I hate weaving in ends. At that point in the project I just want to be done and move on to my next knitting love. It’s important to take a little time to make it look nice though. I usually take extra care to weave ends deftly around the armpits of sweaters, sometimes from the RS so I make sure I don’t have any weird wrinkles or pulling while I’m filling in the holes.
What about just weaving in ends on the body? Awhile ago at a knit night, we were talking about this, or more specifically, how much of your end you need to weave in. Three of us came to the consensus that if you backtrack a bit, you really only need to weave in 1-1.5 inches one direction, with a quick backtrack. I also like to pick up stitches on the diagonal in stockinette, so that the woven end is more invisible and stays put better. Here is an example:
And the flip side:
It’s mostly invisible.
For this sweater I had ends for each set of stripes too. With those I keep to weaving on the diagonal as much as possible, but I also make sure to only pick up the gold stitches on the back when I’m weaving them in.
And here is the flip side of those ends:
The goal is not to be able to tell where you have woven in the ends when you look at the RS. I’m not a perfectionist, but this method works pretty well most of the time. I just though I’d show you guys how I do it.
Now I have to choose my buttons. I like the idea of wood buttons over plastic, but the gold color of the buttons is pretty close to the stipes. I might just have to give them a try.
On some projects I have a smaller button on the other side of the fabric from the button that shows on the RS and I basically sew into those buttons with the fabric sandwiched between them. I think this keeps the knitting beneath the button looking nice. This sweater has a lot of drape and I think a double button situation might weigh the fabric down too much, so I’ll probably just stick to one button.
Aren’t you proud of me for weaving in those ends? Now I just need to take some pics of this baby on me.
I prefer the plastic buttons. Those woven in ends look fantastic. I always reverse direction but usually forget to do it on the diagonal. I know I should I just have the memory of a goldfish so I have to keep doing it over and over again until it almost become muscle memory.
Weaving in ends is the worst part of any project! In general, I prefer wooden buttons, but those plastic ones are just too perfect. The nice thing about buttons is that they’re easy to swap if you end up hating them.
Kudos to you and your resilience! Finishing a sweater is an amazing feat of talent, good for you, it’s inspiring. 🙂
I found it useful to see how someone else does this. Very neat.
Ugh, weaving in ends. The only reason it ever gets done is because the end is so close!
I like this method – maybe it’ll help make it a little less painless! Also, I’m personally loving the gold buttons. They are the perfect match!
Thanks for the tips on weaving in your ends! I usually wing it when weaving in my ends, especially when I have colorwork!
totally proud of your end weaving!! i cannot wait to see it finished! lovely!
Very neat! I never enjoy weaving in ends either.
Thanks for this. I always wonder how other people do it. I’m a bit of a perfectionist so the messiness of woven in ends always bothers me.
Thanks so much for sharing this. Yep I can relate to that. I’m so impatient too when I’m almost done with a project.