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Hands Occupied

Contemporary yarn crafts by Heidi Gustad. Knitting, crochet, latch hook and macrame.

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How to Sew a Kitchener Stitch (a.k.a Graft Your Ends!)

November 3, 2014 2 Comments

How to Sew a Kitchener Stitch (a.k.a Graft Your Ends!) - Video Knitting Tutorial at Hands Occupied

Sometimes a knitting project requires sewing. If you’ve been knitting for any amount of time, you’ve probably noticed that you have to weave in ends. I prefer to weave in my knit ends with a tapestry (yarn) needle since I feel like it goes a little faster. This is probably the most common form sewing takes in my knitting. The second most common sewing action that happens in my knitting is the kitchener stitch. Also known as grafting your knitting, the kitchener stitch lets you join two ends of knitting, and if done right, it looks seamless.

I’m all about cowls, and the kitchener stitch is a cowl knitting lover’s BFF, especially if that cowl knitter hates knitting in the round. Knitting in the round is fine with me, but sometimes as I imagine a cowl pattern I want the stitches to lay in such a way that knitting in the round won’t work. That is when I know I’ve got some kitchener in my future. And if you are newer to knitting or, like I said, simply hate knitting in the round, grafting is the way to make infinity scarves that will, due to their lack of seams, have a true infinity effect.

All of that said, I’ve done a photo-based tutorial on the kitchener stitch in the past (you can see it at the bottom of this post), but I had a request for it also in video form, which totally makes sense. Kitchener stitch is really useful, but kind of awkward to learn at first. For today, I’ve only done a right handed kitchener stitch tutorial because even when I knit left handed, I fiddle around with the loops and use a right handed kitchener stitch to graft my ends. If someone would like me to make a proper left-handed tutorial for this, just holler and I’ll make it happen. ;)

Hands Occupied Patterns Featuring Grafting

If you want to see the kitchener stitch in action, here are two cowls I’ve designed that use it. They both knit up pretty quick and have video tutorials for how to knit the stitches featured in each if you’re looking to try a new stitch in addition to the kitchener. Happy knitting!

Faux Woven Cowl

Knitted Faux Woven Cowl - Free Knitting Pattern at Hands Occupied

Brioche Cowl

Brioche Knitting & A Brioche Cowl Pattern at handsoccupied.com

Filed Under: Knitting, Knitting & Crochet Tagged With: grafting, joining ends, kitchener, kitchener stitch, live stitches, provisional cast on, video tutorial

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. She specializes in knitting, crochet, latch hook and macramé, and her first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is out now!

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Comments

  1. Marayla Wallace

    February 14, 2017 at 3:32 pm

    I love your videos! They are easy to understand and fun. I especially like the music in this Kitchener stitch video.

    I made a Brioche cowl, using the provisional cast-on you suggest. So the beginning number of stitches and ending number of stitches are different, but I thought I could count the ‘x’ stitches at the ending as 1 stitch, as in the Brioche stitch, and end up with the same number of stitches as the beginning of the cowl. In joining them with the Kitchener stitch, something went wrong, even though I was trying to be careful. I noticed some big, gaping holes, so I un-knitted back to the start (or tried to, I need to read your instructions on fixing mistakes in Brioche!). By the way, this is a möbius cowl, so maybe that screws up the orientation of the stitches too much to do this?

    My question is, what is the trick for joining the 2 ends with the Kitchener stitch? Do I need to add a row of Brioche at the beginning? Do I decrease the Brioche row at the end to be the smaller number of stitches like at the beginning?

    Should I just join the ends with a mattress stitch or something?

    Thanks in advance for your help.

    Reply
    • Heidi

      February 15, 2017 at 10:27 am

      Good question, Marayla! Yes, for the kitchener stitch to work, there needs to be the same number of stitches on both ends of the piece. If you want to get creative, you could work two of the stitches on the longer edge into one stitch on the shorter end, but that could get tricky. For a more seamless look, I’d recommend decreasing the end with the larger stitch count to match the shorter end, which will taper the longer end more gradually into the shorter for that close-to-seamless look. Let me know if I can explain this better!

      Thanks for reaching out,
      Heidi :)

      Reply

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Heidi Gustad from Hands Occupied / Craft Book Author and Knitting, Crochet, Latch Hook and Macrame Designer

Hi! I’m Heidi, an author, yarn craft designer and content creator specializing in knitting, crochet, latch hook & macrame. My work unapologetically features primary colors and vintage-meets-modern style. My first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is now available!

Professionally I’m most known for: advanced intarsia knitting design & modern latch hook design.

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Craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. / #latchhookbook out now!
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knitting, crochet, latch hook & macramé

Heidi Gustad 🧶✂️
Happy Wrestlemania weekend, folks!!! 🎊 It’s c Happy Wrestlemania weekend, folks!!! 🎊 It’s coincidentally International Punch Needle Rug Hooking Day today, so I’d be remiss not to share a first look at this project finished JUST in time to wear while I watch some rasslin’ on a pirate ship in a football stadium in Tampa! 💪🏻 I’m excited to watch tonight’s women’s matches the most. Eee!
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Pictured: A blond woman in a denim dress and glasses wearing a giant belt made with punch needle. The belt is made with wool in primary colors and was inspired by the WWE Universal Championship title belt. 
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This is just a preview - after jab 2.0 tomorrow (feeling grateful 🙏🏼), I’ll be editing together a vlog about the design process for this wooly waist cover. Sometimes it’s hard to know how to make some of your wilder craft ideas come to life. Stuff you’ll never find a pattern for, you know? I’ll finish editing that ASAP, but I might take a few days to edit if I feel like trash from 💉 and only want to watch wrestling and wrestling YouTube for a day or two. 😂
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#ipnrhd #punchneedle #wwe #wrestling #championshipbelt #wool #yarn #handmade #universalchampionship #universalchampion #rugmaking #wrestlingfan #wrestlemania37 #wrestlemania
A look at the halo on the back of my wrestling-ins A look at the halo on the back of my wrestling-inspired punch needle project! It’s interesting to see how fuzzy the handspun beige yarn is compared with the primary color sections of @knit_picks Wool of the Andes Bulky. ❤️💛💙🤎 
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Pictured: The back of an in-progress punch needle project. A wooden punch needle tool sits on the work.
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#punchneedle #woolrug #rugmaking  #kpambassadorsapr21 #sponsored #griefproject #handsoccupied #wrestlingfan #universalchampion #yarn #yarncraft #wool #needlepunch
Happy Easter / One week til Wrestlemania! Finishin Happy Easter / One week til Wrestlemania! Finishing up the punch needling part of this crazy @wwe inspired project by tonight. 💪🏻🧶 Anybody else have crafty plans for this fine spring day? 
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Pictured: A blond woman sits, smiling and holding an in-progress punch needle project inspired by the Universal Championship belt. Houseplants are in the background and there’s lots of sun. 
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#punchneedle #griefproject #handsoccupied #heidigustad #wrestlingcrafts #wwe #universalchampion #universalchampionship #wool #wooloftheandes #primarycolors #oxfordpunchneedle
I'm finally starting to get some of my energy back I'm finally starting to get some of my energy back from the past few weeks, and as I dip my toe back into production mode, the long-promised seamed sweater knitting YouTube series is at the top of my list. I've got FOUR versions of a simple sweater I've been playing with since last JULY to feature as a free pattern for folks who want to knit along during the series. Pictured is the first prototype for the series, knit in 2 colors of @knit_picks Mighty Stitch yarn. I imagine this soon-to-be short sleeved number will come in handy as an emergency Waldo costume or Christmas sweater. 🌲 
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I've got my own list of topics I think folks would like to see in a series like this: things like tips for construction, working with vintage patterns, how to seam as invisibly as possible, and more, but as always, I'd love to hear from you: What scares you about knitting seamed sweaters? What would be helpful to cover, especially since we'll be doing more long form video content. I get so much positive feedback on my series of 20 minute+ intarsia tutorials, so I'm using those as a starting point as I produce this series. Seamed sweaters using vintage or self-improvised patterns are one of my favorite things on the planet, so I'm eager to share some seamed sweater skills with y'all super sweet folks. 😉 
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Pictured: A red and white striped, short sleeved sweater knit in pieces that have yet to be seamed. They are laid out on a yellow and orange colorblock background and one sleeve is yet to be bound off. 
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#handsoccupied #seamedsweater #kpambassadorsmar21 #sponsored #knitpicks #waldo #waldosweater #wip #yarncraft #yarn #knitting #knittersofinstagram #heidigustad #vintageknitting #sweaterknitting
Work continues this evening on my absurd punch nee Work continues this evening on my absurd punch needle pro wrestling inspired championship belt project. I’ve finished most of the front pretty quickly thanks to the @knit_picks Wool of the Andes Bulky yarn I’m using. For now, I’ve got a couple more weeks until Wrestlemania, & I’m on track to finish this in time! 
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The biggest question I have is what to do with the “plates” - the open circles in the picture. Should I try to closely replicate the Universal Championship belt or go rogue and make it wool themed? Please advise in the comments. ☺️🧶🙏🏻🐑 
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Pictured: The front of an in-progress punch needle project. A wooden punch needle tool with navy yarn running through it rests on top of the work. 
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#kpambassadorsmar21 #sponsored #knitpicks #punchneedle #rugmaking #primarycolors #punchneedlerughooking #punchneedlelove #wool #wip #yarncraft #yarn #yarnaddict
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