The Crafty Helper: How To Make A Seamless Color Change When In Knitting In The Round

Hello all!

'Tis my return to the ol' blog and I come to you with crafty assistance. I tend to think of myself as only moderately crafty (I ain't no Martha Stewart) but realized that every once in a while, I actually know useful tidbits I could share with others!

Today's lesson is how to make a (relatively) seamless color transition when knitting in the round. I learned this technique years ago and wish I could remember where/who from so I could give credit where credit is due. It's really pretty simple but can be a little confusing to understand at the beginning. (Note: this tutorial assumes 1) you already know how to knit in the round and 2) you already know how to add in a new color to a knitted project.)

Here we go!:

Ignore the messy nails - these hands have been too busy crafting to wait for fresh nail polish to dry!

For this technique to work, you need to knit at least two rows with the new color. Apply this technique any time you change color and, of course, don't forget to twist your yarn in the back to avoid gaping holes in your work.

When you're done, your work will look a little something like this:

Apologies for the lighting change - the day got away from me!

Not completely  invisible but way better than it would look like otherwise. If you look closely, you'll see that what this trick does is elongate the first stitch in the color change while hiding the stitch below it in the previous color. In my example, there are four rows of the khaki color, but the first column of the change actually only shows three stitches. Clever, right?

I hope this helps and I hope I was able to explain it in a way you could easily understand. Let me know if you have any questions!