Don’t be Afraid of Knitting in the Round

Yarn Academy recently did a three-part series on knitting in the round, covering common fears about knitting in the round, challenging those fears with facts and providing additional benefits of knitting in the round.

Circular knitting is great because it produces seamless fabric that can be shaped to fit body parts, whether those parts are feet or heads or fingers. Sweaters at least seem to get done a lot faster when you don’t have a ton of finishing to do, and the knitting seems to go faster because a lot of the time you may just be knitting (if you’re making Stockinette Stitch).

There are some downsides to circular knitting. Stripes and other colorwork have jogs instead of making perfect lines (there are ways to minimize this). It’s difficult to work intarsia in the round. A full sweater can get heavy while you’re knitting it all in one piece.

But still, I think it’s great to know how to knit circularly, whether with a circular needle, on double-pointed needles, using one long circular (or two circulars) or even a tiny circumference circular. There are so many different ways to try you’re sure to find one that you like.

Do you have a favorite method of circular knitting? I’d love to hear about it!

Next Pattern:

Using your yarn stash is important to me throughout the year, but as I start to feel the end of the year coming on I get more excited about using things I already have in the house. Maybe that’s because I don’t want to go to a store in the thick of holiday shopping times, or I like the idea of having a little space in my stash when the new year rolls around.

It’s super satisfying to use up all the little odd balls you’ve made over the year (or years), and I have several stash busting blankets I work on when it’s cold and will maybe finish someday.

If you’d like to start a stash busting project that’s perfect for using up odd balls, check out the Soukish pattern from Neisha Abdulla. This pattern is made for fingering weight/sock yarn, and it’s worked in a tube with allover color work.

This is great for a couple of reasons. You don’t really have to weave in your ends when you can hide them in a tube (this is one time you might even get by just tying a knot when you change colors!) and you can change colors whenever you run out of yarn and it will look good.

Of course the pattern is made with blocks where the designer changed colors, but you can change yours more or less often as you need to make it work for your stash. You can use blank charts to design your own color combinations, or even your own stitch patterns if you like. You can also adjust the length of the scarf as needed or turn it into a cowl based on the amount of yarn you have.

This project looks like a lot of fun and would be a great thing to have on hand to stitch up and then to wear during the cold, gloomy months.

You can get a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Neisha Abdulla]

Another Way to Use Up All Your Sock Yarn Scraps

Gather Your Scraps for a Fun Wrap

A Scrappy Shawl Knitting Pattern to Use All Your Odd Balls

Use All Your Yarn Scraps on This Great Cardigan Knitting Pattern

Next Pattern:

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