Working Tall Stitches in a Spiral Without Joins

When working in the round, have you ever noticed that you can see the joins at the end of your rounds? For shorter stitches like the single crochet, this can be eliminated by working in a spiral without joins. But what about taller stitches? We have been taught that we always need to make a join and then a tall beginning chain, when working in the round with those taller stitches. Although there is nothing wrong with this technique, it can be problematic if you are working in a self-striping yarn as there will be a noticeable color-jog at the beginning of each round. And for certain types of designs, the column of joins might be distracting. If this has ever bothered you, then you need to see this video!

In this video, Brenda K. B. Anderson shows us how to work taller stitches in the round without making joins! This is surprisingly easy to do—and only requires a small adjustment at the beginning of the first round and the end of the last round. All the other rounds between are just worked around and around in a spiral. Brenda shows us how to use stitches of increasing heights to build a “stitch-ramp” that brings our stitches up to the level of the second round of stitches. After working around in a spiral for several rounds, she explains that to end off, you must work another “stitch-ramp” but with stitch heights in the opposite order this time; she calls this a “reverse-ramp.” She points out that to make your tube uniform in height, you should make the reverse ramp directly above the original stitch ramp (the second ramp is at the top edge of the piece, and although many rounds separate the ramps, it is positioned directly above the first ramp).

This solution is so simple! Try this technique on cowls, hats, mittens, leg warmers—any place where you are making a tube of fabric in a taller stitch. It is especially gratifying to use this technique with those ombré and self-striping yarns—you’ll be so pleased with the uninterrupted stripes!