Once the main body of the knitting has been completed, it is often necessary to add
extra finishing rows for neck bands, button and buttonhole bands and other edgings.
Sometimes these sections are knitted separately and sewn on but it is quicker and neater
to pick up stitches along the edge and knit directly onto these.
To pick up stitches along a cast on, cast off or shaped edge Always working under a whole stitch (never through a single
thread), insert the point of the knitting needle under the first stitch, pass the yarn
round the needle and draw a loop through to form a stitch. Continue for as many stitches
as are required (Fig.66).
To pick up stitches along side edges To work a button band on a cardigan, for example, insert the point of the
knitting needle between the first and second rows 1 whole stitch in from the edge, pass
the yarn over the needle and draw the loop through. Often, the numbers of stitches that
must be picked up are not the same as the number of rows that have been worked. It is
easier to pick up the stitches evenly if you first divide the length of the edge in half,
then in half again and again, so that the edge is divided into eighths. Mark each division
with a pin. Divide the number of stitches to be picked up by eight and pick up
approximately that number of stitches in each section (Fig.67).
