Finishing Workshop: Adding Knit Edgings to Projects

Yesterday I mentioned that the easiest way to add an edging onto a knitting project — if it’s not knit as you work the rest of the project, anyway — is to crochet a border. But if you don’t like the look of crochet or don’t know how to do it, there are other options.

The most common way to add a border as you go is to cast on some number of extra stitches at the edge of the project (how many depends on the pattern stitch requirement and the width of border you want), work across all but one of those stitches, then knit that last stitch together with the first stitch of the project, or use the decrease of your choice.

Working those two stitches together makes the border anchored to the rest of the project so that there’s no finishing to do later other than the weaving in of ends.

Miriam Felton has an excellent, photo-filled tutorial of how to do this on her website, which will show you how to go about adding an edging as you bind off. This is perfect for the edges of shawls, the bottoms of top-down sweaters, the tops of bottom up bags, etc.

Have you ever knit a border onto a piece of knitting? I’d love to hear how it went!

[Photo via Miriam Felton.]

Next Pattern:

I’ve shared a lot of Christmas stocking knitting patterns over the years (see posts 1, 2, 3 for example) but what if you want to knit a stocking for a non-human member of your family. If you’re looking for Christmas stocking knitting patterns for your cats or dogs, this is the post for you.

These large paw print stockings are perfect for either dogs or cats, so they’re great to knit if you have both. They are worked in the round using DK weight yarn, and the stocking measures about 17 inches/43 cm from the top to the heel. You can get the pattern from nicolaluke.

The K4 Project has a super cute Kitty Christmas stocking pattern, which is worked in worsted weight yarn. They also have a dog version, or you can buy both and get a discount if you have both dogs and cats to knit for. Both projects have two patterns, showing how to work the stockings flat or in the round.

Put your dog into a Christmas scene with this stocking pattern from ifanhourChild. It shows a dog in a dog house in the snow, and has room for the dog’s name at the top. It’s worked flat using worsted weight yarn and the pattern includes charts for many small and medium dog breeds (there’s a separate listing for bigger dogs) so you can stitch a dog that looks like yours.

Annie’s Woolens has both dog and cat stocking knitting patterns that are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round. You can change up the colors to suit your pet if you want, and they come with an alphabet chart for personalization. Or you can stick with holiday colors and buy a kit to make the dog or cat stocking.

Waiting for Santa Paws is a pattern from Kate Agner on Ravelry that would be cute for a dog or a cat. It looks like a leg with a paw print on the bottom part of the foot and more paw prints running around the top of the leg. This is a great option if you don’t want to mess with a heel turn because it doesn’t have a heel, because dogs and cats don’t have heels so why would their stockings?

Book Review – 20 to Knit: Tiny Christmas Toys to Knit

Book Review – Knit Christmas Stockings

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