Tuesday Tip: Weaving In Ends, How to Clip the Tail
Last month we talked about how good finishing can make a project, and I promised you more posts focused on the all important topic of weaving in ends.
I’ve written several Tuesday Tips on seaming. We’ve looked as seaming garter stitch, shoulders, and even tackled the dreaded topic of selvedge edge and mattress stitch. No matter how wonderful your seaming, if your ends are not woven in well, your piece will look homemade. So the question is: how do you weave in ends? Last month I wrote about “skimming”, but what about that tail? Today we look at
How to Clip the Tail
I remember when I first started knitting, I would carefully weave in my ends, clip it right to the fabric and then as soon as I wore my knitting, it would pop out, I would clip it again, pop, clip, pop, clip . . . until I was out of tail!
Here’s the secret
1) After you have split the woven in your end, change direction to weave in a bit more.
2) After you finish weaving in the end, make sure to stretch the piece out to its full width.
3) Clip the tail leaving 1/4” to 1/2” of yarn.
4) With the tip of your scissor, fan out the end of the yarn.
5) Spread the yarn tail fan out and smoosh (highly technical knitting term) it down into the fabric.
originally published in Creative Knitting Magazine
For more ways to weave in your ends (and join new balls, and tons more), check out
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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!
Good one! Thank you. SO looking forward to my class with you on magic loop at VKL. I have issues.
You are a hoot! Your tips are great!
Patty, how would you handle the ends on single ply yarn? Mine is easy to spit splice when I need to add more or the yarn came apart as it’s so delicate. Or will it felt together on it’s own over time as I suspect it will? Thanks!
The same way. A single ply is also clipped with a bit of the yarn left, then take the tip of a sharp scissor and fray that end up and smoosh.
Do you do the same thing on a piece where the wrong side will show, like a scarf or shawl?
No, there are many different ways to weave in ends. For a reversible garment I use duplicate stitch. I teach 4 different ways to weave in ends (and a million other things) in How to Read Your Knit Stitches and Master the pattern. You can find all my video classes here – https://pattylyons.com/dvd-and-digital-class-order-form/
Patty Question: how do you work a wrap and turn when the stitch to be wrapped is a purl stitch on the right side, AND the first stitch on the wrong side row is a purl?
Hi, this is a blog about clipping the tail after weaving in ends. The method of wrapping a stitch is the same if it’s a knit or a purl, it’s the method of hiding the wrap that’s different. Your pattern will define how to hide the wrap on both a knit and a purl