How to Professionally Finish Your Knitting Seams With the Mattress Stitch

You really mustn’t think of knitting as just a hobby. This is a craft that has been around for centuries. It is really amazing how there is no limit (except your own imagination) to what you can make and create with some yarn and two needles. Once you have mastered the basics of knitting you can even make your own patterns to please your own aesthetics.

But at some point you are going to want to start learning the more advanced techniques. One of those techniques is seaming. You need to master putting together your project or you just have a bunch of pieces, what fun is that? Once you have all your pieces of the project knit and you have actually done a really good job you are faced with turning it into a finished project.

My favorite way of doing this is with the Mattress Stitch. It is an elegant and really quite simple method of piecing the pieces together. I’m going to try to help you learn this important knitting stitch.

 In order to make your joining appear seamless you must first have a great edge to work with. There are a couple of ways to make this happen. Either is just fine, but I happen to like them both and it just depends on what I am making as to what I will do.

Now when you are knitting across in a pattern just knit the first and last stitch. Even if this means you are not following the pattern as outlined. But if you will knit one stitch at the beginning and end of each row you will have a perfect knit edge. If the pattern is really complex or there is a lot of work at the edge, then you could just add two extra stitches to the pattern cast on number and then remember to simply knit the first and last stitch and then you will not disturb the pattern at all.

The other thing you could do is just slip the first and last stitch of the row rather than knit. In any of the methods mentioned above. Either add the two extra stitches to the cast on number, or knit or slip the first and last stitch of the pattern. You’ll be very happy with the beautiful edge you will have accomplished.

The purpose of this great edge is to have easily visible stitches to be able to pick up and seam together.

 As usual there is more than one way to skin this knitting cat. You need a long piece of the same colored yarn to make your seam. You can simply cut a nice long piece of yarn and thread your tapestry needle and prepare to seam. The other choice is to simply leave a really long piece of yarn at the end of your piece when you are ready to tie off. Either way you are ready to start the Mattress Stitch.

Now there is a technique to this stitch. Put the two pieces together, like on the table in front of you. Now you have your threaded tapestry needle and you are ready to start. YOU ALWAYS WORK AWAY FROM YOURSELF.

Keep the needle pointed away from yourself. Now imagine you are climbing a ladder with your needle. You are going to stitch in first the right and then the left over and over. One rung at a time. Be careful to keep the yarn clear of itself. No knots. Keep the seam smooth. It will be loose. When you have done an inch or two, you can pull your yarn and the seam will literally disappear. It will be so professional and sharp looking.

I have chosen these videos from YouTube because they give such a nice instructional view of how to do this important stitch. Watching these will make you see how you can do this. It is very clearly done. The people in the videos have different styles and they really are able to get their points across.

Knitting is an incredible craft and mastering a fundamental but advanced technique like the Mattress Stitch is a great accomplishment. I hope these videos will help you reach your goals.