Stitching a Sweater

If you’ve been needlepointing awhile, you’ve probably come across some stitches that look like knitting. Two popular ones are Diagonal Knitting and Kalem.

My problem with them is that they seem to big for the tiny sweaters I find on my needlepoint.

Ass a result, I often use a Tent Stitch variation I call Tiny Knitting. In it, columns or rows of Continental change direction. It gives the look of knitting, called stockinette (pictured below_. Because the direction of the stitches changes in a regular way, you can change colors, making patterns and stripes.

You can also change from horizontal to vertical, making the sleeves horizontal and the body vertical as is often the case in real sweaters.

Another thing you can do easily is add the ribbing you find at the bottom of a sweater as I did in the bunnies pictured here. The narrow ribs are done in a slightly darker color and slant one way. The wider ribs are stitched in the same threads as the body and slant the other way.

By varying the width of the rows, you can make all kinds of ribs in your stitched sweaters.

Generally you’ll make your rows of Continental so they are perpendicular to the bottom of the sweater for the body and parallel to the cuff of the sleeve. You can also use any type of thread for your needlepoint knitting. On a current project that has two sweaters, one is in a cashmere blend and the other is in cotton.

The more I think about this, the more I think of ways to make “knitted” needlepoint. My next project is going to be an ornament in this style. I have a book of Estonian knitting patterns for mittens. I think I’ll do one of them and put it into a Lee Needle Arts round ornament.

I’ll let you know how it turns out.