With only a couple of weeks remaining in the KAL within our Ravelry group, I’d thought I’d share a small selection of finished items to inspire you to try out the technique for yourself.
Read moreVideo: Multi-Round Helical Stripes
Now that you’ve got two-round stripes and stitch patterns nailed, you’re ready to open the doors to a whole new world of helical possibilities…
Read moreAndrade cowl
As I mentioned yesterday, one of the ways in which helical stripes differ from traditional stripes is that they make the fabric slant. The more rounds you have in your stripe pattern, and the smaller the circumference of your knitting, the more the stripes appear to slant in the fabric. I absolutely love the effect this gives when you push it as far as you can, and I struggle to see how else you would achieve this look in your knitting.
Read moreTwiss cowls
Lots of knitters have asked me about how to work multiple round stripe patterns helically. In fact, this question is one of the things that motivated me most in writing the Something New to Learn About Helical Knitting ebook. The Twiss cowls are really my answer to the question of how to work stripes with more than 1 round in each colour. The pattern includes details on how to work 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-round stripe repeats, including patterns where you work more than one round in each colour.
Read moreVideos: Basic 1x1 helical stripes
These two videos cover the basics of working jogless helical stripes, whether you use circular needle, or double-pointed needles.
Read moreBasic Helical Stripes and the Bramante Cowl
Today we are releasing the first chapter in Something New to Learn About Helical Knitting.
Chapter 1 starts at the very beginning. Of course!
If you have never worked helically before, this is the chapter for you. If you’re already a helical fan, then don’t worry, there are plenty of new explorations for you in the later chapters. The first chapter is the knitting equivalent of the first term at a new school or university, where we make sure that everyone is up to speed on the foundations, before diving into the wider subject.
Read moreSomething New to Learn About Helical Knitting
Intrigued by the idea of helical knitting? Have you knitted 1x1 helical stripes, but would like to know more about working more complex stripes? Would you like to know more about using helical stitch patterns? Or are you just keen to try something new in your knitting? Then this is the ebook for you!
Something New to Learn About Helical Knitting will be delivered as an ebook in four fortnightly chapters, with the first being released on Tuesday 9th October.
Read moreSo what is helical knitting?
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.
Read moreI'm spinning around
I’ve been thinking about helical knitting.
A LOT.
I’ve been aware of helical knitting since I published my first pattern in June 2009 (Spiralling Socks, The Knitter, issue 7), and the sense of magic it inspires in me isn’t really matched by any other knitting technique. I am very partial to a neat tubular cast on, colourwork is a joy to do, and cables and lace make me feel clever, but helical knitting is just pure magic. The time finally came this year to sit down and explore it further. Much further.
Read moreWhat else can I make helical?
Does your knitting ever grip you to the point where you can't imagine that you'll ever want to work another technique? I still remember the fever of tubular cast ons that I went through after first discovering this beautiful way of starting a 1x1 or 2x2 rib. No other edgings were contemplated for quite a while. Eventually it fades, and something else will come along to inspire and excite me, but when I'm deep in the obsession, nothing can dissuade me. I seem to be in the middle phase of helical stripe fever. I've worked obsessively on the first few projects that use the basic technique, and now I want to apply it to every other project* in grabbing distance.
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