Happier selvedges for swatch blocking

I don’t know if you noticed on Saturday, but I’ve hit on a combination of selvedge stitches that I like for blocking my swatches. I might even like it for lace shawls and such. At any rate, it’s easy to knit, and it’s easy to block with blocking wires. And I like the way it looks.

Swatch blocking experiment

You might have noticed that I knit a lot of swatches. I’ve been getting fussier about how carefully I block them, and have been getting more consistent about using a short blocking wire (or skinny metal knitting needle) along each edge. Recently I’ve been pondering my swatch selvedges, and thinking about how to make it easier to thread the blocking wire through them. I remembered coming across a selvedge that uses yarnovers at the very edge, and decided to try that, at least for swatches.

It does make for easier blocking; I’m not yet convinced I like the look of it, though that doesn’t matter so much for swatches. I might try the yarnovers on every other or every third row instead.

Purse Stitch crescent selvedges

Thinking about Purse Stitch made me think about how to incorporate it into crescent shawl selvedges. Understanding its structure helped me figure out how to mirror it along the two edges.

I like the result. It’s a bit unusual in how it’s worked, so I hope my instructions are clear enough. I’ve phrased it in three different ways. Please comment if you have trouble!

Crescent shawl selvedges

One of the  common forms of knitted crescent shawls involves casting on a few stitches in the center top of the shawl, and then knitting back and forth while increasing three stitches on each side over every two rows.

The selvedges I’ve seen most frequently are in two parts: there’s a two stitch garter selvedge on the outside edges, and the increases take place just inside. There’s a pretty standard recipe for this that results in pretty large holes at the edge. These look great in some circumstances, but I don’t think they’re always right for any given crescent shawl. I’m sure other people have come up with variations, but here’s a couple of my own. Feel free to use them however you like.