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A-C Knitwear Blog

Follow Jen and Jim's many knitting and craft adventures, including expert knitting tips, tutorials and book reviews, with bonus quilting and other crafty content.

So what is helical knitting?

September 21, 2018 Jen Arnall-Culliford
Image © Mimi Codd.

Image © Mimi Codd.

When you knit in the round, you aren’t working discrete, complete rounds, in the same way as you would work a row in flat knitting. Your knitting isn’t a series of rings of stitches sat on top of each other. Instead, in each round you are working a complete circuit or 360° turn of a helix. This is important because it means that the first stitch in your round is not adjacent to the last stitch in your round. In normal knitting you work a single, complete spiral of stitches, where the last stitch of the previous round is adjacent to the first stitch of the next round. Helical knitting turns this on its head, and sets up multiple spirals all sitting on top of each other. This can be somewhat hard to visualise! Luckily, my good friend Mimi Codd has stepped in to help, and created these super illustrations (above) to demonstrate what’s going on. On the left is a standard spiral of grey stitches in “normal” knitting in the round, and on the right we are working helically with 2 helices of stitches, one in grey and the other in yellow.

Right side traditional 1x1 stripes
Right side traditional 1x1 stripes
Wrong side traditional 1x1 stripes
Wrong side traditional 1x1 stripes

So why would you bother to set up multiple spirals of stitches, rather than just stick with one spiral? There are a number of stitch patterns where the first/last stitches not being adjacent leads to a noticeable jog at the change of the round. The most obvious of these stitch patterns is stripes. The jog occurs where a stitch in the first colour sits next to a stitch in the second colour at the change of the round (see right side image above). There are a number of techniques available to minimise the appearance of this jog, but they are most effective on multi-round stripe patterns, and none of them completely hides the jog for 1x1 stripes. The helical knitting technique completely removes the jog, as well as removing the ridge where yarns are carried at the rear of the work (see wrong side image above).

But helical knitting is about SO much more than just creating jogless 1x1 stripes. That’s just the start of it! In chapter 2 Something New to Learn About Helical Knitting will introduce a whole series of other stitch patterns that can be worked with a double helix of stitches. In the third installment, I will show you how to follow other instructions when you work helically – things like shaping on a mitten or sock, and more. And finally, I’ll open up the world of multiple helices, taking helical knitting to wider and wider applications. But that’s a whole other series of blog posts, and we’ll get there in due course.

Something New to Learn About Helical Knitting will go on sale on Friday 28th September, and will be released in fortnightly chapters as an ebook only. Do subscribe to our email updates and/or our newsletter, if you want to be sure to know when the ebook goes on sale, by clicking the subscribe button below.

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In Something New To Learn Tags helical, helical knitting, helical stripes, Something New to Learn, Something New to Learn About Helical Knitting
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Did you know I have nearly 50 free step-by-step video tutorials on my YouTube channel (with plenty more to be added as part of Boost Your Knitting)? So whether you need help mastering a cast on or cast off, advice on fixing a mistake in your knitting, or are wondering about shortcuts for 1x1 cables (that's what's going on in this photo!), there's a video to help! You can find our Youtube channel by clicking through to our website at the link in profile, or search "JenACKnitwear" on Youtube and subscribe to my channel! 
Image Description: Jen's hands hold knitting needles, which are in the midst of working a 1x1 cable.
#acknitwear #somethingnewtolearn #knittingtutorial #knittersofinstagram #instaknit #knitstagram #knittinginspiration #handknit #handknitting #nevernotknitting Next up in our Boost Your Knitting designer line up is Tori Seierstad @torirotdesign. Tori hails from Lillehammer in Norway and loves working with Shetland wools. Her designs are wonderfully colourful and feature bold motifs! She's pictured here wearing her popular design Next year in Lerwick! 
Image description: Tori leans on a fence, smiling and wearing an allover colourwork jumper. 
#BoostYourKnitting #acknitwear #strandedknitting #knittersofinstagram #knittersoftheworld #knitting #knittinginspiration #handknitting #handknit #makersgonnamake #knittersgonnaknit I don't always have time to stay up-to-date with knitting magazines, but the most recent issue of @theknittermag is definitely one to seek out! I grabbed a copy this weekend and it's bursting with great content. I was particularly excited to see designs from friends: @jeanettesloan has a stunning wrap in this issue, and @maryhendersonknitting has a really lovely colourwork jumper featured as well knit @thewoolbrokers Jumper Weight (which we have plenty of in the online shop!) There's also a great feature on @donnasmithdesigns and in interview with @lucyhagueknits -- and much more! I definitely recommend seeking out a copy!
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