The not-so-effortless cardigan | Picking up stitches tutorial {Knitting}

Wednesday 25 September 2013


The effortless cardigan has been quite effortless until it was time to pick up many many stitches for the side panels and the collar. I already to pick up stitches for Tapenade, so I thought I knew how to do it. But when I tried, it just did not look neat or tidy - and I was not going to waste hours of knitting stockinette on sloppy edges. 

So what do you do in these instances, you google and hope to find a tutorial that tells you where you went wrong and what to do about it. I came across the Knitty tutorial and all was explained and clear. For those who wonder how I did it here are a few pictures. 

The white arrow shows the line of knitting you will pick up for your stitches from -  
one stitch in from the edge itself where the knitting is neater
or like so
1. Insert your needle into the centre of the first stitch you want to pick a new stitch from, 
2. Wrap the yarn knitwise, and draw the new stitch through, 3. Insert your needle into 
the centre of the second stitch, 3. Repeat step 2 and so on. 

In real time, my first video - so be kind

The back of it (not blocked yet)
Are you seeing that beautiful edging?! Bring on the collar!
So this is how I did it... There may be other ways, do you mind telling me only when I finished the cardigan, I am not sure I can cope with knowing I did it wrong at this stage, ta! 

So this is my current WIP, check out the others WIPs over at WIP Wednesday at Tami's and Yarn Along at Ginny's today. 


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9 comments:

  1. that is amazingly neat, my knitting is very basic and I try to avoid picking up stitches after a very frilly disaster.

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  2. Neat is an understatement. It looks perfect to me. Thanks for the helpful tutorial!

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  3. I really like the Knitty Tutorials - they are easy to follow! That yarn is a gorgeous blue.

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  4. WOW! You did an amazing job Nat! SO, so neat! I think that is the youtube video I used- it helped me enormously too!

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  5. Picking up stitches is something I haven't tried yet......I'll try and remember to check your video when I do. It has always scared me! Juliex

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  6. I've tried before and failed and that's why I usually unpick everything. That's what I also usually don't knit! Thanks for the link :) And yes the yarn is super pretty!!

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  7. Hello Nat,
    This looks like another great tutorial, thanks for sharing!

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  8. It looks great! I'm very much a beginner knitter but have this pattern in my favorites! Maybe next year..... Will remember your tutorial!

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