Tutorial - Stitching Together French Knitting

When I was little, I became obsessed with my knitting nancy which is used to create french knitting. I made two rather large cords of french knitting with the dream of one day stitching them together into rugs. About five years after completing the second cord, I decided to finally stitch them both into rugs. I couldn't find any directions on how to do it on the internet, so I decided to work it out for myself.

Turns out you cannot sew large amounts of cord into a circle like I always thought you could. It took me three failed attempts of different methods before I discovered the best way to stitch together huge amounts of french knitting was horizontally. Eventually your french knitting will turn into a lovely rug like my work in progress shown below...

Step 1:

Decide how wide you want your rug to be. Based on a previous rug I had stitched together which was too short, I decided to make mine 120 cm wide (perfect winter rug size!). Measure out the measurement you want from the start of your knitting. Make sure that the cord isn't too loose so you get an approximent measurement. I find going a few centimetres further than the measurement shown on the measurement tape works as once the cord starts being stitched together, it comes tighter and you may come up with a shorter measurement than desired. Mark the measurement with a bit of tape.

Step 2:

Pick a ball of wool in a matching or desired colour for the stitching. I chose pale blue as my french knitting is made up of pastel colours. Cut off about 70 cm of wool to start off stitching with. Now return to the marking you made in Step 1 and tie one end of the stitching wool to a loop in the french knitting. Make sure the knot is strong.

Step 3:

Now you can begin stitching together your french knitting! Get a large needle to work with, isn't doesn't have to be super sharp (otherwise you'll find yourself being poked by it quite badly). Make sure the shortest end of your french knitting (the end you measured from) is at the top of your work. This will form one end of your rug.

Thread the other end of the stitching wool into the needle. Loop the needle through the loop to the right of your first loop. Pull the wool tight so that the french knitting starts pulling together. Now, loop the needle through the second loop to the left of your first loop. Pull the wool tight once again.

Step 4:

You will now establish the stitching pattern you will be using through-out the entire process. The pattern requires skipping one loop of the french knitting and looping through the next before doing the same on the opposite side. The diagram below shows what your work should look like so far and demonstrates the stitching pattern. Stitching through every second loop creates an even joint between the knitting and a strong hold.  Make sure you loop through the same line of french knitting each time so you create a neat and symmetrically pattern. Your knitting should starting look like the one in the photo.

Continue this stitching pattern and when you reach about halfway, check how the length your knitting will turn out at. If it is not correct, you need to go back to Step 1 and recalculate your measurements. Move the loop knot further into the knitting if your length is coming up short, or move it inwards if your length is coming up too long.

You will come to the end of your stitching wool. You will only be able to work with short to medium lengths at a time and you just tie the lengths together when you reach the end of one. Tie the wool together tightly and you will sometimes need to pull the knot through the french knitting to create even stitches between the knitting. The back of your rug will have lots of knots in it, but they can be trimmed down or pull through the knitting at the end.

Continue stitching along until you reach a few loops before the end of your knitting as then you will need to turn the corner and add on more knitting!

Step 5:

It's now time to add on another section of french knitting to your work. Continue stitching until you reach the last available loop on the knitting. Now hold the other end of french knitting out and pull the needle through the knitting where you would normally loop through. The needle should come out the other side. Loop the needle through the first available loop to the left and then into the loop to the right. This will help pull the knitting into a corner. Now continue the stitching pattern once more, pulling the knitting together.

Step 6:

You've past all the difficult stages now and all you basically have to do now is continue with the stitching pattern and repeating Step 5 each time you encounter a corner. When stitching together a corner, make sure the edges of your work are even. You can pull the rug into shape on the side and once the rug is completed, it would be nice to sew edging to tidy up the edges.

Your rug should start looking like mine in the photo shown at the start of this tutorial and over time, you may actually reach the end of your french knitting! I'm only just over halfway completing this rug, and that has taken me about a month and a half.

I hope this tutorial has helped all those totally clueless about the process and feel free to ask any questions regarding the process. It's kinda difficult to explain, but with a bit of experimenting, you can work out what it should look like.

EDIT: My completed rug can be seen by simply clicking this link...Oh La La French Knitting