kareina

I was feeling lazy this weekend, so only provided the link to the photos of the overcast blanket stitch. However,

corvideye asked me to re-post them here, since she can't access them on Facebook, so I am doing so. They are behind the cut to spare those of you who already looked.

The first photo shows the two working threads at the end of the last stitch. The thread which is vertical has a needle attached and is the one that becomes the blanket stitch. The thread which is horizontal is the one which I am overcasting around the blanket stitch, and has no needle.

ready to start stitch

The first step is to wrap the extra thread around the one I am stitching.

threads crossed

Then I take the stitch, taking care to pass the needle in front of both threads.

I tighten both threads carefully so that both stitches sit nicely at the edge of the fabric.

tighten stitch

As you can see this gives a lovely spiraled edge to the stitch. (note, if one were to wrap the overcast stitch the opposite direction then the spin direction of each thread and the direction they spiral around one another becomes the same, and instead of getting a nice distinctly spiraled edge the yarn just blurs together. Therefore which direction you wrap will be based on if your yarn is Z or S spun. You will get a different look again if you use a yarn that is plied to begin with.

edge view

I particularly like the way the overcast stitch helps to hold the blanket stitch nicely along the edge of the fabric, even when turning around corners.

corner

For those of you who missed the link this weekend--this technique is from the Bronze Age--there is a very good drawing of the stitch on figure 27 of this page by

hrj. If any of you happen to have a copy of Broholm & Hald 1940 or Hald 1980 and either or both have photos of this technique in the original, I would love to see them.