My Indulgent Brioche Cowl design features a cozy and soft suri alpaca liner. When designing this feature, I brainstormed and tested various ways of adding it in using familiar techniques such as provisional cast on, Kitchener stitch, picking up stitches, etc. For one reason or another, they just did not end up panning out. Eventually, I settled on a technique I am naming the “whip stitch bind off seam.” I searched and searched for an existing online tutorial, to no avail. Which brings me here, to my first photo and video knitting tutorial!
I am absolutely sure that this has been done somewhere by someone - if you have come across this before, let me know!
The closest thing I was able to find to this method is called “half-grafting", a method you use to graft live stitches to a cast on edge. It’s essentially a variation of the Kitchener stitch.
You will need:
- your knitted piece
- tapestry needle
- scissors
- yarn at least 3x the length of the edge being seamed
Step 1
Cut your yarn tail that you will use to bind off to be at least 3 times the length of the bind off edge. For my swatch, I cut the yarn tail to be 3 times the length of the swatch. If you are following along to bind off a cowl, cut the yarn tail to be at least 3 times the circumference of the cowl.
Thread the tail onto your tapestry needle.
Step 2
Fold the liner to the inside of the cowl so that the live sts are parallel with the inside of the cast on edge. You should be able to see the knit side of the stockinette liner. In the photo above, there are dark dots showing where along the cast on edge you will be seaming onto.
Another way of thinking about this is you are folding the fabric so that wrong sides are facing each other, and right sides are facing out.
Step 3
Insert the tapestry needle knitwise (i.e. as if to knit) into the first live stitch on the knitting needle and slip it off.
Then, insert the tapestry needle into the first stitch of the cast-on edge. I recommend doing this with a German twisted cast on, as it is very easy to see where you should be seaming.
Pull, attaching the live st to the cast on edge. Do not pull too tightly - you want to maintain the stretchiness of the cast on edge. You just made a whip stitch!
Continue
Repeat Step 3 until all the stitches are bound off and secured (not too tightly!) to the cast on edge. In the photo, you can see what the fabric looks like once all stitches have been bound off. This technique creates a very slim seam, and in my opinion, is easier than Kitchener stitch!