Circular Knitting: Jogless Stripes

Kathleen Cubley — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:00:00 GMT

I don’t know about you, but I’m a visual learner. I can read step-by-step instructions ‘til the cows come home, but I rarely get it right without photos or—even better—a video. In the new season of Knitting Daily TV (which starts at the end of July), co-host and Interweave Knits editor Eunny Jang hosts a new segment called “Getting Started.” She demonstrates basic and not-so-basic techniques to get you started on new projects.

One of these techniques has to do with knitting in the round. I love to knit striped hats in the round. Stripes are an easy and fast way to add color to a project, and a great way to use up those little bits hanging out in your stash, too!

The problem with knitting stripes in the round is that you get a little jog in the color—the first stitch in the row above a color change is actually the last stitch of the previous row of color, so it looks like you didn’t change colors soon enough. (This happens because when you’re knitting in the round you’re actually knitting a spiral, not a circle.)

When I complete a hat I always notice these jogs, but I've never known what to do about them. And, between you and me, I’m not a perfectionist knitter, so I give it the old shoulder shrug and move on.

However, even non-perfectionists enjoy improving their skills, so when I saw the Getting Started segment about jogless stripes in circular knitting, I was intrigued. In this clip, Eunny shows us two ways to avoid the jog with a slip-stitch technique that works for any width of stripe and the “barber-pole” technique for single-round stripes.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Knitting Daily is just starting in Spokane, so I have a lot to look forward to. I've cleared off my TiVo and set it up to record all of the new shows, but if your TiVo (or DVR, or whatever) is sometimes cranky like mine is, preorder the new season's DVDs below! You'll be able to watch your favorite segments again and again, and when you need a little help, Eunny's excellent technique segments will be right at your fingertips.

And check out the behind-the-scenes fun at Knitting Daily TV in the new blog Tuned In to Knitting Daily TV.

Knitting Daily : jogless knitting

Circular Knitting: Jogless Stripes