I readily admit that I become obsessed. When I run across something really interesting, all else falls away. I bought a book. That’s often how it starts. I don’t buy many books any more so I did think about it several times before pressing the pay button. I am so happy with it. Have you heard of it? Something New to Learn About Helical Knitting.
Helical knitting is also called Stacked Stripes, Spiral Stripes, Jogless One Round Stripes. It’s all about one round stripes that have no jog where you change colours between rounds.
I have had my way with this technique before. I’ve written a Spiral Stripes blog and a couple of patterns. The Stash Buster Striped Hat uses 4 colours and is great for odd bits of yarn you have left in your stash. Also Stash Buster Socks which was an obsession for quite a while (6 pairs of socks later).
I love it when someone dives into a topic, as Jen Arnall-Culliford has with this book, and gives you tips and tricks that make a technique work really well.
As you can see in the photos above, where you change colours gives you a tightness. There is no jog in the stripe and the tightness does go away when worn but Jen has a terrific trick for avoiding it all together.
Basic 1×1 Helical Stripes video As you slip the last 3 stitches before changing colours, you move further and further away from the beginning of round marker. In fact for my hat I just took the beginning of round marker out and forgot about it. The tightness is eliminated and it’s really easy to do. Gotta love a trick like that.
If you, like I do, have many, many little odd balls of various yarns in your stash you could join me and knit a bunch of hats to keep your loved ones warm. Winter is here, at least where I live. There will be more hats.
Stay Tuned,
Deb
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