Helical Knitting Patterns

I recently mentioned that one of the things I wanted to do this year was play with helical knitting. This is a technique that allows you to knit single round stripes without any jogs in the colorwork, which is really pretty, and pretty fun to do, too.

It’s accomplished by slipping the last few stitches at the end of each round, thus moving the end of the round throughout the project. This keeps the color changes from lining up and makes nice smooth stripes throughout the project.

I was hoping by now I’d have my own helical knitting project to show you, but I’m still in the midst of it (a six-foot-long, rainbow striped scarf) but I’ll let you know when it’s finished. In the meantime, some more helical knitting projects for you to try.

I went with a scarf as a first helical knitting project because there’s no shaping, but a cowl works just as well for learning the basics, and it’s a smaller project. Happy Dog Crafts has a cute cowl pattern that also incorporates a fade. This one would be fun to do with minis or just scrap busting. It calls for fingering weight yarn but you could also use thicker yarn for a bigger cowl.

Another fun one but bigger is the Vertigo Cowl from Ashley Cornall, a free download on Raverly. This one also uses fingering weight yarn mini skeins, this time in rainbow colors, but you can make whatever colors you like.

You could also try a helical hat like the Classic Helical Hat from Skacel Knitting (free on Ravelry). This sport weight project comes in two sizes and you can choose yarns with harmonious colors or bolder options.

There are also a lot of sock knitting patterns that use helical knitting while choosing a single color to work the cuffs, heels and toes. Check out for example Anna Zhuravleva’s shortie Helix Basic Socks (free on Ravelry), the Helical Toe-Up socks by Lori Neff (also on Ravelry) or the knee-high Alice’s Striped Helix Socks from Phun Knits, which shows what helical knitting looks like when you use two harmonious colors.

Or how about some fingerless gloves? The Helical Twins pattern from Karin Fernandes uses fingering weight yarn and garter stitch to make a cozy, tweedy looking pair of mitts with a simple opening for the thumb. Find this pattern on Ravelry.

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn.

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small.

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches.

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come.

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you.

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?).

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry.

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns.

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]

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