the end.

Once you have completely joined the sides it's best to tie off the end you've sewn with (to the cast off end from the piece) in order to anchor the seam and then weave in the ends (I usually weave them in along the seam selvedge although bear in mind that depending on the yarn you've used this can make the seam a little bulkier).

 

4. Seaming garter stitch:

In garter stitch every row is knitted, forming distinct purl ridges across the fabric. When seaming garter stitch I don't sew through the stitches on every row. Instead I ignore the bars on alternate 'smooth' rows and just sew through stitches on the 'bumpy' rows. I've found this gives a much neater seam. Here's a seam joined by sewing through a stitch from every row (both purl bumps on one row and smooth bars on the following row), it looks messy to me:

And here's a seam sewn by just using the stitches from the alternate 'bumpy' rows, which I think looks neater:

Simply use the same principles as for seaming reverse stocking stitch by sewing through upper bars on one side of the seam and lower bars on the other. Here I've sewn through the lower bar on the right hand side...

And the upper bar on the left-hand side...

Unless otherwise instructed don't pull too tightly or the seam will pucker and become rigid (sometimes this will be useful depending on what you are seaming). If you find you have pulled too tightly you can gently lengthen the seam again, as mattress stitch forms a very fluid seam which will compress or stretch as required until you've tied it off at the end.

Once you have completely joined the sides it's best to tie off the end you've sewn with (to the cast off end from the piece) in order to anchor the seam and then weave in the ends (I usually weave them in along the seam selvedge although bear in mind that depending on the yarn you've used this can make the seam a little bulkier).

 

Remedying possible problems:

Jumping channels:

Sometimes if your mind is wandering you can accidentally jump across channels between stitches. This will be very evident on the front of the work, here there is a noticeable step on the left hand side of the seam (see where the arrow is pointing to). It's easy to fix this by unpicking the work to the point just beneath the jump, see 'Unpicking in the event of a mistake' below. 

 

 

Out of alignment stripes/colour work:

When sewing stripes it's obviously important that they line up. Again I find that leading with the right hand side usually gives the best result. If you find you've missed a loop or your stripes are not aligned then it's best to pull out the seam and start again (see 'unpicking in the event of a mistake' below).

 

Sewing in the wrong channel between stitches (not making a neat V):

Sometimes you may accidentally sew through the bar in the centre V of a stitch instead of the bar between two stitches. This is what that seam will look like. You can see that the stitches immediately on the left of the seam are lying in the same direction as those on the right of the seam rather than mirroring them, so it looks like the central row of stitches has two left hand arms. It's a neat seam but not invisible and to correct this you'll need to unpick the seam and start it again  (see 'unpicking in the event of a mistake' below).

 

Unpicking in the event of a mistake:

One of the nice things about a mattress stitch seam is the ease with which it can be undone.

If you turn the work so that the wrong side is facing you'll see the selvedge seam. Bending that over you'll be able to see a little line of straight stitches running down the length of the seam these are the back of the mattress stitches (here I've used blue thread for contrast). Simply find the point that you need to unpick to and slide the tip of the needle underneath the stitch at that point and pull the working thread gently all the way through so unravelling all of the mattress stitches above that point. Then just re-thread your needle and continue seaming.

Well, that's it. I hope you find some of these tips useful and enjoy using them to finish your knitted projects neatly and professionally. If you have any questions ask away in the comments below and I'll do my best to answer them and if you have anything else you'd like me to cover in a future tutorial please let me know.

happy knitting and seaming :)

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