Using a picot bind off to join-as-you-go in illicium (which could also be applied to Sempervivum)

As my Mother says,

Seaming up is where knitting projects go into the closet to die.

I’ve just written two modular blanket/shawl patterns, illicium with Twist Collective, and Sempervivum with Knotions.com.   I don’t want your finished objects to die; I want you to enjoy knitting those motifs, AND also to finish the project happily (then to post pretty photos on Ravelry linked back to my pattern page.)

I’ll be exploring 3 methods of knitted join as you go (JAGO) that will work with both of these patterns, if you allow a few extra yards of yarn for each motif:

For today, here is how to use the bind off like Mary Thomas’ picot cast on as a Join-As-You-Go (JAGO). I lay out the motif near the blanket to make sure I’ve got the edges lined up right with the sides I want to go together.

Aligning the motifs with the blanket to be joined
Aligning the motifs with the blanket to be joined

You can leave the loops loose and pick up and knit into them as you go, but I like to pick them all up at once so that the edge I’m going to bind off is on the needle with all the loops I’m going to join on the other one.

After picking up the loops from the other edges on the blanket
After picking up the loops from the other edges on the blanket

As I worked through the motifs, I did have to fudge it sometimes.  I’d get near a landmark part of the motif and make sure I had the same number of picot loops and stitches to get the parts lined up.  I might need a k2tog instead of a k1, or k3tog instead of a k2tog.

 

Joining motifs as  you go using picots, a tutorial

You don’t get to block the motifs before joining them so it’s a bigger project at the end, but a lot of crafters are used to blocking huge projects now.  So it’s probably a fine tradeoff.

Much better than motifs sitting in a bag in the closet!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *