Kitchener Stitch under arms of sweater - holes at the side?

#1

Hi,

i am just finishing off my first sweater (hoooray!) that I designed myself (double hooray!) after Elisabeth Zimmermann’s percentage pattern. You are supposed to knit in the round, both sleeves and body, and then bind off under the arms with Kitchener Stitch. I just did that. Maybe it is because I used really bulky yarn or not sure why, but at the side of the Kitchener where the arms join body the stitches have stretched quite a bit and so there are terrific holes there. What do I do now? How do I get rid of them in a pretty elegant way?
Any help is much appreciated! Thanks!

#2

Hi!
I have had that problem a few times wherever these “rectangular corners” meet. The one stitch often does stretch out (for example on the tumb-edge of a glove.

I do turn it inside out and close it up from the inside. Technique? Free-hand sewing, I would say. Sometimes you can pull in the yarn that is to long and just pin it down with a few stitches. Sometimes I just sew the hole closed. As long as you work on the inside and it is not visible from the outside /and does not create a lump: anything is fine!

#3

Yes, it can be fixed from the inside, but I usually do it from the right side of the sweater, that way you can see clearly what is happening. With me it is not a real science. I always feel like I don’t know exactly what I’m doing, but feel my way along on these types of fixes. One thing that really helps me is to think about how duplicate stitch works. There is usually a place where you can apply a duplicate stitch or two that pulls everything together quite invisibly.

#4

Great! It worked thanks!