I have just recently started knitting again because our daughter is expecting so I am still very rusty at doing things.
I knitted this cardigan not having previously looked at how you finish it I tried to pick up the stitches for the border but as the edging is worked quite loose when I pick stitches up it’s not neat at all, does anyone have any ideas how I can finish it by another way please.
It appears to have a border…so you want to rip it and start over or add a border onto the edge I already see?
The pattern says to add a border to what you already see by picking up stitches but I can’t do that without making it look a mess
Have you picked up sts before? If not, look at the video and practice on a sample; even if you have, practice on a sample piece first.
I looked at the video and gave it a go but it didn’t look very neat, I will practice a bit and try again.
Do you think I could make a separate border of garter stitch 5 stitches wide and then sew it on to the existing border?
You could but that could be just as troublesome, getting the garter stitch to not stretch. Do you want one for button bands? You could just make loops instead.
Yes it’s for buttons the loops idea sounds good you wouldn’t have a link or picture of something like it would you so I can see how to do it.
Sorry to be a pain 
What I would do is attach the yarn at the edge, at the point where you would place a buttonhole, chain enough sts for the loop, then pull through the last chain st and fasten to the sweater. There’s an article that explains it on knitty; you wouldn’t need to crochet along the of the sweater, but that’s another idea…
Thank you so much Suzee 