Knitting -- borders and edgings

Now I'll show you how I added the border and edging on the last samples.

Traditionally, you knit all the edging, then all the border, then all the center, then graft them together. In the Bantam book, they are knitted with diagonal sides that you then graft together.

My question was, what if you knit the center first.  Well, when you work the ends, it's easy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB27r_G-cGY

The video above has you knitting onto a live edge, that is, one that you haven't bound off.  I did that when I had finished the center. To make this possible at both ends, you can do what is called a "provisional cast-on" especially in a different color, which you then pick up your body stitches from and get rid of.  Here's a video of one way to do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OGG0AiJ3XE

So for the ocean wave, I would have to make a chain of single crochets 88 long to do the center before I did any knitting.

When I was working the finished sides, this second video was helpful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgM7xTZT54E

This is a change from the original post; I tried to click on that video and it wasn't there any more. The samples start at 44 seconds into this video.

First, when you're picking up at the side, don't pick up across the selvage of the stitch. Pull that out, find where that stitch attaches to the rest of the work (which will be perpendicular to the edge), and knit into that.

Second, notice how at the bound-off end, she went a half stitch too far for the second  pickup and she called it a hat.  What she meant was that she had an upside down V or a sort of roof. When she had picked up the correct place, the two loops ran parallel.

I have looked for ways to keep the ends of the rows alive but haven't found one yet.

But that doesn't take us around the corner.

This website has my favorite explanation for how to go around corners.
http://www.lavisch.com/site/knitted-on-border-turning-the-corner/

But as usual I had to do it before I understood what she was saying. (I'm a muscle learner, not a visual or auditory learner.)  I took pictures of what I did at EVERY row instead of the crucial ones, and at the risk of boring some of you, here they are so you can see it in excruciating detail.

So here I am two rows before the corner with my border in paler blue. I have my favorite waste yarn markers for the three corner stitches you need. My border is 14 stitches, 5 of a bind-off, 7 of pattern, one spare, and one to knit with the edge of the lace to make it an attached border. (0)

 



Here is the return to the lace where I knit the edge stitch. (1)








Here I have turned the work. (1a)






The yarn is in front and I have inserted the needle so as to slip to it purlwise. (1b)






Here it is with the sky blue stitch slipped. (1c)







Here is the knit out to my bind-off. (2)

Here is the knit back in. (3)






Notice that I DO NOT ATTACH TO THE EDGE of the lace, I just knit that last border stitch.  This is like knitting a short row. (3a) 

TURN THE WORK. The yarn will be on your side.  Now work back out. This is me working back out. Notice that dark blue stitch on the right needle. It is the corner stitch. I have not attached the border to it. (4)

Next you will knit back in to the lace and ATTACH TO THE LACE THE SECOND TIME which will take that extreme corner stitch. So here I am ready to knit that corner stitch. (5)






Go through this whole routine two more times and you are around the corner.

Now, here I am ready to pick up the first stitch on the other side of the  corner and I  want you to notice something. The darker blue yarn that is over the horizontal needle is NOT worked through the loops at the edge. I pulled those out, found the yarn that is PERPENDICULAR to the edge, and put the needle through that. This is what the knitter was talking about on that video above. (6)

So here I am with the needle through both  loops. (7)

And I finish that stitch and I go back out to the edge of the border.







Here I am, back at the edge again and you can see that I've picked up all the edge stitches on my left needle to work into toward the next corner. (8)

And here is the first time I have ever knitted border that goes around the corner of a piece of lace. (9)






Two things.
1. You can see a little pucker at the corner where there's lots of yarn. This is worsted weight yarn. Your fingering or lace weight yarn won't look like this.
2. You can see a little pull in the outer edge. I have a fairly solid edge there and that's part of what's doing that. You can start your fake short rows TWO stitches before the corner to relieve that pull.  So here's my second corner and you can see there's not so much pull at the outer edge. For symmetry, you should do this at the second stitch AFTER the corner, too.

You can also see the bottom border stitches picked up onto the vertical needle, and not a "hat" among 'em.

If you want to learn real short rows around the corner knitting, here is another site. Just notice that your border pattern won't go around the corner with you. You will need to calculate the dimensions so you can fit whole patterns into each side, then go around the corner and start the motif all over again. This is more like what the Bantam book shows.

http://cloopco.blogspot.com/2009/02/turning-corner-around-corner.html

I hope this helps. Everybody needs different things in explanations, so use your search engine and maybe you'll find something that makes the light go on for you.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved