By Karen Wehrle

Have your poor knitting finishing techniques ever ruined a hand-knitted sweater? Then you already know there’s a radical difference between a beautiful hand-crafted sweater and one that screams home-made because of bad seams. One secret to success with seams is blocking your pieces before you join them. Your edges will lie flat so they cooperate with you as you stitch. Let’s examine how the mattress stitch joins side seams and shoulder seams.

Side Seams Can Vanish

The mattress stitch (odd name, eh?) can join two pieces of knitting side-to-side as you join a back and front of a sweater. Because knit stitches run vertically on both pieces, this seam is so invisible, it disappears.

Bar Hopping

If you pull on one edge of your knitting, you’ll see little bars connect columns of stitches. You can use bars inside the edge stitch or between the first two stitches. Whichever you choose, use it on both pieces. This ensures your seam will disappear with no odd half stitch in sight.

Most often you seam with whatever yarn you knitted with. Exceptions include very heavy yarn, which makes too bulky a seam, or novelty yarn that’s either so breakable or lumpy you can’t pull it through stitches. You can choose embroidery or sock yarn instead, whichever best matches your sweater in color and washability.

Working from the front with a darning needle threaded with yarn, slide your needle tip under the bottom bar on one piece. Pull your needle through, leaving a tail you’ll weave in later. Now slide your needle under the bottom bar on your other piece and pull it through. One strand of yarn loosely connects both pieces.

Go back to your first piece, slide under the next bar up. Back to your second piece, slide under the next bar up. Back and forth you go as you work upward bar by bar, leaving your yarn somewhat loose for now. After you’ve done an inch or two, you can tug the yarn so it snugs both pieces of knitting together. It’s magical how your seam disappears, eh?

Shoulder Seams Have Legs

When you join a sweater front and back at the shoulder, you join bound off edges. Instead of sliding your needle under a bar, slide it under both legs of the first knit stitch on one piece. Ignore the bound off edge. On your other piece, slide your needle under both legs of the first stitch, again ignoring the bound off edge. Work back and forth as you connect both pieces of knitting. When you tug the yarn, the seam closes over both bound off edges making them disappear inside the sweater.

These two ways of using the mattress stitch will join most of your sweater pieces. What’s left is the worst seam of all: sewing a set-in sleeve into an armhole. Conquer this knitting finishing technique and you can do anything.

Remember, you knit for fun, relaxation and productive results. For tips on success with setting in sleeves

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By Karen Wehrle

The most challenging sweater seam of all is when you sew a set-in sleeve into an armhole. Two things can trip you up, even when you use the mattress stitch that can join sides, tops, and mismatched pieces of knitting. Use these tips for success.

This Curve Goes Into That Curve…How?

One reason sewing a curved sleeve cap into a sweater armhole offers trouble is because so often it seems like there’s too much sleeve or too big an armhole. If you pin or clip your sleeve into the armhole, you can ease any excess evenly. Plastic stitch markers shaped like a safety pin work great. There are special clips for this, also. Clothes pins, safety pins, or straight pins work.

Divide and Conquer

If you fold your sleeve down the center, you’ll find the center point at the top. Pin this spot to the shoulder seam of your sweater. Pin the front corner of your sleeve cap to the underarm corner of your front piece. Pin the back corner of your sleeve cap to the underarm corner of your back piece.

Now two more pins: one center front, one center back. They’ll connect a midpoint of the sleeve and a midpoint of the armhole together at both front and back. How’s it going? Need more pins? Another pin midway between your existing pins will help close each gap. By now your sleeve and armhole opening may seem well matched for a happy marriage.

Ready, Set, Sew

With a good length of yarn on your darning needle, push your needle up through the end of the shoulder seam and pull half your yarn through. Leave the other half dangle until you sew down the other side later.

Up the Down Staircase

The second challenge about sewing in sleeves is how the direction of your knitting changes as you go. At the sleeve top, you join vertical columns of sleeve stitches to side edges of sweater stitches. Slide your needle under both legs of a sleeve stitch, then slide it under a bar between sweater stitches.

After a few inches, your sleeve cap curves so you’ll join sides of stitches like it’s a side seam. You can slide under bars here. When you reach bound off stitches at the underarm, you’ll join vertical columns like it’s a shoulder seam. You can slide under both legs of stitches here.

Besides the mattress stitch, other knitting finishing techniques include the whip stitch, running stitch, back stitch, a crochet join and more for seaming. Some give your knitting a different look, or serve a different purpose, like making a handle, or give your knitting a decorative touch.

Remember, you knit for fun, relaxation and productive results. Get more tips on success with sweater seams

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karen_Wehrle

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