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Perpendicular Mattress Stitch (knitting)

Do you remember when I was knitting this sweater?

 

Well… I’ve finished! And today, I want to chat about a seaming technique that really helped me out!

striped baby sweater by FreshStitches grey & orange

Perpendicular Mattress Stitch

I loved knitting this sweater… the pieces are knit flat, which makes for very speedy knitting. At the end, you need to seam the pieces together.

Have a look at the sleeves. You’ll notice that you need to seam together stitches that are going vertically to stitches that are going horizontally. Tricky, right?

Perpendicular Mattress Stitch

Fortunately, I discovered that MochiMochiLand has a fabulous tutorial for just this technique! She uses it for toys, but it works great on sweaters, too. You’ll want to click over to this blog post and scroll down to ‘Vertical-to-Horizontal Mattress Stitch’.

Genius!

Do you prefer seaming or double points?

When knitting a baby sweater, there’s no getting around those tiny little sleeves! Your choices are to either knit the sleeves flat and seam them at the end, or knit tiny little rounds… usually on double point needles.

Which method to you prefer?

I’m generally a knit-in-the-round girl, but those sleeves are very tiny! (Right now, I’m knitting Flax on two circulars, and there aren’t a lot of stitches!)

I think for baby sweaters, I’m a seaming girl!

4 COMMENTS

  1. Im definitely an in the round girl…even for baby clothes 🙂 cute knits 🙂

  2. Michele SAYS...

    Your Little girl is going to have the fanciest handmade sweaters every mother will be so jealous! 🙂

  3. Jane F Schultz SAYS...

    using rounds I have the 9″ length and they work great!!
    I seldom knit on straights anymore
    I love my circular needles!!

  4. I’m completely inept at double-points. I stand by my 9″ & 12″ circs, and use two circulars when things get too small for even those!

    And I agree with Michele. Best-dressed kid on the way! 🙂