Adding Your Own Edge Treatment

In addition to the embellishments that already exist on many ruffle yarns, you can add your own twist by crocheting, tatting, or using another edging technique to add color, depth, fill, or other design to your mesh yarns.

Adding crocheted edgings to Trendsetter Yarns' Flamenco.

For some, this may seem to be gilding the lily, but having two finished edges emphasizes a number of design options  —  such as double ruffles and mock hairpin lace.

Keep in mind include the size, weight, style, and fiber of your added edge. While the simple shell edges I've added above are in scale for Trendsetter Yarns' Flamenco, the wool blend fingering yarn (Fox Brand Velnette, a vintage crepe yarn from from my stash) is so heavy, comparatively, that it wants to collapse the mesh, and as a dry-clean only yarn, would shrink and full at a different rate than the mesh yarn were someone to stick it in the delicate cycle, ruining a finished garment.

Starbella Flashedged in size 30 crochet cotton

More to scale is the simple single-crochet row of size 30 crochet cotton I added to the sample of Starbella Flash in the second photo. While I've not put enough trim on that yarn to be decorative, I wanted to emphasize the unembellished border for another technique I'll be demonstrating shortly.

Technique: Mitered Cast On and Bind Off

One method of hiding the raw edges on ruffle yarn is to work them into the bind on and cast off of a piece.

Casting On

Fold the raw edge diagonally so that the first row of alternate spaces meets the loops formed by Threads 1 and 2.
	Match the loops to the alternate spaces. You may need to pin the openings to a padded board to keep them aligned.
Cast on or chain as usual, keeping the matched openings together.

Finishing Off

As you approach the end of your piece, count out the number of loops you need to bind off and/or finish the final row or round. You should do this when you require one or two loops more than the number of alternate rows on your yarn.

Cut the yarn with two or three loops more than you need to finish your work.

Fold the raw edge diagonally so that the first row of alternate spaces meets the loops formed by Threads 1 and 2. Be sure to make your fold so that the raw edge will end up on the inside of the work, rather than the outside (as I did in following photos).
You may need to transfer the matched loops to a cable needle or other holding needle to keep them in order as you finish the final row.

A third needle keeps the loops-to-be-worked straight

Continue to crochet, or to bind off, as usual. Finish and secure the threads and open loops at the working edge.

A mitered bind-off

Note that if I had folded the raw edge to the other side of the working edge, the raw edges at the top would have been hidden.

Counting Stitches: Alternate Spaces

Some patterns and techniques will require you to make use only of spaces in a pattern that is perpendicular to a particular loop -- say, to create a mitered corner or a traditional (bent at 45-degree angles) ribbon rose.
Depending upon whether your spaces are to start, you would use either the spaces defined by the capital letters below, or the spaces defined by the lower-case letters.



Or, in the theme we discussed earlier, usually the odd-numbered spaces, but occasionally the even-numbered ones.

The End of the Yarn

There are two places in our work in which we come to the end of the yarn: when we are about to finish a skein in the middle of our work (and need to graft in more yarn to continue), or when we come to the end of our work and need to secure the final stitches.

Because of its bulk, the ends of a ball of ruffle yarn cannot be woven into the work the same way we work in the ends of traditional yarns.

Adding More Yarn

We've come to the end of our yarn

Overlay the old and new yarns
(contrast used to demonstrate technique)

Work the two yarns as one until the old yarn runs out

When adding more yarn, overlap the last three or four loops of the ball you are about to finish with the first three loops of the  new ball. Work the loops of both balls together, the same way you did with the folded-over loops at the start of  your work.

Now working with just the new yarn

How the old and new yarns work into each other
(this would be invisible with the same color yarn)

Finishing Your Work

With a Pulled-Through End (Ribbon Yarns, Worked As Yarn)

As you approach your last several stitches, count out the number of loops you will need to complete those stitches, plus an additional four loops. 

When you get to the end of your work, pull the remaining yarn through the last loop.

Pull to tighten the last stitch and secure the tail.

If the stitch will not tighten (which is typical for ruffle yarns), you will need to use sewing thread to secure the tail to the back of the work.

With a Sewn-In End

As you approach your last several stitches, count out the number of loops you will need to complete those stitches, plus an additional four loops. 

Cut the yarn along its width. 

Fold back the last four loops of the yarn, the same way you did with the first two loops when starting your work.

Work as usual, binding off (knitting) or crocheting your final stitches.

At the end, you should have a single loop of doubled yarn on your hook or needle. 

Take a needle and sewing thread, and sew this loop, either to the first two unworked threads of the yarn's edge, or to the previous two or three stitches of your work.

With a Knotted End (Mesh Yarns Only)

As you approach your last several stitches, count out the number of loops you will need to complete those stitches, plus an additional few loops. 

Cut the yarn along its width. 

Using only the four extra loops, cut the yarn along its length between the second and third threads, or between the highest-number worked thread and the thread beneath it..(If the yarn has many threads, you may want to make a parallel cut several threads down, to end up with two "strings" of about equal bulk, plus an embellished tail.)

At the end of the work, pull the working threads through the loop formed by the last stitch, leaving the cut part of the yarn behind.

Using the pulled-through yarn as one "string", and the remainder as a second "string", tie the two strings together using a square knot.

Trim the trailing ends, (and if appropriate, the embellished tail).

Binding Off

Because ruffle yarns are looser than standard yarns, a typical bind-off will appear very tight. While this is fine (even desirable) for The Scarf, it's less useful if you are using ruffle yarn for the fancy edge of a garment.

The method that seems to work for Sashay is:
(k1, slip the knit stitch back to the left needle),repeat, k2 tog, (slip the knit stitch back to the left needle, ((k1, slip the knit stitch back to the left needle), repeat, k2tog)), repeat until only one stitch remains.

This is basically knitting each stitch twice before knitting it together with the next stitch. As you can see from the photo, this leaves a pretty straight edge, though there's still a bit of tightness to it.

A variation of the more standard bind-off (k1, (sl1, pass knit stitch over sl st, knit slipped stitch), repeat) had me knitting the same Sashay stitch three times before binding off


A larger mesh, such as Starbella, may require knitting each stitch three or four times before binding it off by knitting it with (or slipping it over) the following stitch.

Design Note:

The curvature of the traditional bind-off (knit each stitch once before slipping it over the next stitch) can also be used to create a collar (see this section of Premier Yarns' Cascading Ruffles scarf) that lays flat on the neck and shoulders, an armhole trim, or other curved trimming.

Starting Work: Crocheting in the Round

In traditional crochet, we start with a central ring, whether it's made of plastic or bone, padding threads, chain stitches, or a single chain stitch.

It's not so different in ruffle yarn crochet, except that the ring comes from the threads and spaces of the yarn's width.

The Foundation Ring

Starbella Note how the hook comes under the embellished edge.

Accordion-fold the raw edge, matching all spaces from the working edge to the free edge. Insert hook through the open edge space from working edge to free edge, with the hook coming under the free edge and the ball coming to the left of the hook (if you are right-handed).

This is equivalent to the usual foundation ring or the chain stitch that supports all the stitches of the first crocheted round. Work all of the gathered threads as a single initial padded ring, except as noted.

The First Round

Single crochet: Slip the hook through the next free loop of the working edge, and bring the thread through the foundation ring.

Hook is inserted through the first free loop of the working edge

Slip the next free loop of the working edge around the hook from the back of the work. Draw through both loops on the hook to complete the stitch, just as in traditional crochet.

Yarn drawn through foundation ring

Continue to crochet around the ring, working in the raw edge of the yarn.

Another view of the foundation ring

Drop threads from the ring
as they start to get in the way

At some point, about a third to half-way around the ring, the threads will want to separate and it will become difficult to keep all of the threads in the ring (or, it will seem as if you would be adding more threads into the ring). Drop the threads that want to separate (or draw in more bulk) as you continue to crochet around.

As you come back to the beginning of your work, pick back
up the threads just before your first stitch to complete the circular round.

Ready to join: this Starbella first round
has 14 single crochet stitches

Note that this first round will have more than the six stitches to which you may  be accustomed. (I average eight to ten double-crochets for Sashay, about the same number of single crochets for Flaunt.)

Defining the Width: Rows and Spaces

Because some patterns and techniques may specify either collapsing several threads together to create a thicker working edge or working with interior spaces (spaces that are formed by openings between threads other than Thread 1 and Thread 2), we need a common way to refer to these threads and spaces..

Sashay has 10 threads plus an embellished edge

In Knockout Kreations' Simple Switchin' Headbands, Angelina refers to the spaces between two long threads as "rows of loops". While she begins numbering them from the embellished edge, it is more practical to number them from the working edge, since different yarns have different numbers of threads, and different arrangements of threads, across their widths.

I tend to look at the width-wise spaces of a  yarn through a line perpendicular to the yarn's length. For example, I see either three full spaces across the width of Starbella (marked A, B, and C), or four spaces (a, b, c, and d). Kind of confusing, right?

Starbella Flash has seven threads (plus an embellished edge) - but how many spaces?

In the end, I think Angelina has the right of the count, while not of the order:  if we number our width-wise spaces based on the thread count, the confusion disappears, even if those spaces seem to progress in a zig-zag faxhion:

Starbella Flash - The threads are numbered yellow; the spaces, white.

Space 1 is formed by threads 1 and 2; space 2 is formed by threads 2 and 3; space 3 is formed by threads 3 and 4, and so on. By this method, Sashay has 10 spaces, Pirouette has 6, and the smaller-holed Twist & Twirl, 28.

Spaces in Sashay

Piroutte has six spaces
plus a three-row embellished edge

Twist & Twirl has 28 spaces

It may be easier to envision the spaces as forming a sort of diagonal across the width of the yarn, as you can see in this sample of Trendsetter Yarns' Flamenco.

Spaces in Flamenco (Trendsetter)

Loops, Threads, Holes, and Spaces

The next thing we need to learn about ruffle yarns is how to refer to their internal structure.

When we look at ruffle yarns, we often look at them like we looked at sewing cards as children -- that is, we see specific holes into which we are supposed to insert our knitting needles and crochet hooks to make a scarf, shawl, or fancy trim.

Depending on who you talk to and the type of ruffle yarn you are talking about, these holes may be called "loops", "spaces", or "holes". Specifically, since fabric-based ruffle yarns have regular round holes punched in the manufacture of the yarn, the place-to-put-your-needle is very definitely a hole.

Tecido Trico (Sky Blue) by Knitting Fever

Most ruffle yarns are constructed several mutiple-ply threads that are connected to each other at evenly spaced intervals, alternating between the left-neighbor and right-neighbor threads.

Starbella by Premier Yarns

For ease of navigation, I propose numbering these threads, starting from the working edge, like thus:

Sashay by Red Heart

Starbella Flash by Premier Yarns

Most patterns for working ruffle yarns ask the needleworker to work with the portions of the working edge between its connections to Thread 2, asking her to place her needle through the "loop" or "space" created between two adjacent connections.  

My next post will deal with describing the yarn across its width.

The Working Edge

Many ruffle yarns have two distinct edges: one which looks like most of the rest of the net, and one which is thicker, wider, more-closely woven, or embellished with metallic thread, chenille, "eyelash" or "fur" treatments, or pom-poms.

The typical method of working this yarn is to work along one edge off the yarn, leaving the rest free to form ruffles and swirls.

For the purposes of this workbook, the edge which looks like most of the net will be called the working edge, and the edge with the trim will be called the embellished edge.

Red Heart Boutique Sashay

Premier Yarns Starbella

Patons Pirouette

On ruffle yarns without a distinct embellished edge, either edge can be considered the working edge, as long as that choice is kept consistent through the work*. The edge that is not worked is called the free edge. (For yarns with embellished edges, the terms "embellished edge" and "free edge" may be used interchangeably.)

Bernat Twist & Twirl

On ribbon yarns, the choice is quite simple: the edge with the loops is always the working edge; the edge with the bound fringe is always the embellished, or free, edge.

Loops & Threads Fabuloso