German Short Rows in the Round: A Cautionary Tale

German short row technique is justifiably popular as it’s very easy to do and gives nice and tidy results for the back-and-forth part of a short row section in st st, or so of course also for things knit entirely flat in st st.

But when knitting in the round, because the last turning point is always worked from the opposite direction on the following round when you come back to it, for complicated and not-at-all intuitive (at least to me) reasons, the usually method of closing the hole does not work but instead leaves an unsightly puckered, twisted spot, often with a different kind of hole. Frustratingly, the vast majority of introductory material online to German short rows don’t mention this at all, much less offer solutions. Because of this, I didn’t even know it was “a thing”–I thought it must be just something I was doing wrong, something with my tension, or somehow some other mistake in execution, never imagining it might be some quirk or “flaw” inherent to the technique itself! I like to think, while not brilliant, I’m a fairly intellectual knitter: I taught myself continental combined, I’ve unvented various techniques and tricks for myself, I’m a fan of Techknitter’s Blog–in short, figuring out this sort of thing ought to have been my bread and butter. But no such luck.

So, after it nearly drove me crazy, and nearly ruined a couple small projects with these horrible puckered spots, I finally started searching around, and after a bit of digging, found (only) a handful of articles and videos addressing this issue and a few different schemes for how to fix it. Here’s a couple I liked: https://pattylyons.com/2018/06/germanshortrowsintheround/
and
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf37k_VVohg

Note, however, that both of these assume that your working st st, at least on and adjacent to the double stitches–if you’re working some other stitch pattern, I guess you’re still “on your own!”

I wanted to post this both to raise awareness of this big “quirk” in the gsr method, as well as to encourage more people to bring it and it’s solutions to people’s attention when promoting or demonstrating the method. If I save even one other person from the bewildering aggravations I experienced, I’ll be happy. For any of the half-dozen popular and glowing “introductions to gsr”-type tutorials out there on the web to even briefly mention or allude to this problem, if not actually address it, could save someone literally hours of needless confusion and irritation. I understand not everyone knits in the round, but a lot of people do, especially lately with the renewed interest in authentic folk traditions, and for a tutorial to state that one can simply substitute gsr for any pattern that calls for w&t without mentioning that this doesn’t apply to circular knitting just borders on irresponsible IMO…

(Grrr… no, I’m not bitter, why do you ask…?! Ok, rant over now…) :slight_smile:

Anyway, Thanks for reading this important public service announcement. :slight_smile: (As for myself, while I still acknowledge the charm of GSR, I’ll probably be primarily sticking with YO short rows, or something else more “intuitive,” from now on…)

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In the video you posted a link to they converted the GSR to a YO short row instead of solving the problem with GSR in the rounds.

I have never gotten any holes from working a real GSR in the rounds. I also knit continental combined so when I am purling the stitches will end up with the right leg behind the needle. So I purl to the turning point, turn to the work to the right side, slip the stitch without altering orientation (it is now having an orientation that most knitters would consider “wrong”), I do the the yarn-over-tug to create the double stitch and continue to knit in the rounds. When reaching the double stitch from the other side I take the orientation from my previous purling into account and thus I enter the double stitch according to that and knit it. Like that I never end up with holes.

(Those that do not knit combined need to work the purl turn like this: purl to the turning point, turn the work to the right side, slip knit-wise (as when doing SSK), do the yarn-over-tug to create the double stitch. When going all around to the double stitch, threat it as if you already had done orientation changing SS in SSK and just do the K part exactly in the same way as when you do SSK.)

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I am not an experienced knitter, I’d say more intermediate, with help from this site… :wink: However, I have knitted 3 sweaters on the round. It was a top down knitted sweater called “Heavenly”. It uses german short rows for the shoulder ease and it worked fine. Although I will say it had no “pattern” e.g. lace pattern. It was just st st. Your “heads up” is greatly appreciated and I will keep my eyes open if anything i knit on the round in the future uses gsr’s with a ‘pattern’, e.g. lace pattern… I will keep checking to see if anyone comes back to you with any helpful pointers… Thanks for sharing!!!

When working the back of the sweater as German Short rows…how do I connect to the front of the sweater? Do I wait to do increases on the front until I have the back GSRs completed?

Welcome to KH!
What is the name of your pattern and designer? Are you knitting top down and in the round?

I am knitting the Uhuru Lite by Leeni Hoimela. I think it is knit in the round from the top down. The directions confuse me.

This is my first time doing GSRs. The pattern has me work the short rows but then says I should have increased the front of the sweater as well so I’m confused.!

The second photo shows what the increased amount should be for the front and back where my thumb is.

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The directions for the short rows include the increases at the 4 raglan markers. If you number the markers starting after the BOR marker there are 4 markers, one through four. The turns are after marker 4 on the first short row and then you purl around to marker 1 and turn. One each of these short rows you’re increasing either side of the markers 1-4 and also working the triangle sts.
To make this easier, use one color marker (or loop of scrap yarn) for the 4 raglan markers and another color marker or scrap yarn for the triangle markers.
You are increasing before and after the 4 raglan markers as you work these short rows.

That helps thank you.

Good. I was going to add a diagram which is the sort of thing that makes it easier for me to understand. You may want to make your own.


The red dots are the approximate locations for the GSR turns.

Salmonmac had it right, in my opinion, of course! I also find it easier drawing It up on paper and what goes where and so forth. I even do that when I’m doing multiple increases or decreases so I don’t lose count of where I am. Great advice, Salmonmac, as always…:blush: