Carrying Yarn Up An Edge

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I don't know anyone who enjoys weaving in ends, but it can be tough to carry yarn along an edge for a lot of rows and still keep things neat and tidy. For my pattern Fountains of Rome I carried the unused color up quite a lot of rows, but I wanted my edge and wrong side to still look good. Here you can see the carried yarn running along the wrong side edge. I've put together a photo and video tutorial of my technique so you can avoid cutting your yarn too!

Carrying Yarn Up An Edge

Here's the wrong side of my tutorial swatch, and you can see the teal yarn has been carried up quite a few rows already. In this technique, the yarn is trapped at the beginning of each right side row.

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In this photo I have already slipped the first stitch and done a "knit front and back" increase on the second stitch. I will trap the carried yarn on the third stitch, which keeps it slightly away from the edge so it is less visible. I am carrying the teal yarn and working with the pink-orange yarn at this point.

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The first step is wrapping the carried yarn clockwise around the needle, like a backwards yarn over. To put it another way, bring it forward over the top of the needle toward you and then wrap around the bottom of the needle.

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Next, wrap your working yarn around the needle in the normal way, as if to knit. You can see that when you pull it taught it will start sliding underneath the carried yarn, and they cross over each other.

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Now the carried yarn comes back off the needle: you don't want to end up with the carried yarn still looped around the needle when you pull it through to complete the knit stitch. Once the carried yarn is off the needle, complete the knit stitch with the working yarn as normal.

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When you complete that stitch, you will find that your carried yarn is now wrapped around the working yarn like so. Make sure that you hold it to the back of the working yarn, and you may want to pin it down with one of your fingers so it doesn't get in your way. Don't pull on the carried strand too tightly, or else you can cause the knitting to bunch along that edge. Work the next knit stitch, and after that stitch is worked, you can drop the carried yarn and ignore it until the next right side row.

Video Tutorial