Sweater edge to lie flat, not pull in, etc

How-to Questions
1

Hi everybody! Thanks for opening my thread! I have a question and I think I need some experienced knitters to help me find the best answer; I bet there are some here who’ll know what to do! (If you want to get to the meat of the question, you can SKIP the next paragraph…)

I recently made a new friend in Switzerland where I am currently a student, and as I’m in no financial situation to pay him back for all of his help, I offered to knit him a sweater instead. He loved the idea and bought the (very nice!) yarn, even gave me his favorite sweater to base it off of…now I just have to knit it up myself! I’ve knit two sweaters before (the first was the one in my avatar picture) and I would call myself a solidly intermediate knitter. Here’s the thing. He wants a sweater in stockinette, but of course it can’t curl, which means I have to decide on the edging. Before, I had used ribbing, but it pulls in a bit, and I can already tell on my swatch that a K1P1 ribbing pattern is going to pull in wayyy more than either I or he wants. If I do edging in garter stitch, I believe I’m correct in assuming the stitches will be wider than in stockinette, so I would have to increase stitches before getting to the stockinette pattern. I know about doubling stockinette, but I’m worried to do it with this particular yarn/needles because it’s quite loose (nearly see-through) and I think it might look messy to see the doubling that suddenly disappears after a few rows (or maybe not?)

So here’s my real question: are there any good recommendations for a pattern on the edging that:

  1. Will lie flat
  2. Will look elegant with lacy yarn (thin on larger needles)
  3. Will not pull in (if the rest of the sweater is in stockinette)
  4. Will not require increasing or decreasing stitches before switching to stockinette (I’m not REALLY against I/D if I have to, I just think it might be easier to see more of these little adjustments on lacy yarn, but maybe that’s just my imagination).

What would you do if you were in my shoes? Thanks for your advice!

2

Hi and welcome to KH. This sounds like a wonderful project. What would I do first? I’d check out what TECHknitter has to say. The link is specifically about non-curl sweater bands. I noticed that she mentions moss stitch, that might be a good choice for you. I particularly like Irish moss stitch.

TECHknitting Index There are entries for bands which includes facings and avoiding flipping bands (under F).

3

What about a hem? No curling and makes a nice smooth edge.

You can do ribbing with a larger needle and do one that pulls in less like 3x3 would help, too.

4

Thanks very much for the quick responses! I like the seed stitch a lot and might use it for the border. My only question at the moment is gauge…is the gauge for seed stitch likely to be near that of stockinette, or will it behave more like garter? I think I’ll only be knitting a few rows of this at the edges anyway. Maybe I’ll stick with 2x2 or 3x3. I’ll see what he likes :slight_smile:

5

My most recent experience was with the double moss stitch. I worked short rows every now and then to keep the moss stitch portion the same length as the stockinette. Another thing I saw how to do at the TECHknitting blog. You can do the same short row “trick” with garter stitch. If you just watch your work as you go along you can see whether or not you need to add extra rows.