When knitting enough bulky products, such as sweaters, the craftswoman is very relieved to finish the last large part. All that remains is to assemble the parts together and refine some edges. However, at the last point sometimes great difficulties arise to such an extent that all work can be hopelessly corrupted. An incorrectly processed neck of a sweater is not a mistake in the picture, which is visible only if you look closely. Or a not very even seam, which is usually not noticeable at all. Many people evaluate the overall work precisely in the appearance of this particular part of the product, because it equally betrays both inexperience and the craftsmanship of the manufacturer. Indeed, sometimes knitted dresses, made perfectly with the head as a whole, give out precisely the manual work of an inexperienced master, if their necks are not processed properly, as a result of which they are stretched, puffed or have uneven edges. All this can be avoided if you use a simple technique of pickling.
The concept
The word “hingeing” has German roots and literally means “joining loops”. The essence of the process is sewing on a decorative crochet on the edge of the main fabric for free loops. Such processing can almost always be seen on purchased knitwear, sometimes even on T-shirts, and it is the use of this technique that is considered among masters, if not as aerobatics, then as a sign of a high level of skill.
Application
The most common is the necking of the product, and it doesn’t matter if it is a blouse with a deep neckline or a turtleneck. Also use this technique when processing armholes, less often - the bottom of the sleeves and products. What is it for? For decoration, along with crochet and decorative rows made with knitting needles. But it is the hinge that brings the appearance closer to the factory one. In addition, this allows you to fix the edge in the state that is necessary, because it is such a method that prevents the neck extension and its deformation. The technique allows you to further strengthen the place subject to stress, in order to avoid tearing, and also simply attach a collar or elastic band to the main fabric.
There are a lot of ways of looping, in production special machines are used for this, but for home use it is necessary to consider ways of manual looping of the neck.
Classic processing
Traditionally, the edge of the product is treated with an element connected separately. This is either inlay or gate. They knit it from top to bottom, leaving the loops of the last row of the workpiece not closed. Then they start to thread the neck with a needle. For this, the part is placed over the edge of the finished product and the blank is sewn to it with a simple “back needle” seam. A plastic or metal needle with a large eye and yarn from which the collar was knitted are used. The main principle of the technique is that each time the needle is inserted into the open loop of the gate detail. Thus, not only does the line of adjacent stitches appear similar to the machine one, but all free loops of the additional element are fixed.
Important! In order to prevent the workpiece from opening during operation, an additional row is tied to it with weak loops, using a contrasting thread, and then it is gradually opened, thus, at the same time, only those from which the auxiliary thread has already been removed are loose gate loops.
To do this is quite simple, but in this case only the front side looks beautiful, on the wrong side the seam may not be very neat. For clarity on the samples shown in the photo, the threads of different colors are selected, in fact, they use a thread of one color or two, if it is necessary to make the neck of a contrasting color.
Double sided
If it is necessary that the neck is beautifully framed on both sides, a classic two-sided necking is performed. To do this, it is necessary that the gate blank is two-layer. This can be achieved by tying the double height of the edging or ending with a hollow rubber band. It is enough to complete 6-8 rows at the end of a part made with a classic style or 1 x 1, 2 x 2 elastic. Then sew it, first fixing the loops from the front, and then sew the edge to the wrong side. At the same time, it is necessary not to pierce the product through so that the seam of the wrong side is not visible from the front.
In the case of using a hollow elastic band, the free loops will be on both the front and the wrong sides, but if you use a blank folded in half, one of its edges will be closed. There are two options here. Either sew it with free loops on the front, and closed ones on the wrong side, or loosen the first 1-2 rows, so the workpiece will have free loops on both sides (you need to loosen the edge after the other is fixed).
False
Classical stitching is quite complicated in execution, this is due to the fact that it is not only necessary to sew all the loose loops without missing and dismissing them, but also correctly calculate the size of the workpiece, which is often even more difficult than the technique itself. Therefore, the processing of the neck with a false fillet is very popular.
Hook
Using a hook greatly facilitates the work, thanks to it you can not only dial the loop of a row, but also immediately form an imitation of a decorative stitch.
First you need to crochet to form a braid of connecting posts around the entire perimeter of the cutout, while departing from the edge of 5 mm (about 2 rows).
The step should equal one loop. After that, from the upper edge of the pigtails, dial the loops on the knitting needle (the lower one will imitate the necking of the neck), knit the required number of rows with satin or elastic. Upon reaching the desired result, the loops on the spoke simply close. In this case, not only can the problem of selecting the number of loops be avoided, but the work looks equally neat on both sides.
If it is necessary to completely close the edge, then from the loops formed by the hook, on the wrong side of the product, also loop on the knitting needle (for this, the initial pigtail must be knitted rather weakly).
After knitting the same number of rows both in front and behind to completely close the edge, usually 4-5 rows. Then combine them, alternating the loops from the front and rear knitting needles, as in a hollow elastic band.
Then you can close it by combining a knitted loop with two neighboring ones, you get a fairly dense and lush edge (as in the photo).
Or, knit a row of 2 loops together, and then close (the edge will turn out flatter), you can also continue knitting with a cloth or elastic band, forming a high collar of the product. In addition, you can combine the front and rear parts not immediately (in the 6th row), but after reaching the desired gate height, and at the same time use the elastic band.
Elastic
All the above methods of neck looping are quite rigidly fixed to the canvas, as a result of which this part of the product has a very small tensile coefficient. However, there are times when it is necessary to maintain elasticity, for example, if you knit a sweater for a small child. In this case, you can use elastic imitation of looping.
In order to make such a gate, it is enough to dial (or continue knitting) the loops around the perimeter from the edge of the product, then knit 1 row purl, which will give an imitation of the seam, then go to the front surface or elastic band. If the edge needs to be made thicker, then after the back row it is necessary to tie a double length, then fold this part in half, and sew the free loops from the wrong side, but not in the classical way, but in a zigzag pattern, introducing the needle perpendicular to the fabric loop and the free a loop of the same row. Such a seam looks neat, while the neck retains elasticity.
Decorative
Using the double-sided looping technique does not mean that the design of the knitted neck will be boring. It can be varied in many ways, the easiest of which is the formation of denticles. Moreover, they can be both along the edge of the seam, and at the bend. For the former, it’s enough to stitch not every loop from two sides, but to make 2 or 3 stitches, then sew stitches No. 2 and 1 with one stitch, then also 4 and 3, 6 and 5, and so on. teeth, and the line becomes not continuous, but dashed. In a group of 3 loops sew 2 and 1, 3 and 2, then 5 and 4, 6 and 5. In this case, larger cloves are obtained, and the stitch looks like 2 stitches skip, 2 stitches.
On a bend, the cloves are just as easy to make. To do this, it’s enough in the row, which will be the top, to knit the entire row according to the pattern: 2 together, double crochet (open), and the next simply purl. Next, knit with a simple cloth.
Using the technique of looping will bring knitted dresses, sweaters and other products to a new, more professional level, and it does not matter at all whether the looping will be classic or false. This will not only make things more sophisticated, but also increase their popularity in the market of handmade products.