Knit Neat – 5 Tips to Tidy Annoying Details

I put this list together because I was amazed to find how many of the small knitty gritty details of knitting can be improved with simple tricks. I had come to accept that little holes here, and a bit of looseness there were in the nature of knitting, but knitting is a far more flexible art, and once you develop a familiarity with the way stitches work, you begin to realise that there must be solutions to neaten things up. TECHKnitting is such an amazing resource that I frequently go there looking for something and get lost in all the fascinating articles. So I thought I’d choose 5 of the articles I think have the widest range of application; that is, you are certain to need them in most of the projects you knit. I think if we all got into the habit of following these tricks, we could consider our knitting truly ‘professional’.

Chain selvedge a.k.a. “slipped selvedge“
Selvedge stitches are one of the easiest ways to tidy up the edges of knitting, and slipped selvedges look particularly attractive. Once you learn this easy technique, it becomes second nature!

Joining circular knitting–the 3-in-1 TECHjoin! & Ordinary chain bind off, part 3: binding off circular knits
The small gap at the join of circular knitting, and the annoying dip at the bind off are results of the spiralling nature of knitting in the round. But they don’t have to look messy!

Casting on additional stitches at the end of a row by the loop cast-on method: a trick for beautiful edges
Casting on stitches using the loop method is very handy in many instances, such as making buttonholes, but it can often lead to a loose, messy cast on edge. TECHKnitter shows you how easy it is to solve this problem.

Crossing stitches: one way to avoid a hole on a vertical opening in knitwear
This is probably my favourite technique! When you have a vertical opening such as the base of a neckline or sleeve, you get left with one lonely strand on the row below, trying to hold things together on its own. The solution is to cross stitches on this row, just below where the knitting will be dividing. If you can cable, you can use this method. It’s so simple!