There are many benefits for the knitter to knit the garment in the round – you can try the piece on as you knit, making adjustments if necessary, you can experiment and sneak in modifications as you go, and of course you avoid seaming. But knitting in the round isn’t always flawless and problem-free. One of the main drawbacks of knitting in the round is the fact that the first and last stitches of the round are not perfectly aligned, as in flat seamed knitting. Usually it’s not a problem if you knit simple basic stitch patterns, but it becomes pretty noticeable when you create stripes, whether color or textured. The jog appears in the place where the last stitch of the round and the first stitch of the next round meet.
It’s not the end of the end of the world, of course. If the stripes are on the sleeves, for example, the jog will appear in the place of a “seam” and there is a great chance that only you will ever know it’s there – nobody is going to pay that much attention to your sweater 🙂 But if it is still bugging you, you can try this tutorial that I made for Reindeer cardigan that will help you minimize the jog. If you want to see a bigger picture, just open it in the new tab.
TUTORIAL
 You finished the textured stripe and you are about to start the stockinette stitch section. If you continue knitting as usual, you will end up with the jog, we are going to avoid that the following way.
|
 Stitch marker indicates the beginning of the round. |
 Remove the stitch marker. |
 You are about to knit the next round. |
 Let’s take a look at the first stitch of the next round. Stitch #1 – the first stitch of the next round. Stitch #2 – the stitch one round below, right under the first one. |
 Insert the Right Hand needle in the Stitch #2 of the round BELOW. |
 Knit this stitch. |
 Slip the stitch off the Left Hand needle. Now this worked stitch will become the last stitch of the round. |
 Place the beginning of the round marker. |
 Continue knitting in the round as usual. |
Basically what we did is we “pulled up” one stitch at the beginning of the round and made it the last stitch of the round, which aligned the last and first stitches of the textured stripe. Use this technique every time when you change a stitch pattern.
I hope you find this tutorial helpful in many projects!
Enjoy your Sunday!
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You did a great job on this phototutorial! 🙂 You know how much I love knitting in the round. I will practice this technique soon on the stripes on my Flax so by the time I knit my Reindeer I’ll have master it!!
Thank you, Zeta! Really looking forward to your FOs! You can always send me an email if you have any questions left!
This is an awesome tutorial and very helpful!
Happy that you like it, Ady!
I use this method whenever I am making something where the jog would be noticeable — like striped socks. It really makes the jog completely invisible.
Whoever came up with this idea is a genius 🙂
your knitting is beautiful and so is the tutorial 🙂 lovely photos!
Thank you, Karen!
Brilliantly useful!
Glad that you found it helpful, Andrea!
Very useful technique. Thank you.
You are welcome, Pat! I hope it will serve you well in many projects!
That’s genius! How do people come up with these wonderful techniques? Thank you for your lovely tutorial.
You are welcome! 🙂
I love knitting in the round but it indeed has its own drawbacks. Thanks for sharing this tutorial!
You are welcome, Tahnee! Yes, knitting in the round isn’t always a smooth ride!
I am a little confused – isn’t this adding a stitch to the total count?
Unless stitches 1 and 2 are essentially knitted together – in which case, doesn’t this move the BOR forward by one stitch?
This “jog” is a problem I HATE and I’m always looking for new solutions 😉
Hi Quynh! No, we don’t change the stitch count at at all. You insert the needle in the stitch of the round BELOW and knit it as usual and then slip BOTH of the stitches simultaneously off the needle. (Photos 7-8 in the tutorial – on photo 8 you can see how there is just one stitch, no increases at all). This new stitch will be slightly thicker than others because it is formed by two threads, but it is still ONE stitch. We move BOR marker forward – the former first stitch of the first round becomes the last one of the previous round, because we “pulled” this stitch up from the previous row. Hope it helped!
Dear Alina, I also wondered about moving the BOR – if you do many changes of patterns or colours in a round knit, and you constantly move the BOR one stitch forward, doesn‘t this cause problems with the overall piece?
me encanto el tutorial darle gracias en nombre todas nosotras que visitamos sus tutoriales gratuitos es de gran utilidad Dios bendiga su don y el compartir.
Oh, muchas gracias por estas palabras!!!!
I have read similar tutorials, BUT, have never seen this explained as simply or clearly!
Your explanation embeds the CONCEPT into my brain, so I feel as if I have finally LEARNED this.
Thank you!
Thank you, Arl, for such a wonderful feedback! I am so glad it helped!!
Hello Alina,
could you please let me know how to use this technique when working all garter in the round, aka one round all knits, one round all purls?
Thanks!
Laura