When we finish sweaters and cardigans, we often need to pick up and knit stitches along a neckline, an armhole or a vertical edge to make a neckband, an armhole band or a button band.
The patterns usually instruct us to pick up stitches evenly. If we fail to do so, some segments of the bands and other pieces of knitted fabric that we make out of the picked-up stitches will be puckered or stretched. This can totally ruin the overall look of the project.
We can’t let it happen and we won’t as long as we follow three simple steps. These steps make sure all neckbands, armhole bands, sleeve caps and button bands that we make lie flat and look perfectly even.
WATCH EVERY STEP IN THIS VIDEO TUTORIAL
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Before we start, let’s get our supplies ready. We’ll need knitting needles, a bunch of ball-point pins, yarn and, of course, the project itself.
As for the knitting needles, they should be in a size stated in your pattern (often it is a size that is smaller than the one used to make the project).
Use circular needles if the future band is worked in the round (neckband, for example) or if it is really long, like a button band that goes along the front opening of a cardigan.
If you do not like to work with circular needles, several double-pointed needles will also do a great job.
If you don’t have or prefer not to use ball-point pins, use locking stitch markers, safety pins, or even tooth picks. Anything that can be temporarily inserted into the fabric without damaging it works well.
Now that we’ve got everything we need for this task, let’s begin.
STEP 1
We start by dividing the edge into smaller segments.
First, place the project so that its right side is facing you. Then decide where you will start to pick up stitches.
If you are about to pick up stitches for a sleeve or an armhole band, start at the very bottom of the armhole.
To pick up stitches for a button band, start at a spot at the right-hand side of the future band.
If you plan to make a neckband, start at a shoulder seam. Traditionally, we start at the left shoulder seam (the part of the sweater that sits on our left shoulder when we wear this garment). I don’t really know why, probably because we do need to start somewhere.
Once you find the starting point for the future band, mark it with a ball-point pin that goes perpendicular to the edge of the fabric. To tell this pin from other pins we are going to insert in a moment, insert this pin from the bottom up the edge.
Because we often pick up stitches evenly to make a neckband, I will use a mock neckline as an example in this tutorial.
If you pick up stitches from a circular edge, like an armhole or a neckline, pinch the fabric around the first pin and fold the edge in half. Mark the spot on the opposite side of the first pin with another pin. This time, insert it from the top down the edge.
Note that most likely this spot won’t be on the right shoulder seam.
If the edge is not closed in a circle, like the front edge of a cardigan, place a pin at the other end of the future band.
Now align these pins and fold the edge between the pins in half. Insert a pin at the fold. If the edge is circular, insert a pin at the fold at each side of the aligned pins to mark the quarters of the circle.
Align every two neighbouring pins and fold the fabric to find a spot right between them. Place a pin to mark that spot.
Keep going until you divide the edge into segments that are around 5 cm / 2″ long.
For the mini neckline in my swatch, it is enough to break it into eight parts, but if the edge is longer, you will need to split it into 16, 32 or even more little sections. The key here is to make sure that all segments are of the same length.
STEP 2
Now let’s see how many stitches we should pick up from each section of the edge.
We find this number when we divide the total number of stitches we need to pick up by the number of sections we marked in the previous step.
For example, to add a nice neckband to my mini neckline, I need to pick up 21 stitches. Because I divided the neckline into 8 segments, I will pick up 21 stitches / 8 segments = 2.625 stitches from each segment.
The first question you probably have is how do I know how many stitches to pick up? How did I come up with the number 21?
In most cases, the total number of stitches you need to pick up is stated in the pattern. The instructions will tell you to “pick up evenly X stitches along the neckline (or other edge of your project)”.
Divide that X number by the number of segments you marked at the edge, and you will get the number of stitches you need to pick up from each segment.
The second question is probably “How do we pick up 2.625 stitches from each segment?”
The short answer is – it is not possible. That’s why we need to do two more very simple calculations.
Multiply the whole number that resulted from the previous calculation by the number of segments. In my case, this will be 2 stitches X 8 segments = 16 stitches.
Now subtract this number from the total number of stitches we need to pick up. For me, it will be 21 stitches – 16 stitches = 5 stitches.
These are the “extra” stitches that did not fit in our neatly-divided segments. Even though they are a bit of trouble makers, we do need them, so we can’t discard them. Instead, we’ll find them good homes in some segments along the edge of our project.
Look at the edge and find segments that are evenly spaced to keep the stitches well-distributed.
Place a pin into each of the “foster home” segments. To tell these pins from the ones that mark the borders of each segment, pin them parallel to the edge.
To keep the stitches around my mini-neckline symmetrical, I’ll place four of my extra stitches in the four sections close to the shoulder seams and the last extra stitch in the middle of the back part of the neckline.
STEP 3
Now we are ready to take the yarn and the knitting needles and pick up stitches from each segment of the edge.
Find a pin that marks the starting point. It is the one that was inserted from the bottom up the edge.
Imagine how you will space the stitches that you need to pick up from this segment and insert the knitting needle from the top down into a spot that you imagined to be the first at the right-hand side of this segment.
The needle should be one to three strands away from the top of the edge. The number of strands depends on the size of a stitch that you plan to enter.
If the edge is formed by bound-off stitches, insert the needle below the chain created by those stitches.
Wrap the tip of the needle with the working yarn leaving a small tail (long enough to weave it in later on).
Pull the yarn through the fabric to form a new stitch on the knitting needle.
Insert the needle from front to back into a spot that you assigned for the next stitch to be picked up from this segment.
Wrap the tip of the needle with the yarn and pull the wrap through forming another stitch on the right needle.
Do not insert the needle into a loose stitch. This will stretch the stitch and form a hole right underneath the picked-up stitch. If a stitch is loose, insert the needle into a spot that is one strand away from that stitch. It could be a spot that is closer to the edge or a bit farther from it.
Remember to pick up an extra stitch from each segment marked by a pin inserted parallel to the edge of the project.
Once you pick up all required stitches from one segment, go ahead and pick up stitches from the next segment and the segment after that. Remove the pins as you move from segment to segment.
Once in a while, stop and inspect the edge. If you notice a hole underneath a picked-up stitch, or if you see that in some segments, the stitches are not evenly spaced, unravel less-than-perfect stitches and redo that section of the work.
Continue along the edge until you pick up all stitches you need to make a neckband, an armhole band, a button band or any other piece of fabric to plan to add to your project.
Once you make a few rows or rounds of the band, you will see that the fabric is evenly distributed without any puckered or stretched-out sections. All the preparation work we did in steps 1 and 2 was well worth it.
It is much easier to pick up stitches from an edge that does not look like a staircase.
HERE’S A VIDEO TUTORIAL THAT SHOWS EVERY STEP
It is not a problem when we pick up stitches from a straight edge, but when you know that you will need to pick up stitches from a neckline, an armhole or some other curved edge, use the sloped bind off method when you shape that part of the project, Your future self will thank you for that little bit of extra effort.
SAVE IT FOR LATER
This and 36 other in-depth tutorials are part of Knitting Collection #7.
