“We know not why or what, yet weave, forever weave.”
–Weave in, My Hardy Life, Walt Whitman, 1819 – 1892
“I love to weave in ends!” said no knitter ever. As knitters, we love to start a new project, work it, and finish it. Not every knitter, however, loves to weave in the ends when it is done.
As in many aspects of knitting, I have my own self-imposed “rules” regarding ends.
1. Always leave plenty of yarn at any possible seam area, and leave at least 4-6″ worth of yarn in join areas. Remember, you are not “wasting” yarn here, this is actually useful!
2. Do not weave in ends prematurely. If you need to take out any portion of the work, having the ends already woven in makes this task a pain. Seaming is much easier to do before the ends are woven in.
3. Choose the best method of weaving with consideration to the project and where the weave is in the knitting.
Now, there are many ways to weave ends in knitting. Here is the ultimate goal: hide the ends and make it look good. For most seaming, use a blunt tipped tapestry needle. To split the fibers on fine yarns, a sharp tipped tapestry needle is useful. When you have an extremely thick yarn, you may want to split the yarn into more than one strand as this reduces extra bulk in an area. In the back of my mind, I have synonyms for weaving: entwine, incorporate, intertwine, sew, splice, interlace, interlink, merge, move in and out, whip through.
Whenever there is a seam handy, weave ends into the seam.
Weaving under purl bumps diagonally is a fine, easy, all-purpose weave.
Weaving ends horizontally is also an easy method.
Take care when weaving vertically as this method has a tendency to show through to the right side.
Duplicate stitch weaving is the best for items that are reversible or where the weaving might show otherwise, for instance a very fine gauge and yarn. While a bit trickier than other ways of weaving in ends, it mimics the knit stitch exactly and comes close to being invisible. This is the ultimate.
If you have a lot of ends to weave in, do it while chatting with friends or family to make it seem like less of a chore.
So there you have it! Not so bad, after all. Now go weave in some ends while you are all fired up about it!
It is helpful to save a label, tie a piece of the yarn to it and tape it to the notes.
Needle size, yarn, gauge, etc. If I remember, I put knots in the ends of the swatch for the needle size I am using. 8 knots= Size 8 needle. Keep the swatch forever. No, you are not “wasting” yarn. This is the best use of your yarn! Put all of your swatches in a container together. If you need that little bit of extra yarn at the very end of your project, you have it. What if the knitted item needs a repair in a few years? You have the yarn. Labeled. Good job.
Picking up along the side edge of garter stitch is fun and easy. Since garter stitch is a square stitch (the height and width of garter is the same), you will pick up a stitch in every other row along the side edges. If you look at the edge of a garter stitch sample, you will see what appears to be “knots” along the side. If you pick up inside every knot it is the same as picking up a stitch in every other row. Instead of placing your needle into this spot, it is so much easier to pick up a single strand between the knots. This makes the picked up edge flat with no bulky garter stitch seam.
Pick up every stitch in garter along a bind off or cast on.
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There are a couple of ways to look at the knit stitch. If you are working a piece flat, back and forth, the fabric that is produced by the knit stitch is referred to as “garter”. This fabric is bumpy on both sides, and has furrows. Mind you, if you worked a flat piece back and forth in all purl, it would still produce garter fabric. (Remember, purl is mirror of knit, so if you only purl a flat piece, you will get the same result as if you only knit a flat piece.)
