Easy Borders to Prevent Stockinette Stitch from Curling

Stockinette stitch is the most common fabric type you’ll encounter in knitting – when people think of knitting, it’s usually this fabric that comes to mind. Due to its structure, where knit stitches appear on the Right Side and purl stitches appear on the Wrong Side, Stockinette tends to curl. In this video, knitting expert Jen Lucas demonstrates three simple border techniques to help prevent this curling along the edges of your fabric.

The first border Jen demonstrates is the garter stitch. She adds six extra stitches to the fabric, creating three stitches on each side of the main fabric. On the Right Side, these edge stitches are knit, and on the Wrong Side, they are also knit, forming the garter stitch border. This is one of the simplest borders to prevent curling in Stockinette fabric.

Next, Jen shows how to create a seed stitch border. While there are different ways to work seed stitch, Jen prefers to use it over an odd number of stitches for the border. As with the garter stitch border, she adds six extra stitches, with three on each side. She works p1, k1, p1 for both the Right and Wrong Sides of the fabric to form the seed stitch border. Jen also points out that you can increase the number of stitches for a wider border – for example, adding 10 stitches would create a 5-stitch seed stitch border on each side, with a (p1, k1) repeat on the edges.

The final border Jen demonstrates is the i-cord border. She adds eight extra stitches, giving an extra 4 stitches on each side. To knit the i-cord border, Jen follows these steps:

Right Side: (Slip stitch purlwise with yarn in back) three times, then knit to the end.
Wrong Side: (Slip stitch purlwise with yarn in front) three times, k1, then purl to the last 4 stitches, k1, p3.