Knitting stripes in the round may present two challenges: tons of tails to weave in (yuck!) and a slightly unseemly “jog” (or half-step) at the color change. Here we address both issues! The first tutorial explains how to work stripes without cutting the yarn at the end of each stripe, and the second tutorial shows how to prevent that jog…

Carrying Up The Yarn

When you’re working stripes in the round, you’ll probably want to “carry” the yarns up the wrong side of the work instead of cutting them at the end of each stripe. This avoids a lot of loose ends to weave in! Note that this technique only works if the distance from the new stripe to the last time you used that yarn is relatively short. Keeping floats to less than an inch is a good rule of thumb.

Jogless Stripes

Because knitting in the round is essentially a spiral of stitches, changing colors for stripes creates a “jog” or a vertical column of staggered lines. Lots of people accept this as the natural outcome of hand knitting, but if it bothers you, there’s a way around it! Check it out…

Give It A Try

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Stripes in the Round | Purl Soho

Put your new knowledge to work with some of these super stripey projects: our Stripey Tube Scarf (above left), our Tiny Stripes Hat (above right) and our Stripey Socks for Cri du Chat Awareness (below).