The lace edging for this month’s doily project is knitted flat, but we will want to eventually join the beginning and end of the strip invisibly into a circle to go around the cloth doily center.
For the Quick Lace-edged Baby Socks earlier this year, we used a “nearly invisible” method for joining a strip of lace edging into a circle to go around the cuff of the sock. That method was easy and good enough for our purposes in that project, especially as the seam would not be all that noticeable at the back of the sock anyway.
However, for a project like this month’s doily, I prefer an invisible join. This involves more involved techniques: provisional cast on and grafting.
Working a totally invisible join in lace can be challenging. In the spirit of taking bit-sized steps in advancing our skills in lace knitting, I’ve selected a lace edging for this doily project that can be grafted in plain stockinette stitch (Kitchener Stitch). In a project later this year (the lace-edged hanky), we will tackle the most challenging form of invisible join that involves grafting in lace pattern itself.
A provisional cast on is one that is temporary, leaving the cast on loops without a bound edge and ready to be worked later. The crochet chain method I describe here is just one of many methods for doing a provisional cast on to start your doily edging:
With crochet hook and your waste thread, chain 15 stitches plus a few more. Bring end of thread through last loop of chain to avoid it unraveling. Mark this end as the “zipper” end of the crochet chain.
Starting with your lace thread a couple of sts from the zipper end of the crochet chain, pull a loop of lace thread through the bump on the back side of each successive chain stitch until you have the 15 stitches needed for your provisional cast on row.
For each cast on stitch required, pull a loop of lace thread through the bump on the back side of a waste thread crochet chain
Tip! Pick up into the bump on the back side of the chain stitch, not the heart-shaped part, so that the crochet chain will be easy to later remove by “unzipping”.
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This is one of my favorite ways of casting on. I use it a lot for scarves because I can go back and bind off the cast-on end so it matches the other end.
Dear Jackie,
Your explanation for grafting (in sock patterns) turned me into a fan of the process, your steps are simple and clear and except for the last stitch not always looking as tidy as I would like I’ve never had another problem since I first followed them. So I’m looking forward to your later lesson in grafting lace.
However, I have to confess I’ve tried the method you describe in this article for provisional cast on many times, and the only things I’ve accomplished were dropped stitches, complete messes, frustrations and tears. Were you planning to describe some of the other methods you refer to? I’m really hoping you are (Please?) since I’d like to be able to use this technique, but I’m afraid this just isn’t the way I can make it work.
Looking forward to experimenting with this month’s new pattern.
Yours,
Joy
I hope that the tips and techniques that are being posted throughout this month will help with whatever problems you’ve been having. It’s hard to tell from your description where you’ve been having trouble dropping stitches, making messes, etc. as I am not sure if it is the provisional cast on itself, or when later you are releasing the live stitches from the provisional cast on.
I’m not a novice to charts but the lace trimmed towel is giving me fits – too many WS, RS changes and I am having a hard time keeping track. This is not the design fault but my aging brain. Will try harder when the haying season is over with all of it’s distractions. I am working on your lace cowl and almost finished – took me until the last chart to “get” the repeat pattern but now I’m sailing along. I took the NU class on your triangular lace shawl and happily finished it years ago. Overall I’m learning a lot.
Thanks.
I always put a small safety pin (rust=proof) at the beginning of my knitting on the right side so I always know which side is the right side. You could use a stitch of waste yarn, or something else that you would recognize as “right side”.
You’ll be glad to know, then, that the Lace-edged Doily for this month doesn’t have patterning on the WS rows. So in that sense you should find it easier than the edging for the towel.