The Knitting Fiend

I hate seaming. Hate, hate, hate!

I also didn’t want to knit this afghan all in one piece, so I knit panels. Now, I “gotta pay the piper”. It’s really not that bad when the pieces are straight strips.

I start by laying the strips on the floor and holding them together with snips of yarn. Then, I thread a tapestry needle and insert it parallel to and one stitch in from the edge, as shown to the left. Notice the needle goes the horizontal bar of a stitch and than emerges above it. I draw the yarn through and repeat on the other side.

Next, I repeat back on the first side. I can’t show it well in photo’s but to make a tight seam, I insert the tip and in the hole it came out the previous time– that is, I don’t skip any bars. I also find it’s often easier to seam if I slip the first stitch every row, and I did do that this time. Some people prefer not to slip and they end up with very tight seams.

Usually, when I see instructions for seaming, the illustrations show the knitter pulling yarn to tighten the seam every time they create a stitch. As you can see above and to the left, I don’t. I create a few stitches, then, eventually, I draw them tight.

I’d estimate I draw them tight every 5 or 10 stitches sewn. It depends a bit on the yarn. With fuzzy mohair type yarns, I draw the seam tight sooner; mohair sort of “sticks” which can be difficult to draw evenly if you wait to long. With slick cotton yarns draw tight when I start running out of yarn on my tapestry needle.

I’d like to “coo” and say I’ll enjoy cuddling and staying warm under this when I’m done but it’s August. Who wants to think about staying warm in August?

Of course, I will enjoy cuddling and staying warm.