Treatment: reconfigure stitches into new design
Problem addressed: lack of visual appeal or personal connection
Ideal fabric type: stocking stitch (plain knit), of any weight
WHAT DOES IT INVOLVE?
First, plan a design. Open a row of your fabric to the width of the planned motif and hold the stitches safe. Expose the first stitch and ladder it, then reform the stitches into knits and purls. Repeat to form the design. Finally, graft the fabric closed.
WHAT COULD IT LOOK LIKE?
Structural designs made of knit and purl stitches; option to create double or triple gauge stitches.
The grafted row can contrast or tone in, depending on yarn choice.
Here are some finished projects:
Read more about completed stitch hack projects by viewing project gallery posts tagged ‘stitch hack’.
HOW DO I DO IT?
Step 1: open part row
Step 2: ladder and reform
Step 3: graft
HOW DO I DESIGN IT?
TOP TIPS
- Practise the techniques on some scrap fabric first
- Chunkier knits are easier to work with than fine gauge fabrics, but designs will be more ‘pixelated’
- Compact, fairly rectangular designs work best
- Single columns of purl stitches tend to disappear, so beef up vertical lines in your design
- You can ladder either up or down in plain stocking stitch fabric
- Buy latch tools from eBay – search for ‘latch tool’ or ‘micro braid tool’
- Print generic knit graph paper here, or create paper to your exact gauge here
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. You are free to copy, distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon any of the material on this page, for non-commercial or commercial purposes, as long as you credit Amy Twigger Holroyd/#reknitrevolution and use the same Creative Commons license for your new work. Please go forth and share!
Also, please note that these instructions are in beta mode; feedback is most welcome. Email comments to amy@keepandshare.co.uk.
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