Adding the finishing touches to a knitting project can sometimes be the most daunting and time-consuming. Especially if you're not quite sure how to do the final assembly to pull it all together! We get a lot of questions about how to graft, especially about how to graft together our Base Doodle Reversible Cowl correctly. That's why we made this step-by-step guide with written AND photo instructions that tell you all you need to know about this step in the Doodle Reversible Cowl!

For more detailed instructions about the process of grafting in general, see our full tutorial on Grafting Live Stitches. 

INSTRUCTIONS

MATERIALS

Your (almost) finished cowl + a spare cable/needle, a tapestry needle and a nice, long length of yarn

Note: Make sure all your ends are woven in before you start grafting!

SET UP

The first thing you need to do is get yourself, and your knitting, situated. 

If you haven't already, remove the provisional cast-on from the start of your cowl and put it back on a spare needle. The needles on the provisional cast-on end do not need to be the exact same size as your project needles, but they shouldn't be bigger. 

Note: For more detailed instructions and photos for removing the provisional cast-on, see our full tutorial on Provisional Cast-Ons. 

At this point, your cowl will look mostly like a long tube, similar to how a nearly finished Infinity Cowl would look, but with a purl row in the middle, and another purl row near the provisional cast-on end. 

The tail of yarn that you left at the end of your last row of knitting will be the yarn you use for grafting. It also marks which end is the 'working end' compared to the 'cast-on end'. 

ASSEMBLY

Lay your cowl out flat on a table, with the working end at the top, and the cast-on edge closer to you. 

Fold the top half of the cowl (the Interior Doodle Colorwork part) down and inside the first half of the cowl (the Exterior Doodle Colorwork part) so that the wrong side of the knitting is hidden inside facing itself. 

This should bring the working end and the cast-on end of your work close to each other, and the purl ridge from the middle of your project should sit nicely along the fold.

GRAFTING

Pick up the left needle from the working end and the parallel needle from the cast-on end. These are your 'grafting needles'. (If you want, you can either pull the other two needles out so they are a bit loose, or you can put an end-cap on them to ensure you don't drop any stitches). 

Keeping the 'grafting needles' together, hold them both in your left hand, with the ends of the needles facing to the right. Hold them up so that the wrong sides of the work are facing each other.

Starting with the first live stitch on each of your 'grafting needles', begin grafting the stitches together. As long as you have set yourself up correctly, and start at the right place on both ends of the cowl, your project will look how it's supposed to! 

Set up: Thread the yarn tail through a tapestry needle. Insert purlwise through 1st st in front, leave on. Insert knitwise through 1st st in back, leave on.

Grafting: Pull yarn all the way through for each step:

1. Insert tapestry needle knitwise into first stitch on front needle. Remove from needle.
2. Insert tapestry needle purlwise into second stitch on the front needle. Do not remove from needle.
3. Insert tapestry needle purlwise into first stitch on back needle. Remove from needle.
4. Insert tapestry needle knitwise into second stitch on back needle. Do not remove from needle.

Rep steps 1-4 until all sts have been grafted together.

For more detailed instructions on how to graft, see our full tutorial on Grafting Live Stitches.

FINISHING

Secure the remaining tail of yarn, and hide inside the finished cowl using your tapestry needle.

Happy Doodling!

 

Blog and pattern written by Jamie Lomax.

White and Pink sample is our Base Doodle Reversible Cowl with yarn from Fangirl Fibers, and Blue sample uses our Alaska Doodle with yarn from Juni & Si