Jeanette Thompson

Jeanette Thompson writes: I've been a subscriber for a couple of years and enjoy the variety of knitting patterns in each issue. Several of your patterns require a crochet border or edging. I'm sure there are people like me who don't know how to crochet, so would it be possible to include a knitting alternative?

There are indeed ways to add a border or edging other than a crochet technique. You can pick up and knit a band, collar or hem quite easily if you want to avoid crochet. However, many consider crochet an easy skill to master, and we hope you'll give it a try, perhaps using a gauge swatch and the Crochet Class directions to learn the basics. Single crochet and reverse single crochet (also called crab stitch) are the easiest stitches to learn; we seldom use other techniques than those.

In any pattern that includes a border or detail worked in a crochet stitch, we refer the reader to the Crochet Class in the resource area of the magazine or online. A crochet hook is an invaluable tool in a knit notions bag. If you can use a crochet hook to pick up a dropped stitch, our directions are intended to make it easy to complete the crochet portion of the pattern. --Editor