MASTERCLASS
How to work Kitchener stitch grafting in ribbing
THERE’S ALWAYS time to brush up on your knitting skills, and adding simple variations to an age-old technique can come in very useful.
Kitchener stitch, or grafting, is typically used to join together the live stitches of sock toes and shawl pieces. Usually, the stitches being grafted are stocking stitch, but they don’t have to be! Follow these steps to learn how to graft together pieces of 1x1 ribbing and 2x2 rib stitch.
1x1 RIBBING
1 When you’re ready to begin grafting, don’t cast off your stitches. Distribute all of the knit stitches from the first half of the stitches to one needle, leaving the purl stitches on a spare needle for now. Then, distribute all of the knit stitches from the second half of the stitches onto a third needle, leaving the purl stitches on another needle for now. In total, you should have four needles, with the knit stitches on two needles and the purl stitches on the other two - you will be grafting the knit stitches together first, and then the purl stitches.
The wrong sides should be together, so that when facing you, the first half of the knit stitches appear as knit stitches and the second half appear as purl stitches. Your working yarn should be coming from the last stitch on the back needle, to the right of your work. Cut a long tail, leaving enough yarn to graft the stitches together. Thread this tail through a sewing needle.
2 Insert the sewing needle through the first stitch on the front needle, purlwise, and pull it all the way through. Leave the stitch on the knitting needle.
3 Insert the sewing needle through the first stitch on the back knitting needle, knitwise, and pull it all the way through. Leave the stitch on the knitting needle.
4 Insert the sewing needle through the first stitch on the front needle, knitwise, and pull it all the way through. Remove this stitch from the knitting needle.
5 Insert the sewing needle through the next stitch on the front needle, purlwise, and pull it all the way through. Leave the stitch on the knitting needle.
6 Insert the sewing needle through the first stitch on the back needle, purlwise, and pull it all the way through. Remove this stitch from the knitting needle.
7 Insert sewing needle through the next stitch on the back needle, knitwise, and pull it all the way through. Leave the stitch on the knitting needle.
8 Repeat Steps 4 to 7 until all the stitches from the first two needles have been grafted together, working the last two stitches on each needle as one stitch (this will prevent a bumpy end).
9 Flip the work over so that the remaining two needles are facing you. The front needle of purl stitches will now appear as knit stitches, with the back needle still appearing as purl stitches. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 once more, then repeat Steps 4 to 7 until all stitches have been worked. Note that the stitches on the back of your work will look a little wonky, but these will even out after a gentle blocking.
2x2 RIBBING
When you graft together two pieces of knitting, a slight jog in the columns of stitches is created. Usually, this isn’t noticeable with stocking stitch. With 2x2 ribbing, though, the misaligned stitches are more obvious. In order to avoid this, you must cast off the second half of your stitches before ‘grafting’ the two pieces together. Then, follow the sequence of steps below, as given for 1x1 ribbing: Step 2 then 3 - working through the first cast-off stitch instead of a live stitch. * Step 4 then 5 as normal. Step 6 - working through the next cast-off stitch instead of a live stitch. Repeat from * until all stitches have been ‘grafted’ together.