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How to Become an "Expert Knitter"   *Buy this book on CD for offline reading!

table of contents » chapter 18 (of 29)

18: Sewing Needles & Threads for Seams

Use a blunt ended needle with a large eye when joining seams. The size of the needle should be in proportion to the thickness of the yarn used and the size of the stitches. This is where you find that owning just one wool darning needle is not enough. If a thick needle is used on a thin, fine knitted fabric, the small stitches could stretch, and the needle will be hard to pull through the firm knitting. By contrast, a small needle will be hard to thread with a thick yarn [pic 1].


1: You need a collection of needles to allow for varied yarns and different uses.

When joining a seam, the point should be blunt, because the needle is used to guide the thread past, around, over, or under the yarn of the stitch without piercing it [pic 2].


2: A blunt ended needle avoids piercing the thread.

Change to a sharp needle when sewing in ends, because you will need to push the needle through the thickness at the back of the seam. The end has to be lodged in place so firmly that it will not pop out in wear. Sew in ends after all the seams have been worked, because then you have somewhere to hide the ends [pic 3].


3: Use a sharp needle to stitch an end in place.

The best yarn to use when making seams is the yarn you have used for the garment. Don’t use sewing thread, as this will not be the right thickness to make a matching seam, and thin, strong threads can cut into softer knitting yarns.

When joining garments made with areas of different colours, use the long threads left when adding the colour to the fabric during the knitting, or when finishing the colour. These long ends are already joined to the work, they are the correct colour, and are in the right place [pic 4,5].

   
4: (left) Ends at a colour change are in the right place to use for a colour matched seam.
5: (right) Change the colour to match.

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