Fix curling on a FINISHED stockinette scarf?

How-to Questions
1

Hi all,

I’m fairly new to knitting (this is only my second project) and I stupidly started knitting a scarf using stockinette and reverse stockinette without looking into how to fix curling first (I didn’t expect it to happen)!

I now realise that I must knit a garter stitch border around my work to prevent it curling, but what can I do to my scarf which is already in progress? I.e. can I weave some wool around the edges in a certain way etc… It’s really affecting the width of my scarf as I was hoping to end up with a lovely thick, chunky one for winter!

Any help will be appreciated :slight_smile:

2

It is the nature of stockinette to curl. Even a deep border may not solve the problem. Stockinette has been know to flip the border too.

I haven’t tried this method but it may work for you. You let a stitch ladder down and then work it back up on the opposite side to introduce a rib instead of plain stockinette.


This is part of a 4 part series.
You’re scarf looks lovely overall!

3

You don’t want to read this. You’ve been warned. IMO the best thing to do would be to start over and incorporate a border in garter stitch or seed stitch from the beginning. Otherwise you can work a border around it when you’ve finished, that will help.

ETA I just saw salmonmac’s post. I like that idea!

4

Thanks for the suggestions! GrumpyGramma I did think about starting again a few rows back but it made me sad… so I just carried on hoping that it wouldn’t be TOO awful when it’s finished! I’m going to sew 2 chunky wooden buttons on either side of the cable (in the stockinette sections) and make 2 button holes on the other end of the scarf so it will fasten up, perhaps that might help it lie a bit more flat when it’s on.

Salmonmac I like your suggestion, it’s a bit daunting but worth a try I suppose! Thanks for sharing that link :slight_smile: I wonder if dropping just one stitch all the way down will be enough though, it’s quite difficult to do any more as I only have 4 stockinettes either side of the cable.

I think I’ll finish this scarf then knit the exact same thing again with a border and see if that makes a difference, at least it was good practice and I’ve learnt a good lesson haha :wink: