One of the things we’ve been doing around Estelle Yarns lately is knitting hats for the homeless. This tip comes directly from Robbie, who’s been knitting a lot of hats. He tried out the new Cascade 220 Superwash Grande – you can two get two hats from one skein of this yarn, but you’ll have leftovers, so here’s what he decided to try!
Helical Knitting is the ultimate way to make one round stripes in your knitting, using up all those small bits that aren’t enough to make anything else. Unlike regular stripes in the round, helical knitting takes advantage of the fact that your rounds are actually a spiral and eliminates all those unsightly jogs where the colour changes occur. Note that this technique works best if you use 3 or more colours. To keep it simple, we are going to knit our hat with 3.
First, cast on and knit your ribbing in one colour. When we tried helical knitting on ribbing, it didn’t look very good. Our hat will be 64 stitches in circumference. In order to make this technique work, you’ll need to divide the total number of stitches you plan to use by the number of colours you have. Since that doesn’t work quite perfectly for us, we’ll be working in sections of 22, 21, and 21 stitches respectively. After the last round of ribbing, we need to knit 22 stitches, place a marker, knit 21 stitches, place a marker, then knit back to the beginning of the round marker. Here’s what that looks like!
On the next round, it’s time to introduce the other two colours. From the beginning of the round, knit with the colour that’s already attached, up to the first marker. Slip the marker, then attach a new colour. When attaching new yarns you can make a slip knot in the end of the yarn, then insert the right needle into the stitch that will be knit in this new colour, hang the slip knot on the right-hand needle, and pull it through to finish the stitch. Keep knitting with this colour until the next marker, then attach the third colour after that marker as well.
It’s important to note that at the beginning of the round there won’t be a new colour waiting, and there won’t be a new one left to add in. It’s at this point that we keep knitting with whichever colour was in use at the end of the round, until the second marker.
From now on, knit to the next marker and pick up the new colour that is there waiting, bringing it underneath the colour you were just using, and continue knitting along with the new colour. Remember, at the beginning of the round, we just keep going with the colour you were using at the end of the round!
If at any point you run out of a colour, you can keep going in the colour you were using until you reach the next marker. You can also add in a new colour if you have one available. After a few rounds, you’ll be able to see that there are no little jogs or blips where the colours changed – shown below is the spot where the second marker is, and the colours were changed here every round!
Note, at some point you will likely have to work a decrease, using both a stitch before the marker where you change colours, and a stitch after this marker. Whenever this happens, remove the marker and decrease the two stitches using the colour you were using before the marker, then put the marker back on the needle right after the decrease!
You can use Helical Knitting on anything knit in the round – from scrappy socks, to quick and cozy hats, it’s the perfect way to combine many colours in one project.
Happy Knitting Everyone!