Ravel cord is a strong and slippery-smooth braided nylon that machine knitters use to connect scrap yarn pieces knitted from the cast-on up with the main yarn of the garment in a way that can be easily removed.
After the hem has been hung and the main yarn stitches have been secured, you simply pull on the ravel cord and away the scrap yarn falls to reveal a beautiful hung hem or finished graft.
Coming from a hand-knitter who adores the look of a provisional cast on grafted to live stitches to create a seamless look but is too lazy to actually do it a decent amount of the time, the scrap yarn and ravel cord combo is a dream come true.
“Scrap’n’Ravel” is one of my favorite ways to cast on to the machine, so I use my ravel cord a lot.
To “Scrap’n’Ravel” on, I like to use the Automatic Cast On from my knitting machine manual. (That’s simply because it’s faster, so you can cast on whatever way you like. Scrap yarn is a great opportunity to practice new techniques, after all!)
After I’ve knitted at least 6 rows, it’s time to reach for the ravel cord before the real fun of the project starts.
But recently, that’s where I’ve been running into problems…
We adopted a cat back towards the end of 2020. She is a lovely, talkative calico, and she loves yarn.
She loves sitting on yarn. She loves staring at yarn. She loves sprawling across yarn. She loves flossing with yarn. (That one I haven’t tried yet.)
But she also loves stealing my yarn!
I stopped her from chomping the cones, and I stopped her from sprinkling the skeins with wee, but I can’t seem to stop her from batting the bobbins.
These kumihimo bobbins, sometimes sold as Bryson EZ Bobs, are just too tempting for her! They’re primo cat toy size, after all, AND they have a “tail!”
I have a stash of these things. Or, I suppose, had a stash. Now the Yarn Inspektor has a stash somewhere.
If things were going as they should, I’d knit a row using ravel cord. It would look like this…
… and I’d be ready to knit with my main yarn!
But since the Yarn Inspektor has decided my ravel cord is her ravel cord, sometimes I’ve had to make do.
Thanks to this trick I learned from my mentor, Pamela Carrico of CMO Designer Knits, I don’t have to spend hours searching for my bobbins of ravel cord.
I can use the scrap yarn I was knitting with as ravel cord!
(Is your mind blown like mine was?!)
This trick works best with smooth, strong yarns. A crispy acrylic or toothy wool is not a good idea. Removing the scrap-yarn-as-ravel-cord strip is not as smooth as working with ravel cord. I wouldn’t recommend this trick over using ravel cord.
But it will save you if “problems” meow your way.
When you’re ready to knit what would normally be your single row of ravel cord, use your fingers to grab onto the scrap yarn just under the carriage where the yarn is loaded into the feeder and pull a bit down, like so:
Without moving your hand, knit one row across. You’re left with a loop of scrap yarn at the edge of your work like this:
Now you’re ready to cut your scrap yarn and move on to the main event, just like you would be if you had knitted the row with ravel cord!
When it’s time to remove your scrap-cord, tug on the top half of the loop you made. It takes a bit more force than pulling ravel cord does.
As you can see in this clip, it is a bit of a tug, but it does the job! Just make sure to tug the top half.
What do you think? Is this a trick you think you’ll try in your knitting? Do you have any tips or tricks of your own to share?
Leave me a message in the comments below!
Thank you for joining me on my machine knitting journey!
ELY Knits 