Jogless stripe decrease?

Hi, I’m new here and relatively new to knitting as well. :slight_smile: I was taught to knit as a kid but only recently picked it back up after a long hiatus. I’ve just started a project and looked everywhere I can think of and can’t find an answer, so I’m hoping someone here can help me!

I’m knitting a hat in the round with jogless stripes (I’ve been using the “twist yarn and slip first stitch of second row, purl wise” method). The only issue for me is how to work the K2TOG decrease, which always coincides with the color change.

According to the pattern, I’m to knit the first two stitches of the row together to decrease, then knit to the last two stitches and SSK. How do I do this with the jogless stripes? Do I slip the first stitch purl wise and then knit the next two stitches together? Do I slip the first stitch purl wise and then transfer it BACK to my left needle and then knit two together? Is there another method I’m not aware of for this?

Thank you all so much!

Welcome!
What is the name of your pattern? How many rows to each stripe?
The decreases are going to cause a slight visual interruption in the stripes. What if you just go along with making the decreases and not using the jogless technique at all? You could try this out on a small swatch to see if you’re happy with it.

Thanks for responding! It’s the Schwartz’s Hat pattern from Ravelry (I can give a link if it’s allowed). The stripes vary but are between 3-15 rows each. The pattern is actually different from the movie because the movie version doesn’t use jogless stripes (now I know why!), but it’s too late to switch now because I’m already 12” into a very long hat. As written, I’m completely confused how to do a jogless stripe AND a beginning of row decrease.

I’m toying with the idea of starting over and not using jogless, which would be more like the movie. But it would kill me to frog the entire hat after all this work, and it’s a birthday present so I’m on a time crunch.

Maybe this one?

Definitely don’t rip this out because of the jogless technique. As I mentioned, try the decrease at the new color join without working a jogless join. If you use a k2tog, the second stitch will sit in front of the first and can be used to cover the join. Even if a slight jog shows it’s not going to be a major distraction.
Great looking hat!

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Yes, that’s the one! Thank you for explaining, I hadn’t realized the decrease would help cover the join. Thank you so much for your help, I truly appreciate it.

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Do you know how to “tink”? It is knit backwards, basically undoing kne stitch at a time. I am always doing this when I am trying out a tip or technique or an alternative way of doing something. Sometimes I do it on a swatch and sometimes on my actual project so I can go back and try a different method.

I don’t know how many decreases you have in the hat but if it was me I’d either move them along the round a bit (a stitch or 2 later and a stitch or 2 earlier for the ssk) and see how it looked, or I’d see if it was possible to do all the decreases a row earlier or later than the colour change so that the jogless colour change can happen and then the decrease a round later.

Also, most people won’t notice where the join is or the decreases.

I’d never heard of it, but this video has literally changed my knitting life so a huge thank you for sharing it!

The decreases are every fourth row on quite a long hat, so there are a lot of them. I wasn’t sure whether you could just move decreases and still have it look even. Now I can try things out and see how they look!

If you like tinking you will love life lines.

You can put a life line in before you go ahead with knitting a section (eg where you might want to see how a number of rounds and decreases pan out) and if you don’t like the section you can rip out back to the life line without losing stitches. It’s a great thing to learn about.

I wouldn’t put the decreases totally randomly but I think a round later would be OK just for the sake of avoiding the colour change round. Things like the under arm bind off on a sweater are often on different rows when knitting flat and it isn’t noticable to be one row different.
When you know about life lines and tinking back it is easier to be more rebellious with trying different things out.

Hope it goes well for you

Wow, this is really helpful, thanks! I’m actually learning a lot, and I wish so much I’d known all this years ago. Thank you :pray:

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Is it possible to move the decrease to the 2nd and third stitches instead?

I did try, but I can see it pretty clearly. :disappointed: I decided to make two of these hats, on one I’m experimenting with jogless decreasing techniques, and the other I just didn’t bother with the jogless stripes. I just finished the one without jogless stripes and it turned out really well, actually!

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That’s great!

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