I’ve been using circular needles for all my flat knitting, but haven’t tried knitting in the round yet. I want to start now, thinking it’d be fun and I’d love a couple of hats for winter.
I’ve looked at some videos, and decided i want to do the 2 circulars method. It appeals to me most, plus I already have the needles I’ll need.
What I can’t find though, are some videos on what changes when working in the round, compared to flat knitting. For example, how to do seed stitch? Somewhere, awhile ago (before I was interested of course!) I saw something about decreasing/increasing in the round - I can’t see why that’d be any different though…:??
So - I’ve found videos about knitting in the round - gettting it set up, knitting, and knitting and knitting - but I’m thinkin’ there’s a whole lot more to it than that!
Any helpful suggestions - especially of videos - would be HUGELY appreciated as always! THanks!
If you want to work a flat pattern in the round, you have to reverse the wrong side rows–knit the purls and purl the knits and work the stitches in reverse order.
When you knit in the round, you’re always working on the right side–there are no wrong-side rows.
When you work flat, for example, you can imagine that the stitches are worked 1,2,3,4,5, etc on the rs rows, and 5,4,3,2,1 on the ws rows. All stitches in the round are worked 1,2,3,4,5. . .
So if you work stockinette, you knit every row. Garter stitch would require you to knit one row, purl one row. Seed stitch would still be k,p,k,p and you just purl the knits and knit the purls on the next row.
Most patterns worked in the round are written for in the round, though.
Oh good grief, I wasn’t even thinking of trying to convert a flat pattern to in the round! This is quite enough as is, lol - relieved to hear seed st isn’t different, but it totally escapes me as to why gs is alternating k and p rows!
but it totally escapes me as to why gs is alternating k and p rows!
I know how that is! As Ingrid explained you’ll be working on the RS always. Therefore if you need purls on the RS you have to purl to get them, you won’t be turning and knitting to get the purls on the RS. HTH The videos are great and once you knit in the round it will all makes sense. I promise.
When you knit
“in the round” you are really knitting in a “spiral.” It looks as if the right side is facing you all the time, and it is, I guess, except if you look at it from a different vantage point, like, say, if you were lying under the work looking up at it from below. Then it becomes apparent that the stitches are circling around and have two sides.
I didn’t get it until I remembered how I used to look at molecules in organic chemistry, from the bottom, because the molecule changes if there’s an attachment on the right versus the left. They used to have us build models, LOL!
When I first started knitting in the round, the thing that bothered me the most was trying to actually join the yarn. If I didn’t pull it tight, there would be a big gap, or it came undone. It just takes a little practice.
This was the first place I looked - as always - and I did watch that video. It only shows casting on and knitting a couple of rows.
I’m sure I wouldn’t have managed to return to knitting at all, if it weren’t for KH’s forums and videos. All the KH videos have been great, but this one just wasn’t clear to me. It was the first one I’d watched on using 2 circs - she uses 2 different size and colour needles and by the time it was approaching the 3-minute mark I was totally confused. Not that it takes a lot to confuse me. lol.
I’m not exactly sure which video you watched but I do know about using different size needles. When you knit in the round and don’t turn your work the left needle is always the left needle, the right needle is always the right needle. Using a smaller needle on the left serves more than one purpose: Interchangeable sets will have 2 of any size needle and if you want to do 2 needle circular knitting, you don’t have to buy a new set of needles, just use a smaller one on the left; if the needles are different it’s easier to keep track of which one you should be using. All the left needle does is hold the stitches and present them for knitting with the right needle. I will use a smaller needle on the left for doing magic loop simply because it makes working the stitches faster and easier. I do magic loop because I will invariably knit with the wrong needle if I’m doing 2 needle circular knitting and make a mess. Others prefer the 2 needle method and don’t have that problem. Clear as mud?
Thanks Jan - I’d already found both Cat Bordhi’s videos, and they cleared it up for me. I just had the questions about garter stitch and any other possible pitfalls. Once I start knitting, no doubt I’ll be back with more questions… :???:
I’m ready to cast on and give it a whirl - “cautiously optimistic”, as the expression goes…
Great mud, GG
Ok, yes I get it. I don’t have interchangeables, and I already had duplicates of some so using 2 circs made more sense to me than magic loop. Anyway using 2, after watching Cat Bordhi’s video, looked a lot easier. I’ve put marker pen on the tips of one pair - because, yeah, I did see the potential for disaster…
If I WANT 'em there, I have to PUT 'em there!