Knitting Machine Tricks & Tips
The Frustration of DEALING with CURLING EDGES IN STOCKINETTE
The way I deal with curling edges for stockinette scarves is to..
1: Move the end stitches out by one needle, and push the second needle from the edge back into
non knitting position.
2: Set the carriage so that these end needles will NOT knit in one direction, but will knit back into
working position on the return row. (On silver reed machines that means putting a Russell lever on
one side of the carriage at, 1 and on the other side on 11. On a Brother machines,if I am not
mistaken, you would have one PART button pushed in to achieve the same thing).
3: Every second row I then manually pull the end needles to 'D' position (that would be 'E' on a
Brother).
This results in the edge stitches being only knitted every second row.
When you take the piece off the machine and stretch it length wise, the space created by the non-
working needle will disappear. You will have an edge equivalent to slipping the first stitch of each
row when hand knitting.
If you do the above without leaving the the space between the edge stitches and the next one, I find
the the edges are too tight. Leaving the second-from-the-edge needles in non-working position
allows just enough give for the end stitches to loosen into a soft edge with much less curl.
