Tuesday Tip: Chimney Graft

Many of you have sent wonderful suggestions for Tuesday Tips. There’s been a lot of interest in seaming and other finishing techniques. We’ve explored the shoulder seam, and we will be visiting other basic seaming techniques in future Tuesday Tips.

Today we’re going to explore a really fun one, the . . .

Chimney Graft

Lace Edge Hem – Can be knit from bottom up and continue into garment

Lace Edge on sleeve – knit bottom up and grafted to sweater

There are times in lives when we need to graft two pieces of knitting together. For instance in the sleeve edges of this Summer Swing Tee (pattern for sale on Ravelry)

The lace edge on the sleeve cannot be created by picking up stitches at the sleeve and knitting, because the cast on creates the beautiful scalloped edge. To get a sleeve edge that matches the hem, we need to knit the lace edge separately and graft it onto the picked up stitches of our sleeve edge.

As magical as kitchener stitch is, for the more visual knitter, it is not always the most intuitive way to graft. For many of us, we are happier really being able to “see” the formation of our stitches like we can in duplicate stitch . . . the chimney graft to the rescue.

The name comes from the use on a sock toe – the brain child of Lucy Neatby. By knitting rows of contrasting color yarn straight up from the toe, you create something that looks like a little chimney.

I figured I could also use it to help on the sleeve. To do this on a knitted edge,  you would pick up stitches along the edge (in this case the sleeve edge), work 1 row in the main color, then 3 or 4 rows in the contrasting yarn.

You will also knit the separated lace edge for the sleeve. Before changing to the contrasting yarn measure off 4 – 5 times the width of the lace edge, and then clip the main color yarn. This will be what you use to graft the lace to the sleeve edge. Change to contrasting color yarn and work 3 or 4 rows in stockinette and Bind off.

Step 1:

When you bind off, and you have one stitch left, just pull up on that stitch and clip the yarn. This will make it easy to pull out when you’re done.

Step 2

Hold the lace piece and the sleeve edge together with right sides facing each other. Line up the contrasting yarn sections together and pin the edge.

Continue to pin the two pieces together

Step 3

Holding the contrasting yarn sections together, unfold the edge so you can see the columns of knit stitches line up. These are the two sections you will be joining, following the path of the contrasting yarn. It’s just like doing duplicate stitch.

Step 4

Thread the working yarn attached to lace piece onto a tapestry needle, and insert it under the bottom of the V of the first stitch on the sleeve edge (upper section)

Step 5

Take the needle to the lace edge (lower section) and insert it under the skinny part of the V

Continue joining the two halves by always inserting the needle into the skinny part of the V. You will be following the path of the contrasting yarn. Just like doing duplicate stitch.

Step 6

After you have completed a few stitches, you can even out any tension by pulling at the legs of the new stitches until they match in size with the ones above.

Once you have evened out the first few stitches, continue working across, following the path of the contrasting yarn, always going under the skinny part of the V. You’ll begin to get into the rhythm and love visually creating the new stitches.

Step 7

When you get to the end you’ll have one whole stitch on the bottom

and one 1/2 stitch on the top.

Once you have finished, you can leave the tail to weave it later. Now comes the fun part!

Step 8

Pull on the slip knot of the waste yarn to unravel the rows

When you get to the last row, don’t worry, just pull it out, the two knit pieces have been joined

Ta da! Here it is unblocked:

Lightly spray with water to smooth out, allow to dry and . . .

MAGIC!

To read past Tuesday tips, just click on the Tutorial category of the blog (or here I did it for you!).

If you have a “is there a better way to do that”, or “how do you do that” question, leave me a comment, and I’ll add it to the Tuesday Tip list!