Chain stitch edging

I use chain stitch for most of my edgings. It is versatile, easily manipulated, and adds a crisp, clean finished look to a design.

Similarly to peeling strands off a length of yarn for duplicate stitching, I also usually peel yarn for chain stitching.
It is possible to use full thicknesses but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re working on a very big piece or a very plain shape with no sharp corners or small curves. Full thickness chain stitch can be used to great effect when you’re after that look. Usually I’m after the more subtle, blended-in look achieved by using a thinner chain stitch.

I usually use a half-thickness of yarn. So, if my knitted garment is 8ply/DK and I have the same thickness yarn for the embellishment, I will split the yarn in (approximately) half. Four strands become two. Three strands become two. Five strands become two or three.

I have used a half-thickness of yarn, that is two strands of Woolganics (out of four in the DK weight yarn) for this example on a swatch knitted with 10ply/worsted Woolganics (which has five strands, if you’re curious).

Bring the yarn out from the back, where you want the stitching to start.

Leaving a long loop, put the needle back in where it came out of…

…and back out at the nearby, one or two stitches away.

Wrap the yarn around behind the needle…

… pull the needle through and gently tighten the stitch.

Put the needle back in, where the yarn is coming from , inside the loop of the first stitch.

This shows a second completed stitch.

And this shows the two bars I usually go under to get to the beginning of the next stitch.

Changing directions is as easy as putting the needle in and bringing it out where you want it to go.

When you have a half-stitch jutting out, it is easy to just make the chain stitch go over the top of it, and it all blends in moothly.

If you need to end the chain stitching, simply sink the needle behind the loop of the chain stitch, in the same spot in the knitting where it has come out.