How to Knit Jogless Stripes

September 4th, 2012 by Jess

Have you ever knit stripes in the round only to find that they look a little lopsided? It’s not just you. The nature of circular knitting causes stripes to jog, which means that they don’t line up. The good news is there’s a technique for knitting stripes in the round that straightens up your stripes. Best of all, jogless stripes are just as easy to knit as regular stripes, so they don’t slow down your knitting at all! Are you ready to take your stripes to the next level?

First, let’s take a look at jogged stripes. You’ll notice that the stripes look like they’re shifted up by a row.

Now, let’s look at jogless stripes.

These jogless stripes are much better aligned. Notice that my stripes are all 4 rows tall, but my color changes are only 3 rows tall. That’s because jogless stripes utilize a single slipped stitch to help your stitches sit a little straighter. Let’s go over the super easy steps for this technique:
1. On the round that you’re changing colors, join your new yarn and knit 1 round normally.
2. At the beginning of your second round, slip the first stitch. Knit the remainder of the row in pattern.
3. Keep knitting in pattern!

That’s all there is to it! One easy slipped stitch in every stripe section makes for much happier stripes.