I’ve sewn the shoulders of a cardigan knitted in garter stitch, and although following Debbie Bliss’ instructions to the tee, the seam is quite visible. My issue is that where the two shoulder ends come together you see about three or four lines of stockinette, whereas this pattern is in garter. Does that make sense? As in, the way that I have sewn the ends together seems to distort the garter pattern and that makes it unnattractive. I’ve looked at photos of this finished cardigan and the shoulders look invisible, with a perfect garter stitch.
Above is a link for both vertical and horizontal garter stitch seaming. I think you need to scroll down a bit to get to the horizontal part. I hope this helps!!
Thanks Angela. I’m trying this on a swatch so I don’t mess up my garment. I think I was seaming too close to the bind-off edge. According to the instructions from Stitch & Story, you need to seam starting from under the first ridge (so not directly below the bind-off edge). Do you think that’s it?
Thanks Salmonmac! I’m going to have a look at this “graft”. Although, is it OK to use on shoulder seams? Because I read somewhere not to use grafting on shoulder seams.
In the meantime I tried the 3-needle bind-off. Thing is, it gives that same funny stockinette look at the seams. I did it correctly right sides together. I actually much prefer the one I (incorrectly) did wrong sides together. You don’t get that stockinette, although you see the bind-off at the seam, but it doesn’t look bad.
Grafting at the shoulders isn’t as sturdy as a conventional seam but you can use it. I agree about letting the seam show on a 3-needle bind off. It looks pretty good and it avoids the flat stockinette join.
Oh, I’ve found out why my 3-needle bind-off wasn’t giving me very good results: I have wrong sides together. I just assumed garter was reversible. With right sides together it looks great! This bind-off’s a keeper.
