How do you knit a circle? This is a question that I have been struggling with for the last week or so. I have a new idea for a felted bag and the bag is tubular instead of a rectangular. Which means I need to figure out how to knit circles for the ends. I have considered several options:
- Crochet the circular ends and sew them in.
- Knit the circles using Elizabeth Zimmermann’s (EZ) Pi Shawl as a template and sew them in.
- Create an edge and then decrease evenly around the circle until I reach the center.
If I crochet the circle, I will get a nice circle that lays flat. It solves the problem for the bag, but I don’t get to learn a new technique, and I like learning new techniques.
The Pi method was what I really wanted to do. I read up on it and saw photos of beautiful shawls that that people made. So I proceeded to knit a sample circle. However, I struggled, as it seems many people on the internet have, with getting my circles to lay flat. The outer edge wants to curl in.
I knitted the pattern and then bound off on the next round I thought that might be part of my problem. Binding off creates another row of stitches. The circumference of the circle is now not correct for the diameter of the circle. So, I made yet another sample, this time binding off on the last round of the pattern. This worked much better, but the edges still want to curl in. Still not perfect.
At this point, I decided that a visit to the local library for inspiration was necessary. As I sat there flipping through books, I came across an old pattern for a pill box hat. This is what gave me inspiration for method number 3. You knit in the round and the row before you begin decreasing, you purl a row. This creates a pivot point for the yarn to bend at creating a hard edge. You then, decrease at regular intervals until you reach the center.
I did a small sample and only decreased at 4 points. In the real pattern I will decrease more like 6 or 8 times. That will give it a more circular appearance than my test piece. Technically it’s still not a circle, but I like the effect it gives and it means I don’t have to sew.
I would still like to figure out how to knit a flat circle and why EZ’s Pi method creates an edge that doesn’t want to lay flat. Please post any good links you know of in the comments.
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