A Sturdy Edge for Fragile Yarn

Sometimes yarn can be a bit tender at the edge of a garment. While making a Stopover sweater with the unspun Icelandic wool called Plötulopi* (or plutoloopy as I can’t stop saying), I found a great tip.

This tip comes from Hélène Magnusson, whose Icelandic Knitter is frankly helpful. She writes that the edge of a sweater will hold up better if you carry a lace yarn along with the tender, fragile Plötulopi while casting on.

Sounded like a great idea to me. I reached for the nearest non-Plötulopi yarn, which was actually Coats & Clark Double Duty Button Craft Thread.

It is a thread of unusual stoutness, and it was also closer by than the lace yarn located deep in Stash Zone Foxtrot.

At the edge you can see it if you look closely. It’s not even green. But in the general hairy chaos of this not-yarn, it’s not noticeable once you start to marvel at the general feathery lightness of the sweater you’ve started.

I’ll report back in ten or twenty years to let you know whether this strand of thread kept this edge in shape.

By the way, I am having 100% fun with this yarn. It has broken maybe five times so far, a problem akin to a shoelace that comes untied. It’s not like I dropped grandma’s crystal vase. I just rub the ends back together, and off I go.

*not to be confused with Léttlopi which is lightly spun and needs no reinforcing.