Finishing Workshop: Mattress Stitch

I think when so many people said they were interested in information on finishing, what they really wanted to know, at least in part, was how to seam together knit pieces so they look their best. And if you’re working with pieces knit in stockinette stitch — or with selvedge stitches so the seaming is done over stockinette — you’re talking about mattress stitch.

Mattress stitch is something that seems (and I have to be honest and tell you I typed “seams” there first) mysterious and complicated before you do it, but once you understand how to do it and where you need to take your stitches, it’s actually pretty easy.

If you kind of pull on the edge of the knitting you’ll see the ladders between the stitches, and that is where you need to work. Just pick up a ladder on one piece, then the other. Don’t worry about pulling it tight in the beginning, just work an inch or so of stitches, then pull snugly enough so that the seam closes up and makes the knitting look like one continuous piece.

Getting your tension right is key because you want it to look seamless on the outside: not too tight or too loose. I like to pull pretty tight on the yarn, then pull the knitting along the seam to make sure that the seam doesn’t feel too firm.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that you’re always stitching up the same column of ladders. Some people like to seam a half stitch in, some a whole (a whole stitch is a lot easier, to me) and it doesn’t really matter so long as you do it consistently.

My tutorial on mattress stitch is linked above, but there’s also a good video from Knitting Help that may, well, help. The article on mattress stitch from Knitty includes how to do it on garter stitch, which I cover in a separate tutorial.

Have you mastered mattress stitch? I’d love to hear how you like it or if you have any tips to share.

Next Pattern:

I don’t know if it’s possible to look at the Snug Wrap from Sylvia Watts-Cherry and not smile. There’s so much fun stuff going on in it that if I had a bunch of sport weight yarn in my house I definitely would have cast this one on immediately after seeing it.

There’s stripes and circles of different sizes and colors, worked with intarsia. The wrap is worked sideways in both garter stitch and stockinette, so different sections also have different textures. Color blocking means you’ll use a lot of two main colors, and there are two more colors used for contrast throughout the piece.

As I mentioned, the project calls for sport weight yarn, and it’s already pretty big — 23.25 by 82 inches or 59 by 208 cm — so you probably wouldn’t want to use heavier yarn unless you just want to make it a super scarf. You could use even lighter yarn to make it more of a scarf than a shawl if you wanted.

The yarn used is a combination of Merino wool and recycled threads from La Bien Aimée’s yarn making process, so it’s a fun way to reduce waste while making something awesome.

The color motifs are depicted in charts in the pattern, but none of these are difficult so even if you’re new to chart reading you should be able to handle this pattern. The colors in the sample are so pretty but you can of course change it up with your favorites that will make you smile as you knit and wear this super fun pattern.

As usual, checking out the projects tab on Ravelry will show you some more fun color options. I love the idea of using jewel tones to give it a more wintry look, but the sky is the limit when it comes to color options.

You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Sylvia Watts-Cherry]

Next Pattern:

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