Seaming: Better Than You Remembered

So, y'all know I've been on this mission to end all seaming. I had utter faith that my path was the righteous one. (At least until that pseudo-prairie blanket came along. I think I'm gonna frog that . . . )

But in recent times, I've needed some pretty simple knitting. Regular ol' miters, without using any fancy no-sewing techniques, and using the wonder that is self-striping yarn have been just the ticket. No worrying about changing yarns mid-miter, no worrying about getting the joins between squares just right, no worrying about whether the new square looks right against the old square . . .

Perfect!

So relaxing.

Wasn't even going to think about the problem of seaming, at least not until all the miters were done. And since that wasn't ever going to happen . . .

Only it did.

It happened this weekend. (I am astonished.)

With the astronomical number of works-in-progress I've got, I thought I'd better not set this one aside just because I had hit "the wall." So I screwed my courage to the sticking place and girded my loins for a miserable day of seaming.

But frankly, it just wasn't that bad.

Has my entire anti-seaming crusade been that misguided and foolish?

Maybe it was because I had made larger miters -- 75 stitch cast-on. Maybe it was because I ironed all the sass out of the miters before hand. Maybe it was because, after all, I was only dealing with four blocks. (Was thinking I'd do six, but it had become clear that I didn't have enough yarn in the right dye lot.)

In any event, I now have this:

Three and one quarter skeins of Katia Jamaica in colourway 4004. Just under 30 inches square.



Mattress stitch worked great for sewing the miters into blocks. But the mattress stitch seam joining blocks to other blocks seemed much bulkier, and it didn't seem like those seams were ever going to lie flat, even if one invoked the powers of Rowenta (which I do not have).

So I "unvented" and came up with a seam of my own that probably is well known in fashionable knitting circles, but which I have not previously seen described or employed.

It is just like grafting or kitchener, only I'm not dealing with live stitches. (Anyone know what this is really called?)



Needle under the stitch on the left. Pull through, but not too tight.



Repeat on the right.

Blah, blah, blah, etc., etc., etc.



Front lies flat. Seam is practically invisible, depending of course on color.



Back lies almost flat, too. (Horizontal seam is inter-block mattress. Vertical seam is this intra-block sort-of grafting thing.)




I still need to figure out how I am going to finish the thing. To line or not to line, that is one question. Another is what kind of edge to use. I-cord? Garter stitch? Something else?

In other news, here are two squares for Grandmother Purl:





I'm going to hold off on sending these to Kristy for now . . . I might have another one still in me.