Knitting

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Ways to Join in the Round for Circular Knitting

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how to join in the round for circular knitting.I think the biggest hurdle knitters have to get over when they want to start knitting in the round — perhaps maybe how to manage double-pointed needles — is understanding logistically how to get started.

How do you keep your stitches from being twisted? How do you make all those floppy stitches behave so you can start knitting? Do you need to do anything special to start circular knitting or can you just, you know, knit?

I decided to try to answer these questions in a quick video.

[youtube width=”400″ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giIfI1UP8NA]

I show you what a non-twisted cast on looks like and offer three different methods for joining in the round:

Casting on an extra stitch and working it together with the first cast-on stitch

Swapping the first and the last stitches one over the other so the stitches change position

Doing nothing

I’ve used all of these methods through the years and while doing something to hold those stitches together makes the whole thing a lot less wobbly, especially on DPNs, just starting knitting without any special preparation is fine, too.

How do you start knitting when working in the round? Do you use one of these methods or do something else? I’d love to hear about it.

Comments

  1. I bring the working yarn forward, transfer the last stitch onto the first needle, lay the working yarn to the back between that last stitch and the next to last one, slide the last stitch back onto the right hand needle and start stitching. This avoids the lagging gap between the first stitch and the last stitch, and the whole thing is smooth as silk.

  2. Thank you for the useful video, Sarah. I’ve been avoiding knitting in the round and found your information very helpful.

  3. Thanks for the informative video. I like to knitting in the round, I primarily knit hats and some scarves in the round. I recently started knitting socks, currently on my second pair using double pointed needles. I look forward in the future to knitting cardigans for a smoother finish.

    Thank you!

  4. Please move your camera over to your work. We cannot see any knitting, only your left hand and the ball of yarn.
    Many thanks. H.

Have you read?

Patchwork Blanket Knitting Patterns

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns. 

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn. 

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options. 

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners. 

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set. 

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn. 

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers. 

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.