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The wonderful Kitchener stitch

As a new knitter, I was afraid of anything that asked me to stray from the plain ol' knit and purl. I ventured a bit into yarnovers, knit 2 togethers, and slip slip knit because I was dying to knit lace fabrics, but that was as far as I wanted to go. It took more than 2 years for me to get circular needles and attempt to knit in the round. And after diving in head first into a cardigan project for my friend Kathleen with "interesting" results, I've shied away from knitting actual pieces of clothing that require seaming.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised when I tried my hand at the Kitchener stitch and realized it wasn't scary AT ALL! I mean, AT ALL. I love it! It's such a great skill for every knitter to have in their back pocket. My latest project is a custom order that required me to basically design an infinity scarf by looking at a photo. I didn't want to sew a seam because I suck at sewing. You can ask anyone I know. However, the beauty of the Kitchener stitch is that it doesn't require you to actually know how to sew a seam. There's a distinct order in which you sew the stitches, and the end result is barely discernible. Here is what my scarf looks like after I used the Kitchener stitch to seam the ends together.

Right Side of scarf


Wrong side of scarf

There's just a little kink in the scarf where I joined the two ends, but this kink will go away with a little blocking. Doesn't it look wonderful?

I'm not going to give a Kitchener stitch tutorial here because there's a perfect one over at KnittingHelp.com. Here is the link to that video tutorial. Their knitting tips page has a lot of video tutorials, and you would have to scroll down a bit to find this Kitchener stitch video, but it's definitely worth your while. Do check out the video and let me know what you think about this stitch.

Before I go, here are some pictures of 2 WIPs I'm currently laboring over. The first is a mustard and grey infinity scarf for one of my co-workers, and the second is the Purl Ridge Scarf by Stephen West, knit in my sunset color gradation combo. Both scarves are being knitted in Knit Picks Palette yarn, which is just fantastic to work with. See you all next week and have a fabulous rest of the week!





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