Friday Finishing Series, Techniques

Friday Finishing Part Six

Today’s topic for Friday Finishing is Mattress stitch seaming in Ribbing fabric.

Once you’ve worked your Figure 8 start to line up the cast on edges (view that blog post and video here), you are ready to work your seam.

Here is a video tutorial I made on working mattress stitch in K1P1 and K2P2 fabric:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-Ov4tdt-jU]

The keys to working a good mattress stitch seam in ribbing are:

  1. Plan ahead in order to place the seam ‘in the ditch’. For K1P1 ribbing, the right-hand piece should end with either a knit or a purl, and the left-hand piece should begin with the opposite stitch.  The pieces should be as follows: (K1P1K1 — P1K1P1) or (P1K1P1 — K1P1K1) where “–” is the seam location.For K2P2 ribbing, add a selvedge stitch at each seam edge if needed, in order to have an extra stitch that can be used in the seam while still maintaining the stitch pattern across the seam. The pieces should be as follows: (K2P2K3 — P3K2P2) or (P2K2P3 — K3P2K2) where “–” is the seam location.
  2. Make sure you are picking up every single row as you seam.
  3. Pull the seaming thread tight, but not too tight or the seam will pucker. Make sure there is still a bit of give to the fabric vertically along the seam.

Then you can finish off the seam at the bind off edges (view that post and video here).

Next week we’ll cover working a horizontal to horizontal seam.

Until then, Happy Knitting!

 

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