So, I am at the stage of picking up the stitches around the neckline of my sweater, which is knitted in cotton. As you can see in the attached photo, picking up the stitches has left huge holes in my work. I have tried picking up stitches in line with the stitches and in between the stitches but I am still left with these big fat holes! I am using 5mm needles. Please help Oh and Freya, our rescue cat from the streets of Egypt, says hi
Picking up stitches on neckline
It may help to pick up a few more stitches around the neckline than the pattern calls for. You can always adjust the stitch number on the next row or round if necessary. Try to avoid any open spaces where there were decreases in the sweater body. They certainly will give you large holes. If you can, pick up sts either side of the open space. Any seeming gap then closes up.
You knitting looks very nice. This last step will be just the right finishing touch!
As well as picking up in additional spaces and then adjusting the stitch count on the next row, I also use a smaller needle for the pick up and knit row which distorts the stitches less than the larger needle. I saw this tip on a tutorial for adding sleeves top down which can sometimes be a bit loose where the pick up is done. Also, in the same tutorial the pick up row had an additional thread held together with the project yarn, a thinner thread like a smooth embroidery thread. This allows you to see clearly where the pick up stitches travel (as the carry along thread is easier to see) and once you are on row 2 or 3 you can go back to the pick up row and tighten that first row by inserting a needle to gently pull up extra yarn, tightening each stitch individually as you go around heading towards the tail end. The additional yarn all gets worked along the row and results in a tighter pick up and a slightly longer tail. Then the embroidery thread is removed.
Whilst I don’t usually use a carry along thread on a neck it could be useful if you are getting holes and a loose pick up.
One more thing. If you end up with basically a good pick up but 2 or 3 holes where a stitch is too open you can repair it afterwards. A small length of yarn put in either behind the hole to pull 2 legs of a stitch or adjacent stitches closer together, or applied as duplicate stitch with the same result of pulling a stich closer and closing a hole- then the ends woven in. No one would ever know you have done it and the right side of the work will look clean and neat. I’ve done this on a few places and no one would ever know apart from I confess to it here. The cardigan I needed to do this most was also cotton and it was picking up for a button band which mostly went okay but a few places were truly ugly until worked on after. Forthat cotton cardigan I did need to use a smaller needle on the neck pick up, quite small so as not to distort my stitches. The second row was with the correct size needle.
Hooe this helps.
There’s another option in which you knit the neckband separately and sew it on. I quite like this method because you don’t have the problem of where to pick up stitches or getting holes. You can control exactly where it sits. People call it the Phildar method because it was always given in the back of Phildar knitting magazines.
I have to admit that I haven’t tried it with cotton and the sewing might make the neckline too tight to go over the head. Is it a generous neckline?
Before you do anything though, it would be a good idea to get the edges back into shape. You could try spritzing or sprinking it with water and putting a damp towel over the area, patting it back into shape, and drying with a hairdryer set on “cool”. If that doesn’t work, washing and blocking should.