A neat edge for garter stitch: slip 1 purl-wise wyif

I am knitting some wings for a new toy in garter stitch.  With garter stitch I knit every stitch on every row (easy-peasy!), but the downside is the ends of the rows can look really messy with all those bumps.  So to neaten the edges I slip the last stitch on every row, and this tutorial will show you how to do it.

To get a neat edge, on every row I knit to the last stitch, then slip the last stitch purl-wise with the yarn at the front  of the work (abbreviated to "wyif").  To do this ...

Bring the working yarn to the front

I am going to slip the last stitch with the yarn at the front of the work (wyif), so first I need to bring the working yarn to the front.  Bring your working yarn between the two needles towards you so that is at the front of the work.  That is your wyif done.

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Knit to the last stitch

Knit to the last stitch on the row.  Note that your working yarn is at the back of the work (on the side furthest from you) as you are knitting.

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Slip one purl-wise

Now I can slip the last stitch. Insert the right-hand needle purl-wise into the stitch on the left-hand needle, and remove the left-hand needle from the stitch.  That is the slip stitch done.

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And this is what the knitting looks like after slipping the stitch.  Now you can turn the work and work the next row as above (so knit to the last stitch, then slip the last stitch purl-wise wyif).  

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And here is the neat edge.  It looks like a chain along the side edge, much neater than all those bumps!

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And here is the view of the finished edge from the top.  

My piece is curved as it has some increases and decreases at the start of the rows.  Where the increase/decrease is at the start of the row, I knit the first stitch, then work the increase or decrease, then knit to the end of the row and slip the last stitch purl-wise wyif. 

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And now Griff the Dragon has nice streamlined edges to his ears and wings!

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