Helical Knitting and Nature
Helical knitting is usually promoted as a way of avoiding the ‘jog’ in single row stripes of circular knitting.
However, it can also be used to create multi-row stripes which feature a gentle or more obvious spiralling pattern without carrying yarns up the work.
It takes a bit of thought in the setting up but I believe it is a very pleasing bit of knitting maths magic and accidental art as the stripes change thickness and direction.
It also makes a lovely link to the helices found in Nature and particularly in the cells of plants.
How this pattern came to be
This pattern is more of a recipe that resulted from a happy accident. After pulling back a couple of large swatches of stranded knitting I found that I had a collection of five small balls in three different colours.
I decided on a striped cowl and came across the technique of helical knitting.
After a little ribbed edge I set up the pattern. As each ball was used up, so the stripe pattern changed until I was left with two balls of two colours to finish the cowl with rib.
The cowl in the photo is size Small and measures 50cm circumference and 32cm tall. I have given an idea of stitch counts and meterage for three sizes, but they are only a guide.
I hope you have fun going round and round with your own ever-evolving stripy patterns.
Making the Helixally Cowl
Helixally is inspired and informed by the following video tutorials which I found thorough and clear:
How To Knit: Helical Striping in the Round by Brooklyn Tweed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7QRehYUd-k
Multi-Round Helical Stripes by Arnall-Culliford Knitwear at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDfWuEzgI38
Knitting Instructions
Before you start knitting, I recommend that you look through all the instructions for the set up as the colour you choose for casting on will be the first colour of your stripe pattern
Ribbed edge
The only difference in the instructions for the three sizes is the number of stitches you cast on;
100 for Small, 120 for Medium and 140 for Large.
Join to work in the round taking care not to twist your stitches. Place a marker for the beginning of your round.
Rounds 1-4: Work in Knit 2, Purl 2 rib throughout.
Helical Knitting set up round
This is where the creativity happens! Look at your yarn selection. If all your balls are different colours then you will be working a single row striped pattern. If you wish to have more rows of a colour then you will need one separate ball per row.
The next step is to divide your number of stitches by your number of balls to tell you how many stitches you will be working with each ball on the set up round
In my case 100/5 = 20 stitches. You don’t have to have a perfect whole number of equal sections, for example if I had six balls I would divide them 100/6 = about 17. 17×6 = 102, so I would have 4 sections of 17 stitches and 2 of 16 stitches giving me 68+32 = 100 stitches.
You are now ready to start the helical stripe pattern:
With your ribbing colour knit your first section of stitches, in my case 20 stitches. Drop this yarn and introduce your next ball and knit the next section, continue like this, introducing your new balls all the way around to your marker. You don’t need to weave in your ends at this stage, just make sure that they are about 5cm (2 inches) long at least
Slip your marker and continuing with the ball you used to finish the round, work until 3 stitches before the first ball change of the round, drop the working yarn. Slip 3 stitches purlwise and pick up the yarn from the last slipped stitch. Using this ball repeat the process of knitting until 3 stitches before the ball change, slipping 3 stitches purlwise and picking up the next ball.
That is basically it! Subtle technical points are found on the video tutorials I suggested.
In order to avoid a tangle I suggest that you arrange your balls of yarn in a sort of queue around your lap and move them round as you use them. Eventually you will approach a section where you judge that you have too little yarn in a ball to complete it, so at that point you simply ignore the slip stitch change over and work to the next ball change.
Ribbed edging and completion
When you have worked about 30cm (12 inches) work 4 rounds in Knit 2, Purl 2 rib and cast off knitwise.
Weave in your ball ends and block gently.
