I’ve already written about Mary Thomas’ Picot Cast-on and My nearly matching Bind off. I renewed my enthusiasm for them when I heard someone at the sit and knit ask if the motifs I was knitting could be joined as you knit.
Well, no those can’t.
But I’d just borrowed Barbara Abbey’s Knitted Lace from the library, and she wrote about the faggoted selvage and how that saved time in joining strips of knitted lace, you linked the picots like the loops in hairpin lace or the edge loops in woven pot holders to make a large mat. This means that there is a stitch based way to join the motifs, but you don’t have to preserve the live stitches to do it.
You can block the motifs before sewing them so your huge whatever feels like a project that is going somewhere, not an endless question mark. You can even construct one of those cool block them all at once set ups like Franklin Habit illustrated. The next post will cover Barbara Abbey’s faggoted selvage, and a selvage that matches Mary Thomas’s Picot Cast on. Matching cast on and bind off are exciting in and of themselves but when you can use them to avoid sewing, that’s thrilling.
To join with a crochet hook:
Slip the hook into one loop.
*Grasp the next loop on the other motif and pull it through, slipping the loop off.
Repeat from *.
To join with knitting needles, slip all the loops of one motif onto one needle, and all the loops of the other motif onto another needle. Or opposite ends of a circular needle, that will work too.
Slip the first stitch from the left needle onto the right needle.
Slip the second stitch on the right needle over and off the first stitch.
*Slip the next two stitches from the right needle onto the left needle.
Slip the second stitch on the left needle over and off the first stitch.
Slip the next two stitches from the left needle onto the right needle.
Lift the second stitch over and off the right needle. Repeat from * Continue until you have one loop left. Aim your lacing to a spot where you have a yarn end to weave in, pull that end through your last loop before you weave it in, to keep your lacing from unravelling. If you want to leave it live for a while, put a closed loop marker though it.
The lacing looks the same on both sides, unless you work it so that one side looks like an color alternating chain stitch.
There will be four posts on this topic: