Seams like Old Times

And now for some technical content…

I was visiting Knitters Review this morning (okay, I was seeking cheap gratification by looking up my name in the search field…) and came across someone having 2 problems with Rev St St.

Two problems with Rev Stockinette Stitch

1) Rev St st can look hinky because of the rowing out problem (for an interesting visual on rowing out, check the revised Spring 04 IK cover. This is what rowing out can look like from the St st side.

2) It’s really hard to make a decent seam in Rev St st.

These are both true – and things that must be addressed… Here are my solutions:

Rowing Out
Rowing out is when either the knit or purl row (usually the purl row) is worked a bit looser than the other, thus making every other row a bit deeper (wider?) than the rest. You can either work in Combination style, which diminshes rowing out greatly – or you can purl with a needle one size smaller than the knit needle.

Rev St St Seams
Rather than write this out, I create a picture to demonstrate my favorite technique for working a rev st st seam. Here it is!