Circles in the round
There are a few reasons you may want to knit a circle that I can think off: to just learn to do it (I know this seems crazy but it is the reason I did it, intellectual curiosity), to knit a decorative piece for your home such as a table cloth, to knit a shawl.
Here I'd like to explain how circles work and how to obtained them the easier way, which is definitely in the round and starting from the centre. In this first post I'll give the easiest method, and in a second post I'll write about another possible method, which may have some advantages to this one. It'll all become clear as we go along.
Circles have the property that their perimeter is proportional to their diameter. If you remember your school math, this proportion is the number π (pi), but to knit a circle you actually don't need to know this. What it means is that, when knitting in the round starting from the centre, every time you double the number of rows, you should also double the number of stitches in it. Also, if you triple them, you should triple the stitches and so on. (Mathematician's note: this type of scaling is actually true for all 2D shapes, not only the circle.)
This is the theory. In practice it is a little more complicated. The reason is that stitches are pretty flexible and elastic. This is a very good thing, just try to do a circle with Lego pieces and you'll understand what I mean. Knitted stitches will reshape themselves in order to accommodate for the extra tension of having all these increases going on and that their natural shape doesn't fill a circle. The problem is that they don't necessarily remain flat when they do this. If you put too many stitches together, they'll deform in all 3 dimensions. So you have to work a little in order to get a flat shape at the centre of the circle. Here is one way to do it.
Method 1
Method 1 results in a circle with a nice discrete 8-arm spiral. Here is a suggestion: you can replace the kfb (knit front and back) with any other type of increase, like make-one or yarn-over. Each type of increase will result in a different looking spiral: M1-increases are even more discrete than kfb ones and yo-increases will add decorative holes along the spiral arms.
You can easily adapt this method by spacing out the increase rounds to one round in 3, 4, etc simply knitting extra rounds straight and doing more increases in every increase round. What I mean is if you want to do increases in 1 in every 5 rounds, for example, you must knit 4 straight rounds in between every increase round and do 4x5=20 equally spaced increases in every increase round. Which will form a 20 arm spiral, right? Well... not always. You must realize that if the increases are very spaced out and the spiral has many arms, your eyes will at some point not be able to see any spiral arms at all, instead they may see a pattern of concentric circles. Which leads us to the method I'll describe in a second post. If you don't like the spiral look, you'll have to wait.
Here I'd like to explain how circles work and how to obtained them the easier way, which is definitely in the round and starting from the centre. In this first post I'll give the easiest method, and in a second post I'll write about another possible method, which may have some advantages to this one. It'll all become clear as we go along.
Circles have the property that their perimeter is proportional to their diameter. If you remember your school math, this proportion is the number π (pi), but to knit a circle you actually don't need to know this. What it means is that, when knitting in the round starting from the centre, every time you double the number of rows, you should also double the number of stitches in it. Also, if you triple them, you should triple the stitches and so on. (Mathematician's note: this type of scaling is actually true for all 2D shapes, not only the circle.)
This is the theory. In practice it is a little more complicated. The reason is that stitches are pretty flexible and elastic. This is a very good thing, just try to do a circle with Lego pieces and you'll understand what I mean. Knitted stitches will reshape themselves in order to accommodate for the extra tension of having all these increases going on and that their natural shape doesn't fill a circle. The problem is that they don't necessarily remain flat when they do this. If you put too many stitches together, they'll deform in all 3 dimensions. So you have to work a little in order to get a flat shape at the centre of the circle. Here is one way to do it.
Method 1
- Cast-on 4 stitches and join in the round.
- round 1: kfb4 [8st]
- round 2: kfb8 [16st]
- round 3: kfb1 k1 and add a marker, 8 times [24 st and 8 markers]
- even rounds: knit straight
- odd rounds: kfb1 and knit up to marker, 8 times [+8st]
- When you're about the right size, do a few garter stitch rounds, including the increases, and bind-off.
- Block it into shape (this is essential).
Method 1 results in a circle with a nice discrete 8-arm spiral. Here is a suggestion: you can replace the kfb (knit front and back) with any other type of increase, like make-one or yarn-over. Each type of increase will result in a different looking spiral: M1-increases are even more discrete than kfb ones and yo-increases will add decorative holes along the spiral arms.
You can easily adapt this method by spacing out the increase rounds to one round in 3, 4, etc simply knitting extra rounds straight and doing more increases in every increase round. What I mean is if you want to do increases in 1 in every 5 rounds, for example, you must knit 4 straight rounds in between every increase round and do 4x5=20 equally spaced increases in every increase round. Which will form a 20 arm spiral, right? Well... not always. You must realize that if the increases are very spaced out and the spiral has many arms, your eyes will at some point not be able to see any spiral arms at all, instead they may see a pattern of concentric circles. Which leads us to the method I'll describe in a second post. If you don't like the spiral look, you'll have to wait.
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