Spiralling Away

​I have been thinking about spirals recently, and how they are important in knitting. Sometimes they can be interesting, but they can also be a nuisance. For example, when we are trying to put bands of colour into a circular item such as a sweater or a bag, then we might see a “jog” at the colour join.

At first this is surprising because we tend to think we are working horizontal bands of colours, forming stripes. However, what we are actually knitting is a series of spirals, as you can see from the diagram above.

​​I thought about this for a while and then realised that, far from being a nuisance, we could actually use this as an advantage. A single colour being changed at the end of a row for a different one would produce a jog... but how about two colours spiralling around each other, or better still three? Then you would be jog-free. Each spiral would just stack on top of the previous one giving smooth lines around.

So I retrieved my knitting needles, and after a bit of experimenting I saw that if you use three different colours of yarn spaced evenly around as you work, then different colours will appear as single-width stripes. Similarly if you used two balls of one colour and one ball of a contrast shade, you should see alternating thick and thin stripes.

I was knitting some socks at the time using Austermann Step-Classic sock yarn in a lovely denim blue colour. These are the Mentmore Socks and they are worked in a soft and squishy slip-stitch pattern to produce a very comfortable sock.

However, the other thing that a slip-stitch design does is to lift some stitches from a previous row or round so they are worked with the current stitches. This increases the 3-dimensional quality of the work, but also mixes the colours very effectively between rounds.

​I realised that I could combine these two ideas – to use several yarns working in spirals and then work them in a slip-stitch pattern – to blend colours from mis-matched yarns.

I had recently received some wonderful kettle-dyed yarns from Knit Picks, their Stroll Tonal yarn. The photo at the top shows three balls of this yarn and what is perhaps surprising is that they are all from the same dye-lot.

They are all beautiful colours in themselves and with a wonderful depth and interest resulting from the hand-dyeing. However if I made a pair of socks, one with one ball, the second with another and the third ball being used as a back-up if I ran out of yarn along the way, then each sock would be very different. One would be a glorious dark burgundy colour, with hardly a lighter patch in it. The other would have bright sparks of colour almost verging on light pink. Basically the socks would not look like a matched pair.

So I started making a new pair of socks using all three balls of yarn in the same round. It was surprisingly easy to do and the colours just melded together, giving a far more harmonious final result. Of course there were still lighter-coloured stripes and highlighted stitches, but these are the feature of kettle-dyed yarns that draw us to them in the first place.

The yellow Mentmore Socks above show the finished result using another KnitPicks Stroll Tonal yarn, but this time in “Poppy Field”, a rich autumnal gold/yellow blend. That yarn did not have the  strong colour differences I saw in the red colourway, but this combination of blending techniques gave a lovely result.

So if you would like to try this out for yourself, arm yourself with three balls of yarn, either from separate balls or a large ball divided into three. Then:

• Start knitting with one ball of yarn and go to the half-way point in your round.
• Drop that yarn and bring in a second.
• Go to the start of the round and bring in your third colour.
• Then when you get to the position where another yarn is waiting, just drop the colour you are using and start with the previous one. Don't twist them together as you would in intarsia, just drop and go.
• Keep on until you reach the end of your striped sequence, then take each colour to the end of the round to finish.

For flat knitting: Work in the same way, changing colours at the edges so different rows are being worked with different balls of yarn. Let's call each ball "Col 1", "Col 2" etc. So:

• Start Row 1 with Col 1, join in Col 2 and work Row 2, then join in Col 3 and work Row 3.
• Now you are at the edge where Col 1 is waiting, so drop Col 3 and work Row 4 with Col 1.
• Then keep working each row with the colour waiting patiently at the edge.

I hope you enjoy trying this out for your next project! And of course you could use either or both of these techniques to help smooth out small tonal differences such as between assorted dyelots, or to break up the "pooling" or Zebra-striping that often occurs when using hand-dyed yarns. This is where splodges of colour end up in the same location round after round. 

​Using several balls of yarn in the same round interrupts this unwanted patterning and lets the beauty of the yarn shine through. 

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