In photo re Masters" Those pesky yarn tails,"
for garder st, figure 3 ... not able to
visually see how this is accomplished. Have attempted several methods and I'm doing something wrong ... tried using colored yarn
in order to follow pattern in example but shows
on right side! Could someone help ...? Thanks.
Desperate in Fl

The technique in the photo is for weaving in the tails using duplicate stitch. This means following the path of the stitch with the yarn tail. A different color *will* show through.

I'm afraid I didn't explain myself very well, Peggy. Hope you'll forgive me, I'm new to the program I am using the "On Your Way To the Masters: Those Pesky Yarn Tails," as my ref/
guide for weaving the tails in the garter st.
The example (figure 3) of the article (top of
pg 14) is not clear to me i.e., the top follows
the bump; but, I cannot see what happens to
the bottom portion of the thread. I have also
found another article from knittycom fall 04 issue that appears on internet. Article states "catch one purl bump and then go through one V (as for stockinette stitch) ... this is
where I'm doing something wrong ... the answer
is probably staring me in the face; but, I'm blind as a bat! If I go through one V ... which
one? And, when I go through, it shows on the other side--meaning, I didn't do it correctly!
Almost all the refs I have found use the knit stitches to demonstrate the technique; very few illustrate the duplicate stitch using the purl st. etc. Thank you.

The nature of garter stitch is that the head of a stitch will be on one side of the fabric and the running threads that connect the stitch to its neighbors on either side will be on the other side of the fabric. The result is that when you weave in the tail along a row of stitches, the tail will show up on the heads or the running threads of that row. With stockinette, the heads and running threads are all on the reverse side of the fabric, with the legs showing on the front.

The best way to understand this is to work several rows of garter in one color, then work one row in another color, then switch back to the original color. You will then be able to see the path a row of stitches follows. You can then practice your duplicate stitch on the contrast row by weaving in the main color along that row.

I'll give this a try, Rox ... thank you!

Hello desperate,

I think that Rox basically answered your question when she said that the article was showing "duplicate stitch" as a means of weaving in tails in garter stitch. I do this all the time for my garter stitch projects.

It is difficult to see the second half of the maneuver in the photos because it is the nature of the garter stitch for the knit valley to recede between the purl bumps.

If you make the swatch as Rox suggested you will be able to better see what happens. Then to duplicate stitch, follow the lines that the contrasting line of yarn makes.

Think about knitting as weaving with a single strand of yarn. For each row of knitting, that strand of yarn is connected to the row below and the row above. In duplicate stitching, one is basically just following the line of yarn. If you do duplicate stitch with a contrasting color, you will have that color show on both sides of your work because in knitting the yarn shows on both sides. (hope this last comment makes sense.)

Thanks, KT ... I appreciate your help!