Reengineered Picot Edge

A folded picot edge makes a visually interesting but not too frilly cuff edge for a simple sock. I had seen two methods described for finishing this edge. One is to use a provisional cast-on. Here is Melinda's photo-rich post on the provisional method.

The other method is to cast on normally, then when the garment is complete, fold the fabric inwards at the picot edge and stitch the cast-on edge to the inside. The argument for stitching is that it is less bulky, since you can catch only some of the edge stitches (where the K2TOG method means every stitch is caught). Here is Wendy's post about this approach. She's doing hers toe-up (knitting the facing last) but it's the same difference.

I thought I'd try the lazy way best of both methods, and you can see the result above. I did a long tail cast-on, knitted the picot setup rows, then folded up the picot to the inside of my sock, and K2TOG with every other cast-on stitch. The end result is that every other stitch of the cast on edge is tacked to the inside of the sock, but without having to get out your darning needle. So efficient.

In the photo above, the foreground shows the right side of the completed picot, and the background shows the inside. I thought I might have unvented this third method, but today I saw a post on Claudia's blog that specs this approach out in detail (via Grumperina). Claudia says to pick up both sides of the cast-on stitch; I only picked up one, so I will try her method on the second sock to compare.