What Is Helical Knitting? Learn 3 Ways

What is often called “helical knitting” is a clever technique that allows us to create perfect, jogless one-row stripes in the round without carrying the yarns up the side. You can use as many colors as you like, making this a great technique for using up precious leftovers.

There is only one rule: The working yarns never cross.

Let’s say you were working with green and blue, and you work the first stripe all the way around in green. Then, you work a stripe in blue. As long as the green yarn never crosses the blue yarn’s path, all is well. It works this way because knitting in the round actually creates a spiral, rather than rows with a beginning and an end. Both the green and blue are spiraling upward, following their own path parallel to one another.

Helix means spiral, so, technically, all knitting in the round is helical knitting. If we are working with two colors, we are knitting a double helix! Where might we see that in nature?

Two colors knitted in the round can spiral around one another just like the double-helix structure of DNA. Illusration by 19eli14 via Pixabay

Just like the double-helix structure of our DNA, you can imagine our green yarn and blue yarn moving along the same path but never intersecting, creating two perfect spirals. Brilliant! While this technique can be used for any knitting worked in the round, it’s become popular for socks. As I was working on two different sock designs lately (Wanderlust Socks at the top of the page and Cymru Socks shown below) that incorporate helical knitting, I’ve been playing with different ways to manage my stitches. Let me show you three ways and when I find them most useful.

[PAYWALL]

Over Under

This method relies on not crossing the working yarns, but both begin and end from the same point (unlike the next two techniques I'll show you). Here's how it works:

1) Knit a round in the first color (green).
2) Knit a following round with the second color (blue).

Knit to the end of the next round (blue).

3) Then, pull the previous color (green) under the current working yarn (blue) to begin the next round; do not let the new color cross over the old color. Switch colors the same way at the beginning of every single-round stripe. Yarns should not cross, and stripes will be uninterrupted.

Then, pull the previous color from UNDER to begin working again.

Pros: This technique keeps stripes uninterrupted, but the beginning and end of round for both colors does not shift. This is especially helpful if you need to work a certain number of stripe rows rather than knitting to length.

Cons: Maintaining tension is a challenge. When pulling the previous color under to begin working, it's easy to pull too tight since that stitch is not sitting on a needle.

Cat and Mouse

Unless I have a good reason not to, I knit socks on a set of five double-pointed needles. When knitting long stretches of helical knitting—like in the Wanderlust Socks—I knit a round with my first color (green in the example below) and then knit a round on three needles with my second color (blue). If I now work a full round with green and then blue, the blue yarn is always one needle behind.

The first color (green) stays one needle ahead of the second color (blue) as you work around and around.

When I reach the end of the cuff or foot, whichever I am knitting, I might need to break one or both colors depending on the pattern. The Cmyru Socks have instructions on how to end both colors used in the stripes before moving on with contrasting heels and toes. The Wanderlust Socks use an afterthought heel, so I added scrap yarn at the location and continued on with my helical happiness!

Pros: Very easy on double-pointed needles. Knitting tension is unaffected.

Cons: Might not be as easy to organize when knitting with Magic Loop or two short circulars.

The Shift

I don't use this method as often for socks, but I think it is important to mention here. Rather than focusing on ending on one needle, you focus on the number of stitches that always remains between the two colors—I like using five stitches. So, as you work a round, stop five stitches before the color change. On double-points, you can make these changes at the end of a needle, shifting which stitches sit on which needles as you work. On a circular, the gap stitches can be slipped to the right hand needle before switching colors. Give the new working yarn a gentle tug to fix the tension, and off you go. This technique shifts the color transition each round, but you can add a marker to the actual beginning of round if needed.

When using this method, I often leave five stitches between the two colors.

Pros: Knitting tension is unaffected. Works especially well for large projects.

Cons: Might not be as easy to organize when knitting with Magic Loop or two short circulars.

I hope you'll give it a try! It's a great technique for your toolbox.

— Kate

Cymru Socks by Kate Larson; photo by Gale Zucker

Put your new skills to use!

Find the pattern for Kate’s Cymru Socks from the Fall 2025 issue of Farm & Fiber Knits in the library. These socks use two different jogless-jog techniques: helical knitting for single row stripes, and a great slip-stitch method for two-row stripes.

The Wanderlust Socks will be landing in the Farm & Fiber Knits library soon!