So, I’ve been wanting to knit one of the beer can mittens that I have seen a couple of on Facebook. Thinking that they must be a pretty normal mitten that is somehow connected back to the base of the mitten (by the cuff). Today is the day!
I pulled out my trusty Lamb’s Pride Bulky yarn from my stash in two colors: Onyx and Limeade (not sure where to find my purple shade but that’s already off topic!) and cast on 24 stitches on my size 7US DPNs. Ribbing for a few inches and then switched up to my size 10US needles and added four stitches in the first row of stockinette stitch.
After a few rounds, I decided that the black needed to be broken up with a few stripes. But every time I’ve worked in the round with stripes, I have had that awkward “jog” where the stripes don’t quite match up. Which makes sense because knitting in the round is more like knitting a spiral than stacks of rows that line up (as in straight knitting).
So, to fix the jog, all we need to do is pick up a stitch and knit two together … and this is done very easily in the first stitch of the second round. When you’re ready to change colors, just change colors. Knit one round in your new color. At the beginning of the second round, pick up the right leg of the stitch under (in the old color) your first new color stitch and pull it up and slip it onto your left needle. Then you simply knit the two stitches together and knit to the end of your round. Here is a photo of my knitting … I am going to change from green to black …
First … knit one round with the new color (if you’re using a marker to mark the start of a new round, slip the marker) you are now back to the first stitch.
I’ve finished my first row of my new color (black)
Second … Pick up the right leg of the stitch below with your extra needle and slip it onto your left needle.
The stitch (green) right in front of my thumb is the stitch below. The black stitch above it is the first stitch of my first new color row. (Hope that makes sense!)
I’m picking up the right leg of the stitch below (purl-wise)
and slipping the stitch onto my left-hand needle
And now you can just knit the first two stitches together and then knit to the end of your round.
Knitting the two stitches together (one is the stitch from below and the other is the first stitch with the new color.)
That’s all there is to this method. And as you can see, there is no awkward “jog” now on my stripes.
No jog! 🙂
Note that this works for stripes of at least two rounds. I haven’t figured out if there is a way to do this with one row stripes. I saw one video (on my search for the answers) where Euny Jang alternated where the stripes started rather than stacking them up but starting in the exact same place at the start of the row. But that tutorial will come later. For now you’re all set to knit stripes in the round … with two or more rows per stripe!
Have fun!
Gone knitting!
Queen Bee Knits 