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Have You Tried Helical Stripes?

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Helical knit armwarmersI have lately been showing off a lot of the gaps in my knitting knowledge, and here’s another one: I’ve never knit helical stripes.

This is a technique for knitting stripes in the round in which you basically move the end of the round around a bit by leaving some stitches unworked in one color when you change to the next color.

It sounds a little mind-blowing and like it might not actually work, but it does!

This is the first technique in the Mason-Dixon Knitting blog’s Year of Techniques, and it’s a great one to start with. Check out the tutorial, give it a whirl and let me know what you think.

The Year of Techniques is a series that will be going on all year, which includes technique videos and patterns that will help you learn those skills. The pattern for this month is a pair of armwarmers; you can buy the collection of patterns, to be released monthly, on Ravelry.

There are other helical patterns on Ravelry, but of course you could work any one-round stripe (or thicker, apparently, but it’s a technique mostly used on one-round stripes) pattern in this manner. I’m definitely going to check it out soon. I’d love to know if you’ve tried it.

[Photo via Mason-Dixon Knitting.]

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Comments

  1. I just watched this video, too, and found it interesting. I’ve never knit helical stripes. That said, I think they’d be useful for straight tubes, but I just can’t wrap my head around what to do for pieces with shaping. I’m not sure I could keep track of a moving start of round while also increasing for a thumb gusset…

Have you read?

Stitch Your Favorite Fruit on a Sweater

The other day I saw a post from Pinterest about trends for summer and it said one of them was “cultivating whimsy.” 

Well, I don’t know where Pinterest has been all this time, but we’ve been cultivating whimsy here at Craft Gossip for a long time. I love sharing projects that are a little different, things that make you smile when you see them, and will make you smile when you knit them and wear them or use them. 

Such it is with the Tutti Frutti tee knitting pattern from Bea Creative Knits. 

This cute little baby tee is worked top down in the round with contiguous shoulder construction to shape the sleeve caps. There are short rows for the neckline and folded hems with picot edging at the hemline, neckline and edges of the sleeves. 

All of this would be great on its own, but then there’s the addition of a super cute fruit icon, which is added with duplicate stitch. There are a lot of options, including strawberry, banana, orange, cherries, watermelon, lemon, blueberries, kiwi, peach, dragon fruit, apple and pear, so it’s likely you can add on your favorite fruit. 

It is offered in eight sizes, to fit a bust measurement ranging from 28-30 inches (71-76 cm) to 56-58 inches (142-147 cm). The design is meant to be worn with around 6.3 inches/16 cm of negative ease, but you can choose the fit you prefer. There’s also optional bust and waist shaping included in the pattern if you want to make it even curvier.

This is considered an advanced beginner or intermediate project because of all the skills involved, but it’s sure to be a lot of fun even if some of these techniques are new to you.

Grab a copy of the pattern for yourself form Bea Creative Knits on Etsy. 

[Photo: Bea Creative Knits]