Neat Edge...

[cheley]

Just got my new book Stitch-n-Bitch yea, I'm a couple of years behind!!! Anyway she mentions a method for a nice edge: K or P first st then put needle in second st but do nothing, Stop and pull the yarn tight then go on kintting...Is that just slipping the st..

[Ingrid]

When you slip the first stitch, you don't knit or purl it--you just move it from one needle to the other. That way works to keep a tight edge, too, though.

[five_six]

you continue knitting once you've pulled on the yarn it's just telling you to do it as a step between knitting the first and second stitch. Conversely you can do as Ingrid suggested and just slip the first stitch then knit the rest, it will be knit on the next row.

[cheley]

"pull" what yarn????? K or P first st, needle in second st, but don't do anything (work it) just pull the yarn tight and continue...again, what yarn am I pulling???

[Ingrid]

You're pulling your working yarn. Since the first stitch is frequently loose since it is only attached to the stitch that follows rather than to one before and after it, by pulling the yarn and holding it tight as you knit the second stitch, you tighten up the first one.

[suzeeq]

Here's a question for y'all.... I'm finally slipping my first stitches because I'm doing an entrelac scarf and the slipped stitches lie flatter on the back side. The knit rows are working out all right by knitting the last stitch on the previous row and slipping pwise, but the purl stitch is still loopy and too loose. Yes, I pull, it doesn't help. I tried purling the last stitch on the previous row and slipping it kwise, but that's worse. Any tricks for slipping the first stitch on a purl row?

sue

[Ingrid]

When I do a slipped-stitch edge, I always knit the last stitch.

[suzeeq]

When I do a slipped-stitch edge, I always knit the last stitch.

But that's normal for stockinette on the knit side row. It leaves a really loose stitch to slip the purl stitch to do that. Which is why I've never liked it when doing scarves and things, so haven't done it. Not only is the stitch loose, when I pick up along those stitches, it sort of pulls on the stitches next to the edge and doesn't look so good.

sue

[janelanespaintbrush]

Cheley: I don't own that book so I can't refer to it, but I agree with Dee that she is probably describing a technique that simply has you tighten up the second stitch of the row a little bit (no slipping involved). In the version I use, you do the first stitch normally, and then stick the right needle point into the next stitch as usual, but before completing it, tug a little on the working yarn to tighten. (I think keeping the right needle point under the stitch while pulling keeps it from getting too tight.)

A slipped stitch selvage is easier to do (IMO), but there may be times when you don't want a chain selvage because it doesn't match, or makes the edge tighter than you'd like.

If your edges are still loose when you do the second stitch tightening thing, you can also try to just consciously knit the last few stitches of a row a little more tightly than usual. That's supposed to help too.

Sue: This is something I've read up on (can you tell?) because loose edges really bug me. There are several ways to get a chain selvage, and all of them look pretty similar, but according to one source, the "technically superior" one when using stockinette is to slip 1 knitwise on knit rows and slip 1 purlwise on purl rows. (The last stitches of a row are not modified at all so the last stitch of a knit row will be a knit, and the last stitch of a purl row will be a purl.) It's different from what you've been doing, so you might want to try it and see whether you get a better result. The main advantage to this particular method over other chain methods is that your working yarn will be in the correct position when you start the next row -- though it sounds unlikely, it's conceivable that less manipulation of the working yarn will result in less looseness for you. Who knows? It's worth a shot, anyway. You can try the tightening the second stitch thing too.

P.S. Where did you happen to get your chain selvage instructions? It's not a version I can find in any of my books. Is it possible you mis-read it? If so, that could be the source of the problem.

[suzeeq]

Sue: This is something I've read up on (can you tell?) because loose edges really bug me. There are several ways to get a chain selvage, and all of them look pretty similar, but according to one source, the "technically superior" one when using stockinette is to slip 1 knitwise on knit rows and slip 1 purlwise on purl rows. (The last stitches of a row are not modified at all so the last stitch of a knit row will be a knit, and the last stitch of a purl row will be a purl.) It's different from what you've been doing, so you might want to try it and see whether you get a better result. The main advantage to this particular method over other chain methods is that your working yarn will be in the correct position when you start the next row -- though it sounds unlikely, it's conceivable that less manipulation of the working yarn will result in less looseness for you. Who knows? It's worth a shot, anyway. You can try the tightening the second stitch thing too.

P.S. Where did you happen to get your chain selvage instructions? It's not a version I can find in any of my books. Is it possible you mis-read it? If so, that could be the source of the problem.

I've done the regular sl kw on knit rows and sl pw on purl rows and they're just really loose. Maybe because I don't use teeny needles (less than 10s). The purlside chain idea is something I made up based on Ingrid's suggestion of knitting the last st on a purl row, then slip that pwise on the knit side. I just reversed it for the purl rows. It's slightly better than just slipping pw on the p row, but not much.

sue