Tag: knitting in the round

Alternating Yarn Skeins When Knitting in the Round

Learning to alternate skeins while knitting with variegated yarn in the round.

For the Arco Iris pullover I am knitting with yarn that needs to be alternated. This means knitting with a strand from one skein for one or two rows, then switching to a strand from another skein. (The pattern link is at the bottom of this post.)

You really should do this whenever you have yarn that is not evenly colored, such as hand-dyed yarns. The yarn in the photo below is from Miss Babs and it is very pretty, but not uniformly colored. This type of dying process creates pretty skeins. It is very popular with knitters because you get a solid color garment that has interesting shades.

However, if the skeins are not alternated, there could be an obvious color difference between them, and / or a pooling of colors.

Kunlun yarn in Moss green
Miss Babs “Kunlun” in Moss green
knitting raglan sweater
Alternating skeins while knitting flat

Color Pooling of Yarn

Yarn color pooling happens when the project being knit has just the right number of stitches to line the same yarn colors up over and over. My green yarn has subtle shading, but this could still happen. In fact Miss Babs made a note on my yarn receipt to alternate skeins. Thanks Babs!

Below is an example of color pooling when knitting. A pretty blue and white variegated yarn was used when I knit this pair of socks. Yes, they should have looked the same, but I had trouble with that faux cable design too and omitted it for one sock. If I had knit this pair correctly I should have divided my skein and alternated strands as I knit. These are socks. I didn’t really care. Now they are a good example of how pooling can effect a project.

Shell cottage socks showing color pooling
Color pooling

Alternating Skeins While Knitting – Sounds Easy, Right?

A new lesson learned. Alternating skeins is not that easy. Well, it’s easy, but not easy to make it look right when you totally do it wrong!

I began alternating skeins from the beginning of this sweater project, BUT the knitting was done flat for the top part of this sweater. I simply carried the yarn up the side and switched strands as I went. Simple.

Then I knit the “V” neckline and I did not alternate skeins. There is some ribbing and cables there, so I didn’t need to.

After that, I had to begin knitting in the round. So I added a new skein, knit two rows (NO – don’t do this), swapped out the yarn and knit two more… and so on. This is how it looked.

mistake
Re-doing this
back of knitting fabric mess
Going bye-bye

Hideous!

After I did some knitting and alternating skeins, I saw that my carrying of yarn looked pretty awful. The carry line was uneven and also was puckering! I knew I would have to re-knit this area.

Now I needed to learn the correct way to do this. YouTube had some videos, and the one I found to be most helpful was where the yarn strands are brought forward when changing. (Video link below in “How To” section.)

Ripping Back and Starting Over

This yarn gives very clear stitch definition so finding the stitches in a row above the mistake was fairly easy. Here’s a pretty good video about picking up stitches to frog back a large chunk of knitting by Knitty Natty – which is what I did.

My knitting was done in the round and as I got close to the end, my needle pick up got tough. I got the last group of stitches with some yarn. By the way, you can use a much smaller size needle to pick up those stitches, as long as you being knitting again with the correct size.

I messed up a bit when adding my new skein (don’t ask me why), and therefore I have a little wonky place, but once I began the “yarn forward” technique, the rows looked much, much better.

Ripping back
Ripping back to knit this again
swapping yarn for knitting in the round
Swapping yarn placement

How to Do the Yarn Forward Alternating Skeins Method

I have chosen to do the yarn forward swapping yarn on each round. Here’s how to do this method:

Pull the yarn you have been using to the front of the knitting and let it hang there.

Add the new yarn (for the first new skein round) by wrapping it around the needle as you would to begin knitting with any new skein.

Knit around using the new strand.

Once you arrive back to the place where the yarn is in front, swap it out. Yarn in front goes to the back and will now be used to knit the next round. Previous yarn used goes to the front and hangs.

Here is the best video I found that shows how to to do this.

back of knitting fabric
Back / wrong side with yarn forward method
Front of fabric using the Yarn Forward method.

For me, this line of alternating yarns will run down the side of my project – beneath the arm of the sweater. It will not be noticeable and hopefully even less so once the sweater is washed and blocked. I forgot to do this (alternate skeins) for the first couple of inches. The arrows show where I added the new skein.

The other method of swapping out strands every row creates a line up the inside of the project, which is fine too. The Miss Babs video about Alternating Skeins for flat and round knitting, shows that method. (Watch the woman knit while she looks into the camera! Impressive.)

You must swap the yarn EVERY ROW for both methods (in the round).

I mistakenly began by knitting two rows before I swapped, and that should only be done for knitting flat (back and forth) where you must knit a second row to get back to the place where the yarn is waiting.

New Technique For Me

Although I have knit many sweaters, this is the first time I have used this technique. My attempt is not perfect because I watched too many videos and did not follow the good video directions, but I am not ripping back again.

Usually I knit with wool and I don’t have to swap out and alternate yarns. I prefer simple wool for knitting, but I wanted a pretty, variegated yarn for this sweater pattern.

The Pattern

This sweater pattern is called Arco Iris and is by designer Joji Locatelli. You can buy the pattern on her Ravelry page here. You can read my notes about knitting this sweater here.

Read more about my knitting adventures

Camel Yarn Weekend Hat Project

A simple ribbed hat pattern with enough brim folds to keep ears warm. The Weekend Hat is a pattern by designer PetiteKnit.

Knitting in the Round, Choosing Needles, Size Issues

My new year knitting program is going to include smaller projects, namely socks and mittens. I began The Woolly Thistle Mitten KAL (knit-along) this month (2/2020) and while knitting my mittens, I’ve used 9 inch circular needles, Flexi-flips and DPN’s. Here is my opinion on all three.

A Look at 9-Inch Circular Needles

I really like the little 9 inch circular needles. I think I first used them when I made a little baby bootie (never made the second bootie!) But they were too big for the cuff of the bootie so I used DPNs. I also used them to knit the sleeves of the Polliwog Popover baby sweater sleeves.

Here you can see my Latvian Braid (first one I ever made) using two yarn colors on a 9 inch needle. I think Fontana is unimpressed, but I had fun making it. After doing a Latvian braid on the Milet mittens using Flexi-flips, I realized a 9-inch circular makes for a neater braid.

Latvian braid knitting
Fontana and my Latvian Braid

Overall, I do love using the small 9-inch circular needles. Yarn holders for the ends of the needles are necessary, and the tight circumference can tire my hands quicker, making them ache. Also my colorwork knitting is very sloooow on tiny needles because the stitches are so small and tight.

I have the ChiaoGoo and Hiya Hiya 9-inch and they are both very similar.

Three-Needle Knitting With Addi Flexi-Flips (Size Problems) and Hiya Hiya Flyers

Both Addi Flexi-flips and Hiya Hiya Flyers brands come as a three-needle set. You knit with two needles holding the yarn and use the third to knit. A bit like DPN’s but with fewer, and longer, needles, that flex.

Addi has different tips on the end of each needle so you can knit with either sharp or blunt points.

Flexi flip needle tips are blunt or pointed
Addi Flexi Flips – One needle with two tip choices – sharp or blunt

Using the 3-needle set is easier than DPN’s as there 1 or 2 fewer needle changes, depending on the number of DPNs used, but I still have some trouble with the beginning of round stitches. See my braid rows below and how the BOR colors are off. I do have trouble adding a 3rd needle to start a row.

Beginning of round difficulties
My braid is off a bit using the 3-needle combo

Also with only two needles holding the work, I found that I was dropping stitches, so I began to put stitch blockers at the end of the needle not being used.

I have both brands and the needles are similar. The tube connecting the needles is a little longer on the Hiya brand, and Addi’s needles are a little longer overall. Addi’s come in a tube and Hiya’s come in a plastic bag.

Addi’s Incorrect Sizing

But I want to warn you of one crucial difference and it has to do with needle size – dimension.

When I began knitting my first Milet mittens, I ordered (what I thought was) a size 1.5 US set of Addi Flexi flips. I ordered them from Wool and Company and they were listed as size 1.5 US – no mm size was mentioned. However, when they arrived, the tag simply said 2.75mm (see tag below). I had to look it up, and come to find out 2.75mm does not equal 1.5, it equals size 2. The needles were too large.

So I checked my older pair of Flexi’s which actually says 3.0mm / US2. (See the photo below) BUT…3.0 mm does NOT equal 2, it equals 2.5 US…!!!!

Size difference in Flexi flips
Incorrect mm to US sizing in FlexiFlips

I went back to my order form at Wool and Company to make sure I did not mistakenly order the wrong thing. I did not. I kept the size “2” needles since I didn’t have that size, but I still needed a 1.5 size for my mittens. So I looked at other places online. The small size needle is hard to come by but Amazon had them and advertised them incorrectly also. Or should I say, they were advertised as Addi Flexi Flips advertises them.

Jimmy Beans Wool was where I saw the only notice to customers that the sizes of the Flexi Flips were off. They mention that the smaller size needles are off in the product paragraph. I wasn’t crazy – the needle sizes are not true to advertising. And only 4 of the smallest sizes are listed wrong – all other sizes seem to equate correctly.

If you buy according to the metric system you are fine, but those of us in the US will be using the wrong size needles unless we compare the mm size to US sizing.

The Basic DPNs

I have a heck of a time beginning any small item using DPN’s (double-point needles. With all those pointy sticks in the way, it’s not fun to keep track of where I am and what I’m doing.

Using wood double-pointed needles to knit a sock.

I think it’s actually a little better when using very small needles to knit socks or mittens. The Snowfall sock pattern below has a repeat pattern that fits nicely on four, size one, metal, DPNs. But I did cast on using a 9 inch circular and knit the ribbing before changing to DPNs.

knitting socks with size one dpns
Sock knitting using double pointed metal needles.

Magic Loop

Many knitters use the Magic Loop method to knit in the round. I have looked into it, on YouTube, and found a toe-up sock example, which I may try one day soon.

I can’t give an opinion on the Magic Loop method because I have never used it. Basically you use a long circular needle, split the stitches, and knit as in the round. Some clever people knit two pair (both mittens or both socks) at one time on the same long needle!

Knitting Inside Out… What?

Something else I have just learned is that when knitting colorwork some knitters knit their mittens, socks, and whatever, inside out! Crazy right? The reason for doing this is to keep the floats more uniform and less tight.

I had to search YouTube for that information as well. Melissa B has a good video explaining how simple it is to knit inside out.

In Conclusion

In conclusion, I’d have to say from personal experience that I prefer casting on with circular needles. If I need to do a Latvian Braid, circular is my choice. If needle size is not too small – say size 0 – 2, I don’t mind knitting along with them either. Normal knitting, or stripes, are easy, but for very small sizes and colorwork, they can make my hands ache.

Beyond that, it really depends upon the project at hand. I still have a lot to learn and new methods to try, and a pair of mittens to finish.