Knitting

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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.]

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?

Classic Dishcloth Knitting Patterns

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use. 

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make. 

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!). 

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn. 

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart. 

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern. 

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.