Stripes in the round

#1

Can’t believe I’m asking such a basic question but apparently I am having a brain fart. I am knitting a very simple striped hat in the round and can’t figure out how to change colors.

The stripes are single colors so I don’t want to carry the yarn and twist it intarsia style but want to knit the strip cut the yarn and start the new yarn.

Normally when adding more yarn I knit 4 stitches with both yarns then weave the ends. Can’t do that with a new color. If I drop one color and pick up the next it leave a hole. I don’t wan to knot the yarn, ewwww.

So is there some silly secret I am missing to changing colors in the round???

#2

When you go back to weave in the ends, you can pull the tails and close up the hole.

#3

Here is also a tutorial on Jogless stripes :thumbsup:

#4

Thanks, that is great but I am a little confused… the directions read:
[CENTER][B]JOGLESS STRIPE HOW-TO
(a new way)
[/B][/CENTER]
[ul]
[li]On color change rounds, change colors by knitting the first stitch of the new color as you usually would. Then, knit the rest of the stitches to the end of the round.[/li][li]On the next round, [B]slip the first stitch of the new color[/B], then knit the rest of the stitches.[/li][*]On every following round, knit every stitch as usual[/ul]Does that mean that ONLY the first stitch is the new color and the rest of the row is the color below and then on the NEXT round you actually change color? Or do you knit the entire row the new color then on the second row slip the stitch?

#5

I haven’t tried that method because I’m happy with the one I use. http://tiajudy.com/jog.htm It’s not perfect, but I don’t think that any method will be perfect, it’s all just a workaround to make a spiral look like it’s not. :wink: Here’s photos of the hat I just made. The second picture shows the ‘jog’, the first picture is the other side of the hat. At first glance it’s not immediately obvious, but if you look you can see it of course, but for the most part they are not bad IMO. I carried the yarn up the inside and it ends up on a diagonal because the method moves one stitch to the left each time.

Once blocked out I think the ‘jog’ side will look pretty good.

#6

That looks great Jan.

One problem is that I’m making varialble width stripes (10 rows, 8 rows, 6 rows and then 4 rows) of different colors. So there is no reason to carry the yarn up. I think that moving the begining of each row will work, i only have 4 colors and 4 strips so there won’t be that many ends to weave in.

I’ll just have to “do it” and seehow it looks. There still doesn’t seem to be a good answer to dealing with the ends. Normally I am doing fair isle and the color changes aren’t a problem or I am kniting strips flat.

#7

When I was making my Silly Socks we did it as a group project on our Knit Night. The leader had us take the ends of each color change and weave them under the purl bumps on the inside before we even started knitting. It works pretty well, but don’t over tighten them or it’ll bunch up. Of course that may have been because of the fair isle. :wink: Give it a try anyway and do the jogless jog thing and the stripes should look pretty good.

You can get to the pattern here and see (toward the bottom) how she did it.
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/JanCA/silly-socks

#8

Ginny, what I like to do is this: When I’m about 3 or 4 inches before I start the new color I hold the new color up next to the RH needle with the tail going off to the right and work over the tail as I knit. Run the RH needle under the new strand with the first stitch, then on the next stitch have the RH needle go over the new color. Keep alternating like that until you get to where you actually start using the new color. Then have the yarns exchange places. Cut a nice tail of the old the color you are dropping, and hold that tail up along the LH needle with the tail end going off to the left. Work over that tail the same way you worked over the other one. When you are all done you can pull tightly on those tails to take up all the slack and then stretch the material out so that the tails relax a little. I get a nice join this way (it doesn’t address the jog, that is a separate issue). If the colors are highly contrasting the color may show through but otherwise it works well.