Skeinspotting

Kitchener Stitch

Above is the RS of Kitchener grafting 2 stocking stitch edges,
photograph (c) 2007 Woolly Wormhead

Now don't be scared, it can't hurt you. Ruth Paisley Textile Expert Extraordinaire has been fiddling around to perfect this method for both reverse stocking stitch, and for garter stitch. Especially as a few other web entries had given a confusing and not strictly correct instruction for these variations. Go here to see more on Ruth's simple explanation with some fab photos. Above is your ordinary stockinette/stocking stitch version.

About 2 yrs ago, I was trying to embroider some spirals onto the front of a baby cardi with a garter stitch edge, and in doing it over and over again to get it right (red yarn on cream) I accidentally snipped a couple of stitches and a big hole ran. Eek, not something that could be hidden with embroidery easily, What to do? I used Kitchener to graft the 'gap that was left, first knitting some new rows and then grafting top and bottom edges together, but it did involve some garter stitches as well (could not take pieces apart as they were not sewn but knitted on and way too difficult to disassemble). I left Ruth this post on the matter:

Yes, yes yes! That confirms what I had to do to patch a hole in a piece of readymade cardi with a garter stitch edge. I just used my 'WYS THIK ' method i.e What You See, Tells How It Knits.......and I didn't bother to look up anything on the net thank goodness as my disaster would have ended up in the bin. I just copied exactly how the yarn had been threading through to make the stitches and got there in the end. Nice to see it written down though, I like that, can I link to it?