A Perfect Selvage
I want to share with you this very important (for many reasons) technique that makes your knitting edges look perfect.
Let’s take a look at these pictures first.
Can you see how different they are? The left swatch does not have the selvage stitch. The right one does.
The top view of the same swatches. The slip-stitch edge on the right is nice looking edge. When you need to sew pieces together, it is so much better to work with straight edges instead of knots. Having said this, I want to mention that sometimes the edge on the left side swatch is a choice if it complements the whole look of a project. In other words, we need to know both ways and choose which one works best for our project.
If the stitch pattern does not include selvage stitches, I add 2 sts to the stitch count to allow for selvage. If you are adding these 2 sts for a sweater back, make sure to decrease them as you are at the armhole. The pattern counts will be different, if you forget to do so.
This is how to do it:
Slip the first stitches if to purl. Yarn is in front.
2. Bring your yarn to back, if the next stitch is a knit.
or
2 a. Leave yarn in front for a purl stitch that follows.
3. Work in pattern to last stitch.
4. Always knit the last stitch.
Repeat steps 1-4 and enjoy a perfect selvage.
