Let me count the ways

Knitting: weaving in the ends

It seems like every source of knitting information has its own preferred way to weave in the ends. And people who tell you "the right way to do it" are always scandalized to hear about the way that you have been doing it up to this point.

I'll admit something shocking: I weave in my ends by tying them together in a square knot, then weaving them up a few rows and down a few rows. It's totally visible on the reverse side, and you're "never" supposed to tie a knot in knitting, but guess what? I have been doing this for years and no one has died yet. I have evaded arrest. I remain at large.

The thing is, I have found that if you weave ends in horizontally, they always pop out eventually. That is because knitting stretches a lot more horizontally than it does vertically. And with my two-direction method, going up and then turning and going back down, those ends stay put. Also, it is very easy to do. Also, I don't really care about my ends being "invisible" or whether or not I'm using "the right way to do it."

If you are less blasé than I, or you want to try out some new techniques, there are quite a few.

I like the "overlap join" method of locking together the strands and knitting them in as you go, although it creates a bit that is noticeably thicker than the rest, and it is a little fiddly.

This Knitting Daily article recommends weaving in the ends diagonally. I'm intrigued: I will have to give this a try.

Here's a nice photo tutorial that covers a lot of the different ways to weave in the ends. I have seen a lot of knitting photo tutorials, and these photos are some of the best I have seen.

Image courtesy Flickr/The Bees