Grafting a Tube

If you know how to do a traditional Kitchener stitch, you already know most of the steps!

We just have one little trick that makes it look better when doing it in the round.

thanks to Sweet Paprika for giving us the Andante Azul for this tutorial.

How to Graft a Tube

Setup 1: Put each end on a different circular needle. You can also do it with DPNs, but we recommend circulars because you’ll have less needles to fight with while you’re doing the grafting. I’ve used two different colors here to make it easier to follow along.

Setup 2: Hold both needles pointing to the right.

Setup 3: Put a removable stitch marker on the first stitches on both needles. You can ignore them for now. You’ll use them at the very end. They don’t need to be different colors (it’s just what I had available).

Setup 4: Thread the yarn tail through a darning needle. The tail should be 4 times the width of the entire tube (both sides).

These next steps are classic Kitchener Stitch…

Working the Front Needle

Step 1: Put the darning needle (DN) through the first stitch on front needle (FN) knitwise and take it off the FN.

Step 2: Put the DN through the first stitch on FN purlwise.

Working the Back Needle

Step 3: Put the darning needle (DN) through the first stitch on back needle (BN) purlwise and take it off the BN.

Step 4: Put the DN through the first stitch on BN purlwise.

The DN yarn will likely get caught on the knitting needles. I find that gravity can help and after I get the DN through a stitch, I’ll hold the piece up before I pull the yarn through. This usually allows me to avoid getting the yarn all caught up on the knitting needle.

TIP: Don’t pull through tightly until you’re sure it’s not caught. If you do pull it, that tightness will make it harder to figure out things.

Repeat these stitches until one stitch remains on each knitting needle. This is one stitch total. You’ll be very close to those removable markers that you placed in Setup Step 3.

Then, on the Front Needle…

Step 5: Put the darning needle (DN) through the last stitch on front needle (FN) knitwise and take it off the FN.

Step 6: Put the DN through that final stitch on the removable stitch marker purlwise.

And on the Back Needle

Step 7: Put the darning needle (DN) through the last stitch on back needle (FB) purlwise and take it off the BN.

Step 8: Put the DN through that final stitch on the removable stitch marker knitwise.

Finishing

You’re done! Take a look at your work and if it’s a bit loose or tight, adjust it until it looks correct. Trim the yarn and weave it into your work.