Simply Seamless
By Diane Mulholland
Seaming and finishing are words that have the ability to strike fear into a knitter’s heart. For many, all the joy of making a pullover or cardigan is in knitting the pieces, and the thought of sewing them together can often be enough to have the project consigned to a deep, dark cupboard.
This article looks at the technique of working seamlessly for an entire garment. There are many patterns written specifically for seamless construction and it is also possible to adapt many garments that are designed in pieces to avoid the final steps of sewing together.
Why seamless?
Working seamlessly has the obvious benefit of being much faster than traditional sewing-up methods. Each piece of the garment is worked to the same size and shape, but when you cast off you are pretty much finished. Darn in the ends, add a button band if necessary, and it’s all done. This cuts down potentially hours of seam-sewing time.
Furthermore, working in the round is a much easier way to create colourwork garments, as you are always working with the right side facing. It is also faster for many people, especially in stocking stitch. In fact, seamless construction methods have been in standard use by Scandinavian and Scottish knitters for centuries.
The process
I worked my sample top-down, in the same way that Maude is constructed. You can just as easily, and in some cases more easily, work up from the hems and cuffs, and I will add a few notes on that further on.
You will notice if you are following a seamless pattern that straight needles are probably not mentioned. The whole garment is worked in the round and, even in the case of a cardigan, working all the body stitches at the same time is made much more manageable by using a long circular.
For Monkey’s cardigan I used double knitting yarn and a 4mm/60cm circular needle. It is increased in the raglan style and therefore has four clear points of increase at the front and back of each shoulder.
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Cast on the required number of stitches and mark the four points of increase. For a cardigan, work back and forth; pullovers can be worked in the round after neck-shaping is complete. In the sample, a narrow garter stitch front band is worked at each front edge. |
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Work one increase before and after each marker on every right side row until the yoke is complete. Shaping for a crew- or v-neck could be worked at the same time. On the sample, you can clearly see the increase lines defining the raglan yoke. |
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When the stitch count for the yoke has been reached, the sleeve stitches between the markers are slipped off onto waste yarn. Rigid stitch holders are not recommended as they stretch the armhole stitches. Work continues across the armhole from front to back, and a number of stitches are cast on to give ease and shape to the underarm. |
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Once the body is finished, the held sleeve stitches are placed back on the needles. Stitches are picked up from the cast-on underarms and sleeves are worked in the round to the cuff. Sleeves can be worked with double-pointed needles but the Magic Loop method is recommended: in this way only one or two lengths of circular needle can be used for the whole project. |
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After the cuffs and hem have been cast off, the only thing left to do is block your garment lightly and it’s ready to wear. There are no seams whatsoever. |
Adapting the technique
Working from the bottom up has an advantage in that you do not need to reverse all your directions. Also, some pattern stitches may not look quite the same when flipped on their heads! Stitches are cast on for the entire body hem (front and back) and each of the sleeve cuffs. The three tubes are worked to the underarm and then joined together as the yoke is worked as one. A portion of stitches on each sleeve and each side of the body are held and later grafted to provide the underarm shaping (where in the top down method new stitches are cast on).
A circular yoke is also easy to work either top down or bottom up. Simply work several rounds of increases (for top down) or decreases (for bottom up), spacing them evenly around the yoke instead of at four distinct points. Many Norwegian-style yoked pullovers use this method; your pattern will make it clear where to place the rounds of shaping.
A drop shoulder pullover or cardigan can be created by working the back and front yokes, joining shoulder seams and then picking up stitches around the armhole and working down to the cuff. This is particularly useful for baby wear as it eliminates bulky sleeve and underarm seams.
A note on faux seams
Although a side or sleeve seam is really not necessary for the garment to maintain its shape, for aesthetic purposes you may wish to add a false ‘seam’ by either working one purl stitch at the seam line or slipping the seam stitches every third round. This can be particularly effective in colourwork garments and helps to define the edge of a pattern or any shaping occurring in that area.
Converting a pattern for seamless construction
It is possible to convert traditional seamed patterns, particularly those with simple raglan shaping. Bottom up construction is usually a good choice as this is the way the pattern is likely to be written.
Read through the pattern carefully, noting stitch counts, shaping and construction methods. Remember to remove seam allowance stitches, usually one each side. Pattern instructions for wrong side rows will need to be reversed. However, many patterns include charts that are just as easily read for knitting in the round from the right side only.
Sleeve caps present the greatest challenge. It is possible to work a short-rowed sleeve cap, but the simplest method may be to simply shape the caps and armholes as written and sew the sleeve in. You have still managed to avoid the long side and sleeve seams!
Further reading
Feitelson, Ann The Art of Fair Isle Knitting. Interweave Press, 1996
Marquart, Doreen L. Top Down Sweaters: Knit to Fit from Top to Bottom. Martingale and Company, 2007
Walker, Barbara G. Knitting from the Top. Schoolhouse Press, 1996
Zimmerman, Elizabeth Knitting Without Tears. Simon and Schuster, 1971
About the Author
Diane Mulholland had the good fortune to grow up on an Australian sheep farm and a love of all things fibre-related is a natural result. A long way from home now, she tries her best to fit as much wool as possible into her tiny London flat. Read about what she’s been up to at her blog, Needles on the Move.