SEAMING YOUR WORK TOGETHER THE RIGHT WAY - A Tutorial

…also called Mattress stitch, weaving, grafting but whatever you call it, here is how you do it...as promised.

You will need:   -A good tapestry needle or yarn needle with a blunt point.

                    - A few safety pins to hold your work.

                     -a pair or scissors to cut off the ends of your tails.

By learning this easy way of weaving invisible seams which is worked on the outside or right side of your work, you will have a very nice finished product that looks seamless, which is after all, what we are trying to achieve. There is no point of going to all the work knitting a lovely garment only to have it downgraded because of the way it is seamed together. 

   When you pick up a piece of your knitted fabric note that the side edge curls under to the purl side – particularly if it is a stocking stitch piece.    Slipped stitch selvedge edges don’t curl quite so much…but they still curl.  This is normal.

Use your thumb and forefinger to un-curl the side edge.  Notice the long loops and small knots.   We will be weaving through the long loops from the right side.

Here we go:

First of all make sure your cast-on edges are at the bottom of the two pieces you are seaming as they face you laying side by side and the right sides of the work are facing you..  You wouldn't want to go to all this work and find you've seamed one piece upside down! 

To keep things steady, pin the top of the two pieces together, and place another pin about half way down.  These pins will be removed as you weave your way up the sides.

Thread your tapestry needle with a length of yarn about 20 inches or 50 cm long.  By keeping your seaming yarn fairly short, you eliminate the risk of the yarn fraying.  When you run out of yarn, just cut another piece, leave a tail and continue seaming up the side.  These ends will be tailed in when you finish weaving.

  

Using your thumb and forefinger to un-curl the fabric on the left hand piece, bring your threaded needle up from underneath into the bottom outer edge.  Leave about a 6 inch tail.  Take your needle across to the right hand piece and go down into the bottom outer edge to join the two pieces but don’t pull up tight yet.  Make sure the bottoms of your two pieces are even. Join the two pieces together at the bottom.  You can tie a loose knot in your tail at this point:

                                    

                         

Staying on the right hand piece, from underneath, bring your needle up into the first long loop.  Go across to the left hand piece and take your needle down into the first long loop and up into the next long loop on the same side. 

Go back across and take your needle down in the same loop you came out of on the right hand side, and up into the next long loop on this side.   Now go back across the gap to the left hand side and take your needle down into the same loop you came out of on the left hand piece, and up into the next long loop on the same side.  Now...take a breath.  Things are going well.

Repeat this process up the side of your two pieces making sure you continue to roll the knitted fabric right out to the edge before inserting the needle into the long loops.

After you have made about 6-8 weaving stitches, stop and pull quite firmly on the weaving yarn to pull the two pieces together.  They will look as if they are one piece.   Pretty neat eh?

                                           

Continue until you have sewn both pieces together from bottom to top.   You may have to juggle one side or the other slightly to compensate for a difference in the number or rows, by inserting your needle into a knot between the loops.  Knitting is elastic so things should work out. 

Weave in your ends on the wrong side of your work as follows:

Thread the tail to be woven onto your tapestry needle.  Now take the needle and pick up the backs of the knit stitches on the diagonal for about an inch.  Pull your thread through gently.  Don’t pull up tight. Now, change directions and pick up the backs of your stitches in the opposite direction, again for about an inch.  .  Trim the tail close.  Use your tapestry needle to fray the ends of your cut off tail and then stretch the area of the weave just a little to set the weave. 

Weaving bound off stitches together .

You’ve bound off your shoulder stitches.  Now you need to weave the back and front shoulders together.   Still working from the right side – here is how you do it.

Thread your needle with about 50 cm of your weaving yarn.  Lay your two pieces out, right sides up, top next to bottom.

From the back side, insert the needle up between the first and second strand of yarn on the right hand side of the lower piece just below the bind off edge.  Take your needle across to the upper piece, and insert it down into the corresponding place on this piece.   Staying with the upper piece, bring the needle up two strands to the left , just above the bind off edge this time.

Go across the gap, into the lower piece, go down in the same place you came out of, and up two strands to the left.   Go back across the gap into the upper piece.  Repeat this procedure until your shoulders are woven together.

After you have made a few weaving stitches, stop and pull firmly on the working thread.  Notice, the bind off ridge disappears and the two pieces merge just like magic.

You can use this weaving method whether you have a straight shoulder seam or a graduated shoulder seam. 

THREE NEEDLE BIND OFF:   

If your shoulder seams are resting on a stitch holder or spare needle, here is how you bind or cast them off  together.

Hold together your shoulder pieces with the stitches on the holders or on two knitting needles, wrong sides are together , right sides both facing out.   The stitches should match. In other words, you have the same number of stitches on the back holder or needle as on the front.  With a third knitting needle bind off both front and back stitches as if they are one.  There will be a seam showing here.  This is not invisible.  A note here - you can transfer the live stitches to knitting needles to be bound off, or leave them on the holders - this is your preference.

 By the way, here are plenty of good resource books out there, and many U-Tube videos of course to walk you through these processes.  Some are better than others. 

Check out www.knittinghelp.com  on line for good steady demonstrations..

You may also want to check out books by Maggie Righetti, Elizabeth Zimmerman, Barbara Walker, Mary Thomas, and Vicki Squires, the gurus of the knitting world.    You can find these books on Amazon.