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.

This is a project that kind of stopped me in my tracks when I saw it while scrolling Ravelry. It’s such a fun contrast of a semisolid color worked in stockinette stitch and a more tonal yarn worked in a feather and fan variation.

(See more about feather and fan in this post on my blog; I also have a feather and fan scarf if you want to practice.)

The Nitty Wrap from Renate Dziedataja is worked in fingering weight yarn from a Finnish mill, and the name is the Finnish word for meadow. You of course can use whatever yarn you have handy.

It’s even more interesting because the project is worked from one short end across to make a long rectangle, and the two different sections are joined using intarsia. Generally we think of intarsia as being used for colorwork, so this is a fun different use of it. The lace section is charted in the pattern but it’s pretty easy to follow.

And of course it’s totally optional but to add a little more interest and tie the two colors of yarn together the designer also added some embroidery along the short edges on the stockinette side. A drawing of what she did is included but you can also add different designs if you’d rather.

The shawl has I-cord edgings to give it a nice finished look that doesn’t take away from the organic simplicity of the design.

As shown, the shawl measures about 22.5 inches/57 cm wide and 59 inches/150 cm long. You can of course adjust this according to your preference, the amount of yarn you have and the gauge you are getting. Try a thicker yarn to make a wider shawl if you like.

This pattern is available in English and Latvian for free on Ravelry.

Photo: Renate Dziedataja

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