Finishing the Gauge Swatch Ends

Toni Lipe: Hi! I am Toni Lipe with Toni's Design Studio. Today, I am going to talk about how to make a gauge swatch. Now, let's talk about finishing off the ends. When you have finished your project, you may end up with loose strands hanging all over the place and it will drive you crazy. All you have to do at the end is get your tapestry needle to weave all of the stitches into the garment. Now, for the stitches on the side, you thread your needle. It's easiest to just pull the thread in half and poke it through the tapestry or yarn needle and you go along and when you are weaving in the stitches, you want to go in and out of the yarn. You are burying the stitches and you want them to be tucked away as much as possible. You can go about one inch in one direction and then go back in the same direction, just a little bit, to secure your stitches. Alright, and then I always like to give it just a tiny little tuck to make sure everything will stay hidden and let's thread it in. Make sure that it doesn't show up on the public side of the garment. Now, these stitches in the middle, on the back that when we changed colors, we need to weave those in as well and it's best to weave those in, in the same color as the yarn. I don't want to weave my white stitches into my blue stitches because it might show through. So right now I am just weaving across the garment and then go backwards one or two stitches and unlike I did you did, to leave at least two or three inches, so that you are needle can accommodate the yarn, otherwise you'll have a little trouble weaving in your stitches.

Some people will also take a crochet hook to weave in the ends, but I find the tapestry needle works a lot faster. So we started weaving the ends in on this little messy piece I have here. Let's look at this swatch that we knitted. I am going to weave in the end here, folding my yarn in half, threading this needle and just whipping my stitches up the side, that one inch in one direction. It also helps close up any little holes or gaps you may have. I have worked up one inch in that direction and now I am going to work back for just a couple of stitches. Give it a little tuck because when you wear, it is going to pull and you do want your little stitch popping out. Cut the stitch off and you are done. You need to turn your garment inside out, pick up and thread out and thread in any stitches that are at the arms, the ribbings, on the neck and the sleeves and then your project will be neat and tidy. That's how we knit a gauge, select our yarns and knitting needles and finish off our projects by weaving in the threads.