Grafting Live Stitches to a Cast On

Grafting Live Stitches to a Cast On

Posted by rachelerin on Feb 4, 2012 in All Tutorials

Grafting is a technique unique to knitting – a way to join two open ends with a row of fabric instead of a seam. This tutorial demonstrates how to graft open stitches to a cast-on. I used this technique in my Little Froggy pattern.

READ ORIGINAL POST HERE

NB: When I had this tutorial tested, we ran into different definitions of purl-wise and knit-wise, stemming from our different knitting styles. When I say purl-wise, I mean bringing the needle from the back of the work to the front, through the leading leg of the stitch. Knit-wise means taking the needle front to back, through the leading leg of the stitch.

I used the backwards loop cast-on because I find it the easiest to graft to – the loops are less bulky than other cast-on methods.

Getting started is often the trickiest part. The goal is to come purl-wise through the left hand leg of the edge stitch. To find the edge stitch, I always look for the Vs, and then go as far out to the edge as I can. The half of the V that is near the edge is the one I thread the needle through.

Then you going knit-wise through the first leg of the live stitch on the needle. This is where you go front-to-back through the first leg of the live stitch on the needle. (My knit-wise may look slightly different because I am a combination knitter).

Remember that V from the second picture? Now we’re going to “hug” it.
(If you were doing kitchener stitch, this would be the “knit-purl” part on the back needle.)

Now you go knit-wise through the first loop on the needle, and drop it off the needle.
Then go purl-wise(back-to-front through the first leg) through the next stitch on the needle.

“hug” the next V along the cast on edge…

…thread the needle knit-wise through the first stitch on the needle, dropping it off the needle, and go purl-wise through the next stitch.

Continue until the last sts….

Here I have done step 3 on the last 2 stitches of the left needle.

I “hug” the last complete V on the cast-on piece….

…and go knit-wise through the last stitch on the needle, dropping it from the needle.

Weave in the ends, and we’re all done!