Flint Knits

When I cast on for what’s become known as the Phildar Swing Jacket, I saw right away that the pattern calls for a regular cast-on edge for the front, back, and cuffs, which is later sewn up as a 4cm hem. I decided to work the turned hem with a provisional cast-on. Nona has an excellent demonstration here.

But then I realized that the jacket is done in a half-woven pattern — meaning that the right-side stitches are a series of knitted and slipped stitches — making it impossible to join the hem on the right side as I usually do. Since the wrong side to this pattern is all purl stitches, I just joined the hem on the wrong side. Simple solution, and the results are the same.

Here’s what my provisional crocheted cast-on looked like (crocheted stitches in the white thread). For info on how to do this kind of cast-on, check out the video tutorial from the Michiganders at Knitting at Noon.

Once the hem selvege (stockinette stitches here) and the main body of the jacket (patterned stitches) were both 4cm tall, I “unzipped” the crocheted chain and put the new live stitches on a long circular needle:

Then, when the pattern called for a purl row, I purled TWO stitches together all along the row — one from the main body stitches (on back needle here), and one from newly picked-up stitches (on the front needle here).

Do this 113 times, and voila! A turned and joined hem, with no sewing, and no stiff ridge of cast-on stitches.

This is what it looks like from the back and the front. In these pictures, two rows beyond the joined hem stitches have been worked in regular pattern. From the back, the p2tog stitches look much like the regular purled row above them:

From the front, the hem join is nearly invisible:

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