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.