HELIX: the totally jogless stripe

I don’t recall what made me go searching for jogless stripes or exactly how I stumbled over this video here.  <—- click me. When I tell you I couldn’t wait to try. I have always loved stripes but I absolutely hate weaving in  the ends..so AVOIDANCE use to happen, but then I learned to cary the yarn up the side.That technique works well with 2 colors but want more that than and insert all the annoying ends.  When knitting stripes in the round I also don’t like the jog that happens so I am always on the hunt for ways to avoid that issue. There are many videos out there to help minimize that jog when knitting in the round. Go ahead and search, you will have tons to view.

Oh I remember now, I found this on Pinterest. What an addicting site, I am so sure that is not what I was looking for, but I saw it and down the rabbit hole I went. LOL but gladly this time, because I absolutely love this technique. I did  little investigating and I found blog post from 2011 on TECHknitting that gave some great info. This way of knitting stripes is also known as barber pole stripes because each color starts at a different point and basically chase each other. The reasons stripes jog when knitting in the round is because we are actually knitting in a spiral, which become evident when using multiple colors. This baby eliminates that because we change the colors in a spiral which makes it appear as seamless stripes. It’s the coolest thing. In my research I see it is used a lot on the heal of socks, you know I have to try that too :p

Why I love Helix -PRO

Normally you have to do two row stripes to work the tricks to avoid the jog and with this technique you can knit single row stripes. You also don’t have to weave in a bunch on ends because you NEVER cut the yarn AND no twisting of the yarn, just pick it up and knit. Are you ready to try it yet? You also don’t have to do any counting, once it’s set up, just knit and change the color as it presents itself.

Why I don’t love Helix – CON

The one down fall for me..is avoiding the tangled up yarn. I am currently working a four color helix and I find myself slowing down to avoid having a big ole tangled mess. That’s it though, other than that I love it!!

How helix is done 

First you have to set it up. In my case I am working 4 colors so my CO was 140, joined in the round and placed a BOR marker. Row 1 is the set up and here you cast on 1/4 of the stitches in one color and repeat. For me that is 35 stitches in each color.  Here is where you determine your color sequence, make sure this is how you want it, because it’s now or never. In other words you will not be able to change this order without frogging and ain’t nobody got time for that 🙂 So now that you are set up just knit and change the color once it presents itself. You will not have to twist anything, or cut anything just pick it up and knit. When you are at the end of the round…you will have to knit past the marker with the same color. I think the best advice is to change the color when you come to it. Here look at the diagram below, you see how the stitches double from point A to B? You just keep knitting and always pick up the new color from the bottom. NOTE: don’t pull it too tight as you want to maintain tension as much as possible.

I am truly loving how this is working out and it is perfect TV knitting because you don’t really have to use much brain power. As I said the more colors you use the crazier it can get..tangle much? lol I will absolutely be back with the finished project. 

Am I the last one on the helix train?

Knit on my fiber friends, knit on

~GG