How to Get a Neater Edge on Your Knitting

If you’re looking to refine your knitting techniques in the new year, or you’re new to knitting and wondering why your edges look so weird, you might enjoy this deep dive into edge stitches, why they look that way and what to do about it.

The truth is that your edge stitches are pretty much always going to look a little different from the stitches on the inside of your knit fabric. That’s just because of the way knit fabric is structured — all the other stitches have support on both sides, which helps even out the tension, but edge stitches don’t have that.

Also it’s super easy to change your tension on that last (or first) stitch, to pull too tight because you think it will make them look more even, or to leave it loose because of the way you’re making the stitch.

Nimble Needles dives into all of this in detail, showing exactly how those edge stitches can get wonky and how they often don’t look perfect even when you’re trying really hard to make sure they have the same tension as the other stitches in the project.

So what do we do about it? You’ll have to visit the blog post for all the details, but the answer is working selvedge stitches or slipped stitches at the edges of the work. This takes some experimentation to determine the method that works for you (and honestly a lot of practice to remember to do it consistently, which is probably why I don’t do it, because I just don’t remember to) but it does make a nice edge if the more organic look isn’t something you like.

You can find all the details at Nimble Needles.

Do you work the edge stitches any special way when you knit something flat? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Nimble Needles]

Five Fun Ways to Finish Your Knit Edges

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork.

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn.

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look.

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me.

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round.

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.

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