Woo! Finishing! That means we are almost done with our Basils, right?
OK, the thing I get the MOST questions on is finishing. Don't be scared of finishing, remember you can always snip out your yarn and try again if it doesn't come out to your liking the first time.
To start, here is how I finish places like the nose or tail where you pull your yarn through stitches to close something. First, take your yarn tail and thread your tapestry needle on to it. Then, find where the yarn tail is coming from and stitch across into the other side of the closure, like so (or maybe "sew"):
Then stitch across the opening again, coming from a different angle this time:
Keep doing that, stitching from a different spot each time, until you feel like it is sufficiently secured. Now it is time to hide that end. This works anywhere you need to hide your ends in toys. Push your needle straight through where you have been stitching:
Push your needle out the other side:
Pull your yarn taught through:
And snip your yarn flush with your project:
Tah-dah, end is gone!
This stitching across the opening dealy works great on your cast on of the body, too. Again, stitch across from side to side, following the above directions.
Ok, in this particular project you will likely end up with holes where the neck and tail join in:
To stitch this type of hole up, again thread your tapestry needle on to your yarn tail. (If you need a longer tail for finishing, just knot a piece of yarn to the edge of the opening that you are stitching up. You can hide the extra tail by pulling it through and trimming it flush like I showed you above.) Then just stitch across from one stitch to the stitch across any sort of gap:
Keep doing that:
Whipstitching until the hole is no longer:
Make sense? Good. Let's move on to the legs! I love this project because the stripes make it easy to line up where they go. I go ahead and mark where I want my legs to go with tapestry needles first:
Then I go ahead and pin the legs on with the tapestry needles:
You can also use straight pins, but I really like tapestry needles. They are easier to see in your knit, and therefore easier to remove when done. Once you are happy with your leg placement, begin to whipstitch around the top edge to sew the leg to the body:
Do that across the whole leg, up over and around:
When I come to the ends, I like to "turn the corner" if you will, adding an extra stitch on the side for extra strength:
Once I feel my leg is sufficiently stitched down, I run my tapestry needle under the stitches I just made:
Then hide my end by running my tail through, pushing it out to the other side, and trimming it flush, like I explained above:
Once I get the front legs attached, I double check I still like how my back ones line up:
Then I whipstitch on the last legs. Got it? Good. See, finishing isn't really scary, right?
Ok, tomorrow I will finish up my KAL with how to do the smile. See you all then!
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