Here I am again, on Row #10. For me with my non-pattern-compliant stitch and row gauge, that's the row on which the depth of the hem facing is the same as the depth of the public side. It's time to unite the hem facing and the body into one unit, eliminating the need to do this bit of finishing seamwork later.



I've unzipped the chain of the provisional cast-on and put the newly freed stitches onto the smaller diameter circ I used to work the facing (the gray needle). The work is folded along the turning ridge, and I'm holding it with the hem facing showing. You can see the bit of ended off facing I mentioned yesterday. If you squint at the spot indicated by the arrow you can just make out the little "plateau" of the four terminated stitches. Instead of doing an orthodox bind off, I used a crochet hook to loop the stitches together, looping the last one around the base of the fifth stitch in from the end. While this is a legitimate bind off technique it is rarely used, as it makes an extremely tight, unstretchy edge. (Some buttonholes use this trick for extra firmness). Besides tightness the other reason for doing the bind-off this way was to eliminate the need for extra ends. I've got only one working strand here. If I were to do a normal bind-off on the four end stitches, I'd need to introduce a strand with which to do it.

In the photo above, my right hand needle holds four purled stitches of the body, and three stitches in which I've purled together a body and a hem facing stitch. (I've stretched the thing as much as possible for clarity).



Here I am making one of those purl togethers. The facing is closest to the camera again. If it looks awkward it's because I'm holding the thing at arm's length, and The Target Child (official house hand photographer) is standing on a box with the camera perched on my shoulder, giggling. This shot answers another inbox question - as you can see I did NOT work the facing using twisted stitches. I knew I wanted to do this fusing step, and I wanted to eliminate any possible source of biasing.