When working knitting in the round, you’re actually working in a spiral. This means, that when knitting stripes, you get a little “jog” when switching from the one to the other color. Of course, there are also many ways to help counteract this effect. Some methods only work well with very wide stripes. However, the one I’ll be showing here, also works well with narrow stripes.
Materials used
Yarn: Scheepjes Sunkissed, a fingering weight 100% cotton yarn (170 meters / 50 grams). Pictured here in the colors 7 Pistachio Ice and 6 Oceanside.
Needles: * KnitPro Zing Fixed Circular Needles. In this tutorial, I used the 3 mm (US 2 1/2) size with a cable length of 60 cm (24 inches).
Knitting jogless stripes in the round step by step
To start, finish your round with the old color, but do not yet move the end-of-round stitch marker to the other needle.
Next, place the last worked stitch back on to the left-hand needle.
Now take the other color yarn and knit the stitch you just placed back onto the left-hand needle.
With the new color, continue working the round until you’re one stitch before the end-of-round.
Insert the right-hand needle in the stitch below the one near the tip of the left-hand needle and place it back on the needle.
Make sure to place the stitch in the “old color” in front of the one in the “new color”
This is what covers the jog!
Finally, knit both loops together.
And that’s it!
Considering that I’m knitting this tee with a 100% cotton yarn at a relatively loose gauge, I find the end result to be amazingly jogless indeed. I mean, it’s not absolutely invisible, but still pretty hard to detect!
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Circular yoke sweaters and tees are pretty popular. No wonder, because they are a great canvas for colorwork or lace. However, some shaping for raising the back neck is really necessary to make it sit right. Without any shaping, chances are that when it sits right at the back, it sits too high in the front, giving that undesired choking feeling. Likewise, if it sits well in the front, it will probably sit too low in the back. And no, this isn’t something that some rigorous blocking will fix.
In this tutorial, I’ll show you first what exactly the problem is. And, of course, also how to fix it.
The problem
As you can see in the below picture, the main issue is that the human torso is not symmetrical back to front. The neckline is angled, which means that to arrive at the same level, there is more fabric length needed in the back than at the front. And completely circular yokes (as well as raglan sweaters) without any added back neck shaping are symmetrical and don’t have this extra length built in.
As visualized in the below picture, you may start out with the situation on the right. However, as the day goes by, the sweater will want to return to its base shape and the neckline in the front will creep up as pictured on the left.
The solution, of course, is to add shaping to give the yoke the extra fabric it needs in the back. In ready-made garments, you also see a difference in the depth of the yoke in the back vs the front of the garment. That difference is called the “front neck drop”, which is in essence the same as raising the back neck by a certain distance. They both refer to a difference in vertical distance to create a better fit in your garment at the neck.
Front neck dropRaising the back neck
Raising the back neck: How?
The usual solution is to use short rows to add extra length over a certain number of the back stitches. These can be added close to the neckline, above any yoke patterning, below the yoke patterning to lengthen the back or a combination of these two. The short rows themselves can be of the wrap & turn kind, German short rows, or any other type of short row you prefer.
But this is not my preferred way….
Instead, I prefer to work back and forth over the back stitches only to lengthen that part. I do this directly before dividing the stitches for the body and sleeves. Let me you show what I mean:
This is my Jade Clover design when it was still in progress. This is a really easy way to raise the back neck, because no short row calculations are needed. Just look up in the pattern how many stitches you have for the back of your garment. Next, work those back and forth for a bit. This is a very easy way to include back neck shaping in patterns that don’t have it. Or, to raise it a bit further than the pattern describes. I know I have done so occasionally. For example, when only a few short rows were included, and the sweater still looked a bit choky on the models.
Below is my Shoreham-by-Sea tee pictured. You can see how that bit of knitting looks after the stitches are divided and a bit of the body has been worked.
What about the sleeves?
As you can see, there is now a vertical section between the held stitches and the stitches that were cast on for the underarm. And yes, this does mean that along that edge, stitches will also have to be picked up and knit for the sleeves. In my patterns where this technique is used, I have taken this into account when calculating all stitches and decrease rows for the sleeves. Take a look at the picture below to see how it looks when the garment was all done:
In sweaters where you add this yourself, you will start out with more sleeve stitches than the pattern describes. It may mean that you have some welcome extra ease in the upper arm. In that case, just follow the pattern for a larger size that has the same approx. number of sleeve stitches. If you want narrower sleeves, you may need to take an extra look at the number of decrease rounds and the number of plain rounds between them.
On a final note, I have not yet tried this technique with raglan garments. However, I strongly suspect it will work just as nicely there as it does with circular yoke sweaters. When I do try it, I will report back!
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Knitting neat buttonholes can be a challenge, especially if you need the bigger sized ones. They often tend to sag or stretch at the edges. Fortunately, I recently came across this lovely technique to make a two-stitch buttonhole, right in the purl portion of (k2, p2) rib patterning. This method may seem a tad involved, but trust me, the result is really worth it!
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to work buttonholes in an 8 st repeat, with a buttonhole over the 2 stitches in every other purl section of the rib patterning.
Materials used
Yarn: Beiroa, an aran weight yarn from Retrosaria Pomar; a 100% Portuguese wool yarn, manufactured in Portugal, exclusively from the wool of free grazing Bordaleira Serra da Estrela sheep.
Knitting needles: A pair of Addi circular needles in size 4.5 mm (US7).
Knitting two-stitch buttonholes in 2×2 rib, step by step
This technique is worked over various rows. In a pattern (like the one for the cardigan-in-progress used in this tutorial), you can expect instructions like these:
Buttonhole row 1 (RS): *K1, kfb, (p1, psso) twice, sl st back to left needle, k2tog, k1, p2; rep from *. Buttonhole row 2 (WS): *K2, p2, you have then reached the first bound off st, m1bl, p2; rep from *. Buttonhole row 3 (RS): *K2, m1rp, p1, k2, p2; rep from *.
Let’s get started!
First, work to the 2 knit stitches just before the purl stitches where you want to place your buttonhole.
Knit 1 stitch.
In this step, work a kfb increase in the next stitch.
Now purl the next stitch on the needle….
… insert the tip of your left-hand needle into the second stitch on the right-hand needle ….
… and pass it over the purl stitch.
Repeat steps 4 to 6 once.
Next, slide the first stitch that’s on the right-hand needle back to your left-hand needle.
Next, knit the first 2 stitches on the left-hand needle together (k2tog), decrease the extra stitch away.
To finish the last few stitches of the repeat, work k1, p2 over the 3 next stitches.
Now you can repeat these steps until you have the correct number of buttonholes, and then continue with the button band until you’ve reached the end of the row. It can be useful to use stitch markers around the buttonhole repeats, to make it easier to find your place on the next row.
Buttonhole row 2: Work the button band on the WS until you’ve reached your marker. Then work k2, p2 over the next 4 stitches.
Next, purl 2 stitches to finish the buttonhole repeat on the WS.
Again, continue and repeat as needed to the end of the row.
Buttonhole row 3: Work to the start of the buttonhole repeat and work k2 over the first 2 stitches.
As you can see in the result of the last step, we’ve now reached the newly cast-on stitch. To make sure the buttonhole edge is nice and tight, we’ve not cast on 2. But, of course, we do need two stitches in theta purl section. So, to remedy that, we’ll be using the extra slack in the loose thread of yarn to make that extra stitch. To do so, work a m1pr: a right leaning m1 stitch, worked purl-wise.
To finish the buttonhole, work a p1 in next stitch, followed by k2.
The result
Below, you can see the result of working this two-stitch buttonhole. Really neat, right?!
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Small V lace is a cute lace stitch pattern, consisting of 2 types of single decreases and yarn overs. It’s very suited for both all-over patterning, and use in an accent panel. This stitch pattern is worked in a multiple of 8 + 1 stitches. Please note that in the above picture, I’ve added 2 edge stitches in garter stitch on both sides of the swatch.
Materials used
Yarn: Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color Tea Rose
Knitting needles: This is a pair of straights that I picked up at the second-hand store when I started knitting, brand unknown.
Row 1 (right side): K1, *k1, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, skp, k2; rep from * to end.
Row 2: (wrong side): Purl.
Row 3: K1, *k2tog, yo, k3, yo, skp, k1; rep from * to end.
Row 4: Knit.
Repeat rows 1-4 for pattern.
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Weaving in ends is a thing that just happens in projects. I mean, every ball of yarn has a beginning and an end, and when it’s through when the project is not, a new one has to be attached. When working in a solid color, depending on the type of yarn, the Russian join, braided join or the felted join may be just what you’re looking for. However, if there are a lot of joins, because you’re, for example, working wide stripes in different colors, these usually are not the best option.
In this tutorial, I want to focus on how to deal with the yarn end of the old color, once a new yarn in a new color has been joined. For this method, you don’t need to tie knots, or even use a tapestry needle. And you can work it on the go, so that when you’re finished with the project, you’re also already finished with weaving in the ends. The downside is that this method is best to use in combination with feltable fibers. In other words: yarns that are somewhat “grabby” like wool and alpaca. Worked in ends with smoother yarns like silk and cotton may become undone.
Materials used
Yarn: Rauma Finull a sportweight wool yarn from Norway. It has a crisp hand and works well for stranded color designs. The yarn also softens up with washing.
Knitting needles: A pair of Addi circular needles in size 4 mm (US6).
Weaving in ends as you go, step by step
Let’s get started!
In the below picture, the new yarn has been carried along from the previous section in that color, using the technique described here.
Please note, that of the old color a yarn tail of approx. 10 cm (4 inches) has been left.
Next, insert your needle into the next stitch as if to knit.
In this step, take the bit of yarn tail and wrap it around the working yarn. It does not matter which way around you wrap, just do it consistently every time.
After this, work the rest of the stitch as usual.
Now work a stitch as usual according to your pattern. In this case, that’s a knit stitch.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 until no more length of yarn tail remains.
The result
Below, you can see the result of weaving in the ends as you go, when viewed from both the right, and the wrong side of the fabric. Really neat, right?!
Thanks to my Patreon supporters for bringing you this freebie! Creating quality patterns and tutorials is a lot of work and resource-intensive. However, I find it important to give you free content like this tutorial. Thanks to the generous support of my Patreon supporters, I can make it happen. Thank you, patrons! Click here to join, or click here to read more about La Visch Designs on Patreon.
In the slip stitch diamond stitch pattern, little diamonds are formed by slipping stitches and keeping the working yarn at the front of the work. Then a stitch is worked from underneath the strands of yarn, creating the little “V” shape you see at the bottom corner of each diamond. Because of the slipped stitches, the tension of fabric with this patterning may be a tad tighter when compared with regular stockinette.
This stitch pattern is worked in a multiple of 4 + 1 stitches, and a repeat of 12 rows. Please note that I’ve added 2 edge stitches in garter stitch on both sides of the swatch.
Materials used
Yarn: Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color Vintage Pink.
Knitting needles: This is a pair of straights that I picked up at the second-hand store when I started knitting, brand unknown.
Row 1 (right side): K1, *sl 3 wyif, k1; rep from * to end.
Row 2 and all following wrong side rows: Purl.
Row 3: K1, *sl 3 wyif, k1; rep from * to end.
Row 5: K2, *k1 uls, k3; rep from * to 3 sts before end, k1 uls, k2.
Row 7: K3, *sl 3 wyif, k1; rep from * to 2 sts before end, k2.
Row 9: K3, *sl 3 wyif, k1; rep from * to 2 sts before end, k2.
Row 11: K4, *k1 uls, k3; rep from * to 1 st before end, k1.
Row 12: Purl.
Repeat rows 1-12 for pattern.
In the below picture, I’ve worked 21 stitches in the slip stitch diamond patterning, over 36 rows.
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In some cases, loose strands of yarn in front of the work are used to make details in patterning. Take, for example, my Kitties all around hat. In this hat pattern, I use these loose strands to create the whiskers of the little cats. At some point, you need to catch these loose strands behind another stitch. This way, you make sure they’re fixed in the correct point in the patterning. This is where the knit 1 under loose strands (k1 uls) stitch comes in! Read on to see how it’s done.
Materials used
Yarn: Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn. The yarn shown here is in the colors 155 Vintage Pink and 125 Spearmint Green.
Knitting needles: This is a pair of straights that I picked up at the second-hand store when I started knitting, brand unknown.
Working a k1 uls stitch step by step
In patterns, you may encounter the following description of this stitch: Knit 1 under loose strands (k1 uls): Insert right-hand needle under theloose strands to slip the next stitch purlwise, pulling it out from under the loose strands before replacing it on the left-hand needle, trapping the strands behind the stitch,nextknit it.
Alternatively, the stitch may be described like this: Knit 1 under loose strands (k1 uls): Insert right-hand needle under the loose strands then into the stitch, wrap the yarn around the needle and pull it through underneath the loose strands, trapping them behind the stitch. Slide the stitch off the left-hand needle to complete the k1 uls.
Both methods amount to exactly the same, but have a slightly different way to achieve the end result. In this tutorial, I’ll show the second version.
Make sure you have your piece with knitting with loose strands to work, as instructed in your pattern.
In this swatch I have 2 strands, achieved by slipping 3 stitches purlwise, with the yarn held in front of the work.
First, work your way across the row until you’ve reached the point where you want to make the k1 uls stitch
In this case, I’m making it in the middle stitch of the 3 slipped ones.
Insert your right-hand needle underneath the loose strands to capture.
Now, insert the right-hand needle knit wise in the stitch to knit.
Here I want to make a regular knit stitch, but if you’re instructed to work it through the back loop (k1 tbl), insert the needle in the back loop instead.
To continue, wrap your working yarn around the needle…
…. and pull it through the stitch.
Next, also pull it from underneath the loose strands.
This is what captures the strands behind the newly made stitch.
Finally, finish the stitch by slipping the loop off the left-hand needle.
And that’s all there is to it!
Thanks to my Patreon supporters for bringing you this freebie! Creating quality patterns and tutorials is a lot of work and resource-intensive. However, I find it important to give you free content like this tutorial. Thanks to the generous support of my Patreon supporters, I can make it happen. Thank you, patrons! Click here to join, or click here to read more about La Visch Designs on Patreon.
Weaving in ends is a thing that just happens in projects. I mean, every ball of yarn has a beginning and an end, and when it’s through when the project is not, a new one has to be attached. When working in a solid color, depending on the type of yarn, the Russian join, braided join or the felted join may be just what you’re looking for. However, if there are a lot of joins, because you’re, for example, working wide stripes in different colors, these usually are not the best option.
Therefor, I want to focus in this tutorial on a different method to join a new yarn in a new color. For this method, you don’t need to tie knots, or even use a tapestry needle. And you can work it on the go, so that when you’re finished with the project, you’re also already finished with weaving in the ends. The downside is that this method is best to use in combination with feltable fibers. In other words: yarns that are somewhat “grabby” like wool and alpaca. Worked in ends with smoother yarns like silk and cotton may become undone.
Let’s get started!
Materials used
Yarn: Rauma Finull a sportweight wool yarn from Norway. It has a crisp hand and works well for stranded color designs. The yarn also softens up with washing.
Knitting needles: A pair of Addi circular needles in size 4 mm (US6).
Weaving in ends as you go, step by step
To start, grab your new ball of yarn!
Making sure you leave a yarn tail of approx. 10 cm (4 inches), work the first stitch of the row as instructed, using the new color of yarn.
In this case, I worked a knit stitch.
Next, hold the yarn tail together with the working yarn and work approx. 4 to 5 stitches as instructed, with the yarn held double.
Here, you see the result after I worked those stitches and I have a little bit of yarn tail remaining.
After this, work the rest of the row as instructed in your pattern, and continue with the next (WS) row as well.
When you arrive at the double strands on the WS row, just work them as if they are a single strand of yarn.
In this picture, I’ve inserted the right-hand needle into the first stitch to purl it.
Once the row is finished, this is how it looks.
Please note, that I’ve worked the last stitch with the new color yarn held double with the old color, as explained in the tutorial about carrying yarn up the side.
The result
Below, you can see the result of when viewed from the right side of the fabric. All new colors started (except the darkest one, which has been carried up along the side), were woven in as explained above. As you can see, the few stitches with the yarn held double at the beginning of these rows do not have a significant impact on how it looks. It sure makes a difference in the amount of finishing to when the knitting is done, though!
Thanks to my Patreon supporters for bringing you this freebie! Creating quality patterns and tutorials is a lot of work and resource-intensive. However, I find it important to give you free content like this tutorial. Thanks to the generous support of my Patreon supporters, I can make it happen. Thank you, patrons! Click here to join, or click here to read more about La Visch Designs on Patreon.
The luscious wool and silk yarn used in the Hazelnoot stole is the result of some deep stash diving. As such, the label is lost, so the brand is unknown. However, it’s much too pretty not to use! It inspired me to create a delicate lace design, based on traditional Estonian stitch patterns. These, of course, include nupps. Instructions for both traditional and easy nupps are included.
The instructions for the stole are provided both fully charted and written out.
Pay what you want: (minimum €6.95)
€
Difficulty level
The Hazelnoot stole contains lace that is worked on the right side of the fabric only. Stitches used include knit, purl, p1 below, k2tog, skp, yo, a centered double decrease (sl2-k1-p2sso), the bunny ears yo stitch, and nupps.
This pattern is therefor suitable for the intermediate to advanced knitter.
Sizes and finished measurements
One size – finished dimensions: 37.5 cm (14 ¾ inches) wide and 184 cm (72 ½ inches) long, measured after blocking.
Adjust the length of the stole by changing the number of cast on stitches in multiples of 10. Adjust the width by working more/fewer repeats of the body pattern. This will, of course, change the amount of yarn needed.
Pattern details
Gauge: Approx. 13.3 sts / 20.3 rows = 10 cm (4 inches) over body pattern, knit with medium size needles, measured after blocking. Gauge is not critical in this design, but should give you a fabric that you like with the yarn used.
Pattern languages included: English.
Digital PDF has 6 pages (letter size)
Materials
Yarn: 480 m (525 yds) / 120 g yarn – brand unknown (50 % silk, 50 % wool; 480 m (525 yds) per 120 g). Substitute any silk & wool blend fingering weight yarn of comparable thickness for a similar result.
Size 4.5 mm (US 7) / 80 cm (32 inches) circular needles.
Size 5 mm (US 8) / 80 cm (32 inches) circular needles for cast-on only.
Size 4 mm (US 6) needles (optional, for bind-off only).
Yarn needle.
Stitch markers to use in between lace repeats (optional).
Crochet hook in a size equivalent to the small size knitting needles (optional, for easy nupps).
Substitute beads for the nupps, if desired. Approx. 225 beads would be needed, or 9 beads per 10 sts cast on.
With almost every new design, comes a new technique or stitch pattern. In the project pictured above, I’m working a stitch pattern that uses a “make 6” increase. It’s very much like a regular “make 1” but instead of picking up the strand between the 2 stitches and making 1 stitch out of it, 6 new stitches are made by working [k1, p1] 3 times in the same loop. So, of course, there has to be an accompanying tutorial to make sure there is no confusion about how to go about it.
Let’s get our materials and get started!
Materials used
Yarn: Rauma Finull a sportweight wool yarn from Norway. It has a crisp hand and works well for stranded color designs. The yarn also softens up with washing.
Knitting needles: A pair of Addi circular needles in size 4 mm (US6).
Working the M6 increase step by step
To start, work as instructed by your pattern until the point where you want to make the increase.
In this example, I shot the pictures with the M6 not quite in the correct place. No worries, though, I corrected it later on.
First, insert your right-hand needle from front to back underneath the strand of yarn between the stitch just worked, and the next one to work.
Place it on the left-hand needle as shown, with the stitch mounted with the right leg in front of the needle.
You can place it on the needle with a twisted stitch mount, with the left leg of the stitch in front of the needle. However, this would mean that you have to work the following steps though the back loop to make sure the hole created in the fabric is not closed up.
Next, insert the needle knitwise into the loop, wrap the yarn around the needle …
… and pull it through. Do not slip the loop off the needle yet!
Now, bring the yarn to the front of the work, insert the needle purlwise into the loop, wrap the yarn around the needle …
…and pull it through. Do not slip the loop off the needle yet!
Repeat steps 4 to 7 twice more, so that you have created 6 new stitches. You can now slip the loop of the left-hand needle.
On the next row, you can just work these new stitches as instructed in your pattern.
The result
Below, you can see the result. On the left, it’s shown directly after the M6 increase has been worked. On the right, the M6 increase is shown, incorporated in the patterning I’m working in this design. Pretty, right?!
Thanks to my Patreon supporters for bringing you this freebie! Creating quality patterns and tutorials is a lot of work and resource-intensive. However, I find it important to give you free content like this tutorial. Thanks to the generous support of my Patreon supporters, I can make it happen. Thank you, patrons! Click here to join, or click here to read more about La Visch Designs on Patreon.
