Stranded colour work in the round

I keep reading that stranded colour work is more often done in the round, avoiding the purl stitches, but I’m not really seeing juch on whether or not this causes a jog in the colour and I think I understand but not 100% sure.

In 2 colour would there be no visible jog in the pattern because the background is staying the same colour and the contrast colour sstitches always sit above the previous round so ther is no visible jog?

But if there are multiple colours and no single background colour, is that when a colour jog will be visible at the beginning of a round. For instance switching background colour creating a straight or zig zag stripe, would it then jog?
Is this when the beginning of the round stitch should be slipped to bring the colour up into the new round and a marker put in to indicate beg of round has shifted?
Is this correct or I’m on the wrong track?

I would prefer to knit flat, I don’t mind the colour purl, but in my practise piece some colours are left at one end and I can’t pick them up until I do another row, this wouldn’t happen in the round.

Thanks

Yes, you will get a jog doing a stranded pattern in the round because knitting in the round is actually a spiral. The jog happens at the start of every round, although you might not see it depending on what is happening with the colours.

It’s a trade off between the convenience of knitting in the round and the lack of a jog when knitting flat. Knitting flat can make colour management hard, as you have noticed.

There are ways to soften the look of the jog. Meg Swansen has a method:

There are others, e.g. having a faux seam at the jog. Or you can just ignore it.

2 Likes

Thank you, that’s really helpful.
I can’t say I fully understand it yet, but as I gradually plan this colour project I will know the options and can try it out. At the moment I’m contemplating the difficulties of seaming flat motifs so they line up (maybe an extra stitch needed for seaming) or the difficulties of avoiding a jog if I go for in the round.
At some point one will become more appealing.

Thanks

Sometimes it’s difficult to convert stranded in the round to flat without creating a tangle of ends to weave in. This is often true with more than two colors. Knitting flat, the color you need is sometimes at the other end of the piece whereas in the round, the colors that aren’t in use are left at the beginning of round.
Depending on the pattern, the jog may get lost in the pattern and not be picked out by eye.

1 Like

This led me to some really interesting ideas for both options of in the round and flat. Thanks. It also reminded me of something I saw a little while back too. It’s all marinating in my head.
I might put a different motif up the sides, or I saw some stripes at the sides which I liked.
Thanks again.

@Creations, I found a blog entry from Meg Swansen on jogs in general, but with a video on avoiding the jog by starting the round in different places. I haven’t quite taken it in yet. Thought I’d post it here in case it was of interest to you.

2 Likes