Hello
Some advice on how to improve my applied border please.
I have a swatch I’m practising on.
The top section has live stitches from a provisional cast on. This is where I am applying the border using k2tog with the last border stitch and 1 live stitch.
The red lines show the stitches which are very loose and ugly sitting on top of the border. There is no neat edge, these loose stitches continue across.
The blue line is roughly where I increased needle size to improve the border fabric. The loose stitches are the same. Ugly.
I thought it might help to knit a row o to the live stitches before applying the border. The yellow line shows roughly where this took place. The transition is a little improved as the loose stitches are now in the border colour but even so they are big and producing holes at each k2tog join. The orange arrow point to the loose joining stitches and holes.
It’s not at all how I imagined an applied border. I thought it would be a smooth join and pretty snug and neat.
Am I doing something wrong or are there tips for improvement please?
My initial thought was that an applied border would
Avoid sewing on a border
Avoid any tightness of having a seam as this will be on the bottom of a vest top so I’d like the stretch.
However, would I get a better/neater result just binding off the live stitches and sewing on a separate border?