As mentioned in my February 4th entry, my knitting curls excessively at the edges (see also this photo). Do you know why it does this? What am I doing wrong?

Do you have any knitting (or crocheting) problems you can't figure out?

-- Amanda (amh@io.com), February 04, 2002

Answers

Ah - I had no idea! I think I'll try working up a swatch and seeing if a crochet border helps it out. Very astute to realize that "stockinette" is named such for a reason....

Thanks for the feedback!

-- Amanda (amh@io.com), February 04, 2002.

you're not doing anything wrong; that's what stockinette *does*. you can do a border of plain garter stitch (and sides) to help keep this from happening, but that's just the nature of stockinette.

-- rebecca blood (rebecca@rebeccablood.net), February 04, 2002.

yes, I agree with rebecca. Maybe crochet or knit an edging to it (picking up stiches), now that you've already got a nice curl going? I guess that's why they call it stockinette -- good for making stockings out of.

-- Anita Rowland (anita@anitarowland.com), February 04, 2002.

You know I'm new to knitting myself, but that won't stop me from having opinons.

"Knitting for Dummies" suggests knitting the first two or three stitches of every purl row to create a selvege edge that will prevent curling -- it looks pretty good and has worked well for me so far.

Also, my mom says she always used to crochet around knitted scarves backwards to make a border that prevents rolling. I can't remember what the name of that crochet stitch is right now -- it's just single crochets worked in the wrong direction, and it creates a soft, but strong, edging.

Damn my fool long-term memory... always foiling me when I need it the most.

-- Kristie (Katxena@yahoo.com), February 05, 2002.