Jogless Joins

Still recovering... I will be happy when this is all over.  I went back to work this week which was easier than I thought.  Everything just takes twice as long.  AND it got COLD again.  I am glad today is the last day of February.  I spent quite a bit of time doing my proposals for the next issue of Cast On.  The selection meeting is next week.

STUDENT NEWS
Several lessons arrived this week and several students signed up for the Basics Course...not a bad thing to do in the winter.

Just a reminder...when you send in lessons, be sure you have the correct postage.  Sometimes when you use Click-and-Ship you can select the wrong category.  If postage is due and I am not home they leave a notice and I have to drive to a specific post office which is in a very busy shopping center (no parking and since I am using a cane this is a big deal to me) and there is a very long line.  Round trip, I am looking at about an hour which puts me in a bad humor.  Sorry for whining but this unnecessary trip makes it hard for me to review the lessons the day I get them.

TIP OF THE WEEK
Finally, something that applies to the Masters Program...In Level 1, you have to knit a mitten which has a stripe.  This tests the knitter's ability to use the technique of a jogless join and to weave in the yarn tails appropriately.  

The photograph shows the jogs which occur when the end of the round meets the beginning of the round.   This is a problem for any colorwork project in the round but it is particularly noticeable in stripes.

The technique of the jogless join solves this problem for stripes.  It can only be used where there are at least two rows in the same color.  (For single row stripes, see last week's tip.)  The basic procedure is to work a round in the new color.  When you get to the beginning of the round, slip the first stitch in the new color purlwise then work the stitches in the rest of the round.  (This technique is from Techknitter.)

Generally when you are working stripes, you want a specific number of rows in each color and when you slipped the first stitch of the round in the new color, this reduced the number of stitches in that column.  If you do want the same number of stitches in the stripes this means that when you change colors, you will need to move the beginning of the round over one stitch to the left so that each column of stitches have the same number of rows.  The procedure for each new stripe is the same.  Work the first round in the new color and when you get to the first stitch, slip it.  Each stripe will move the beginning of the round one stitch to the left.

This photograph shows the jogless joins.  Here is the video:  Jogless Joins.



Meg Swanson also has a jogless join technique where you insert your needle into the stitch below in the first stitch in the new color but I have found the slipped stitch method easier.

Whichever technique you use, the important thing is to clean up the joins when you weave in the yarntails.  This is where most mistakes are made.  I'll show how to do this in the next tip.

KNITTING SALON
Saturday is a Met HD broadcast...Prince Igor by Borodin.  I know absolutely nothing about this opera except that the running time is 4 hours and 30 minutes.  It will be interesting if nothing else.  So that means that Salon will be on Sunday from 1:30 to 4:00.  I have to drive to the airport.  

CURRENT PROJECTS
I was working on my cardigan I started months ago when I remembered that Cynthia's birthday is next week.  I started a pair of socks in pink when I remembered that I made her pink socks last year so I switched to the ragg wool.  She lives in Texas and the yarn is a wool cotton blend which is more practical than wool.  I have a half finished sock for me I put aside as well.  This is very unlike me.  I rarely have multiple projects going.  I want to finish them all up by the end of next week as it will be time to start on the Cast On garments.
  

Spiral Stripes

My surgery went OK and I am walking with a cane and driving but it will be another 4 weeks until I am done.  I certainly am capable of doing my blog.

I was able to go to the photo shoot on February 4th.  It was a bit of a thrash dodging snow and ice storms but it went quite well.

Here is a photo of the skirt and jacket (thanks Sadie for the photo).  This is not the photo that will be in the magazine.  The pattern for the skirt is in the current issue.  The jacket will be in the summer issue.





STUDENT NEWS
I did get a few lessons to review.  I didn't look at anything the first two weeks after surgery as it took just about that long for the anaesthesia to work its way out of my system.  I was quite loopy.  Since I didn't take any pain medicine it had to be the anaesthesia.  Those that completed lessons during that time are listed to the right.  If I missed anyone, please let me know.  



TIP OF THE WEEK
Continuing on with stripes, the tip this week is about spiral or helix stripes.  I first discovered this in Montse Stanley's Knitter's Handbook quite a few years ago.  I thought it was just about the neatest trick I had seen.  If you knit in the round, you know that you work in a spiral.  By that I mean you don't complete a row and then jump to the top of the next row as you do in flat knitting.  This is why there is a jog when the end of the round joins the beginning of the round.  For spiral stripes you use this to your advantage.  

How it works is that you first determine the number of stitches in the piece...let's say you are making a hat with 100 stitches.  You then count the number of colors for the stripes.  In the example I knit, there are 4 colors.  It may look like three but it is cream, red, cream and gray.  I then divide the number of colors into the total number of stitches which gives me 25.  To work the spiral stripes I work 25 stitches in the first color, cream.  I then drop that yarn and work the next 25 stitches in the next color, red.  I drop that color and then work the next 25 stitches in the next color, cream.  I drop that color and work the final 25 stitches in the last color, gray.  I am at the end of the round.  The stitches on the needle to be worked next are cream.  In spiral knitting you work the stitches at the end of the round and then stitches at the beginning of the next round in the same color so I work those next 25 stitches in gray.  Now I drop the gray and pick up the working yarn (the cream from the first 25 stitches) and work the next 25 stitches.  I just keep doing this.  Clear as mud?  Check the video:  Working Spiral Stripes 

This is one of those things you really have to try to see how it works.  It is very easy.  A few caveats...This is more difficult to work on double points as you have several strands of working yarn and it is very easy to start in the wrong spot.  I prefer doing this technique on circulars.  The other problem is that when you pick up a new color you have to be VERY careful not to pull it too tightly or the tension is just terrible.

There is no limit, other than your patience, on the number of colors you can use.  As with any colorwork, yarn management is a pain.  

If you look at the bottom of this photograph, notice that the red stitches just start in the middle of nowhere.  You can see how the stripes spiral.

This photograph shows why you might want to use this technique.  There are a total of 8 yarn tails to weave in.  With stripes, you would expect a lot more.

Again, I love stripes.  This technique is a great way to use up stash yarn for hats, mittens and socks.

KNITTING SALON
Salon will be on Sunday this week from 1:30 to 3:20.  I will be going back to work.  We shall see how that goes!  

CURRENT PROJECTS
The night before surgery I started on this chevron shawl with Zauberball yarn.  Chevron shawls are my go to project for mindless knitting.  I knew I wouldn't be able to do anything too complicated.  It isn't blocked yet and I haven't woven in the ends yet.

I also knit a pair of socks for Stephanie's birthday which I neglected to photograph.  Maybe she will take a photo for me.

The next selection meeting is March 4th and I am putting together my proposals.  The stitch anatomy lesson is slip stitches.  The Fashion Framework is designing Arans.  I plan to do a hat and mitten set with slipped stitch cuffs.  I'm going to size the argyle vest I did for men for children's sizes (special request) and I'm going to do a tunic.  Details to follow later.