There are occasions when you want to create a really neat join between two seamed pieces, especially when this join is at the top of the piece and so very visible. Within my patterns this occurs at the top edges of both the removable shoes (soon to be released) and some of the designs in my ‘bags, backpacks and baskets’ pattern.

Above is a picture of the top seam that you’re aiming to achieve:

And here’s a little tutorial on how to work it…

Normally when you cast off you cut the work from the ball and thread this tail through the final stitch on the needle in order to secure the cast off row and prevent it from unravelling. But that creates a little nubbin at the end of the row and can interfere with a neat join when you start to sew an attaching seam.

So instead, when you have your last stitch at the end of your cast off row, cut the work from the ball and pull on the loop of this last stitch, like so:

Keep pulling that loop until the cut tail is pulled all the way through, effectively unravelling half of this final stitch:

Then thread a tapestry needle with this cast off tail end and sew through both arms of the edge-most stitch on the opposite side of the seam:

Then sew back across the gap and down through the stitch that the tail end is emerging from:

In doing this you have replicated a cast off edge stitch to span the top of the seam between the two pieces (see image at the top)

And then you can continue seaming the two pieces together using mattress stitch ( Mattress stitch seaming tutorial can be found here)

I hope this helps you to get neat and attractive edges to the seams at the top of your removable shoes and bags, happy seaming 🙂

J x

One of the challenges of writing a knitting pattern is that yarn manufacturers are constantly changing their collections – developing new yarns, discontinuing others and creating new colourways in existing yarns. It is impossible to keep up with these changes within the confines of a written pattern and so instead I’ve decided to write up some posts here on the blog with tips on choosing potential yarns for my little cotton rabbits patterns. The beauty of these notes being in a blog post here is that I can keep it updated as time goes on, so that if you check back in the future this post will hopefully reflect more accurately what yarns are available at that time.

For this post I’m going to focus on the yarns for the cotton 4ply/fingering weight yarns that I use for the clothes, there’s already a post written about the yarns used for knitting the animal patterns here

Below I’ve compiled a list of my current favourite yarns for knitting the clothes in, along with descriptions of what in particular I like or dislike about them. For the most part I recommend 4 ply/fingering weight cotton yarns.

So, why cotton and why 4 ply/fingering weight?

There are a few reasons that the clothing is worked in a lighter weight yarn than that used for the animals.

• Firstly using a thinner yarn and smaller needles means that there are more stitches across a row to play with, meaning that designs can be more intricate and give a finer appearance than would be achieved by knitting the clothing in the same worsted weight yarn as the animals.
• Secondly, I like the contrast between the knitted fabric on the clothing and that of the animals – this is especially accentuated when the animal is worked in a fuzzy mohair blend yarn with the clothing in a smooth cotton. I particularly like using cotton yarn for colourwork patterns (using 2 or more colours) because with cotton yarns the stitch definition is crisp and the patterns look more defined.

Fingering weight (also known as 4ply) is a light weight yarn. Technically speaking it is designated as ‘superfine 1’ by the yarn standards from the Craft yarn council with 14 wraps per inch (meaning that if you wound it around say the handle of a wooden spoon so that there were no gaps between the strands there would be 14 wraps of yarn in an inch). In practice there is a great deal of variance between different yarns marketed as fingering weight and even different yarns from the same manufacturer vary surprisingly in thickness and knitted tension, let alone those between different manufacturers. FYI Ravelry has a really useful table with yarn weight comparisons.

A note on different cotton finishes:

Cotton yarns come in two different finishes:

1. A soft cotton which retains the natural properties of cotton. It behaves much more like a woollen yarn, with fibres which cause the stitches to bind together, resulting in a softer and more flexible knitted fabric. Many of these are produced from organic cotton (look out for organic certification)

2. Mercerised/mercerized cotton, which is a cotton yarn that has been treated under tension with caustic alkali (sodium hydroxide) and then neutalised in an acid bath in order to impart strength and lustre to the fibres. It tends to be a shiny, rigid yarn which is stiffer and more rope-like than natural cottons as any natural elasticity is removed. When knitted up the stitches stay distinct from eachother because of the lack of soft surface fibres.

Personally I am not a fan of mercerised yarn, it uses toxic chemicals in it’s production process and I much prefer the knitted fabric that is created by natural soft and untreated cottons, preferably organically produced ones.

A note on comparing yarns:

Although there are industry standards for yarn weights in practice these are only a guide, and I’m sure that if you knit a lot you’ll already have experienced anomalies. For instance Millamia naturally soft cotton that is mentioned below is classed as a 5ply/sportweight yarn and yet I find it thinner than most of the 4ply/fingering weight yarns. One way that I judge whether a yarn is likely to work is to compare the length of yarn per ball. Most of the yarns below come in 50gm balls so by comparing the yarn length per ball you can make an estimation of how thick or thin the yarn strand is (please note this only really works when comparing yarns of the same fibre – it would not work if you compare a cotton yarn with a woollen yarn).

So here’s a little comparison of the yarns below, with thickness based on length per 50 gm ball, and listed from thickest strand to thinnest:

Yarn and colours must-have 4ply: 125m

Sheepjes Catona: 126m

DMC Natura Just Cotton: 155m

BCGarn Alba: 160m

Drops Safran: 161m

Krea deluxe: 165m

Millamia naturally soft cotton: 165m

Scheepjes Cotton 8: 170m

Scheepjes Sunkissed: 170m

KPC Gossyp: 180m

My favourite 4ply/fingering weight yarns for Little Cotton rabbit animal patterns:

Note, I’ve linked to the Ravelry pages for each of these yarns, as that way you’ll be able to see projects made from the yarns, what others think of the yarns and also links to local stockists. At the bottom of each yarn description I’ve also linked to the manufacturers own website (where there is an SSL secure website).

BC Garn Alba

This yarn is my number one choice for knitting dresses and sweaters in. There’s an array of beautiful subtle colours: softly muted pinks; warmly spiced mustards and misty chalky blues, along with some more vibrant, zingy shades too. The yarn is 100% organic cotton and ecologically produced with GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certification. It’s a soft combed cotton, plied with a loose twist.

50gms: 160m (175 yds).

(unfortunately BC Garn’s own website is currently not SSL secure so I’m not linking to it here)

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Krea Deluxe Organic cotton

This soft cotton yarn is a new discovery for me and I’ve only been using it for a few months, but it’s very quickly become a favourite. It’s organic cotton, GOTS-certified and produced in Europe (sown, grown and harvested without use of chemical pesticides and artificial fertiliser) and comes in the most amazing array of pastel shades in very subtle tones.

50gms: 165m (180yds)

Krea Deluxe website

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Drops Safran

This yarn is incredibly good value for money. Soft, S on S plied yarn which holds together well when worked with and it comes in a good usable range of colours. Actually designated 5ply, but is comparable to most of the yarns here designated as 4ply.

50gms; 161m (176 yds)

Drops website

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Scheepjes Cotton 8

A soft plied yarn, very good value and a great range of colours (mostly vibrant and bright shades). A little on the thin side.

50gms; 170m (186 yds)

Scheepjes website

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Scheepjes Sunkissed

Exactly the same as Scheepjes cotton 8 above, expect the sunkissed range is a variegated yarn – nice for extra interest. A soft plied cotton, a little on the thin side

50gms; 170m (186 yds)

Scheepjes website

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Millamia naturally soft cotton

This yarn seems to be classified as 5ply/sport weight (which is slightly thicker than 4ply) but I’ve actually found it thinner than most of the other cotton yarns mentioned here (see note above about comparing yarns).

Plied with a tight twist it comes in a rather limited range of mostly pastel colours.

50gms; 165m (180 yds)

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KPC gossyp 4ply cotton

Certified by the Organic Exchange, using cotton from certified organic cotton farms in China.

Soft cotton, plied and a little thinner than all others mentioned here and in a great range of colours

50gms: 180 m, (197 yds)

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DMC Natura Just Cotton

A great range of lovely colours but it is a splitty yarn (in that the strands easily separate which can make it slightly hard to work with and result in spilt strands) and it’s slippery, so the ball has a frustrating tendancy to unwind and get easily tangled. I find it easiest to knit this with blunt rather than pointed tip needles. All cotton yarn, S on S plied.

50gms; 155m (170 yds)

DMC website

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Yarn and colours must-have

Smooth mercerised cotton,

Although this yarn is classed as 4ply/fingering weight (on Love crafts) it’s more like 5ply (Ravelry’s classification) I find it quite thick, so you might find that it’s knitted in this come out a little larger.

This yarn comes in an amazing array of colours. It’s also very useful that there are 2 ball sizes as you can collect your favourite shades in the larger 50gm balls and use the small 20gm balls for colour highlights – it’s easy to build up a large palette of colours without having to spend a fortune. Good value.

20gms: 25m (27yds)

50gms: 125m (137 yds)

Yarn and colours website

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Scheepjes Catona / Scheepjes Catona Denim

Mercerised cotton yarn in a really great range of colours. It’s classified as 4ply but is much more of a sport weight and is one of the thickest yarns mentioned here. I tend to use it for the dungarees and the shorts. It also comes in 10gm, 25gm and 100gm balls.

50gms: 126m (138 yds) / 124m (136yds)

Scheepjes website

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Other 4ply cotton yarn suggestions:

Lang Baby Cotton sport

Plied soft cotton, 181m (198yds)

Onion Organic cotton

Certified organic cotton, soft and plied, 155m (170yds)