Some garments are better knitted in the round to avoid seams. But the main reason for me to avoid seams is that I don’t like to sew… 😀 I have always preferred designs that can be done only using knitting needles and where I only have to use my tapestry needles at the end to weave yarn ends. Now that I am not only reading but writing patterns too, I try to use tapestry needles as rarely as possible in my designs.

I show you two ways for joining in round in this tutorial. They are done on circular needles in the tutorial but it works the same way with double pointed needles as well. In both cases, before you start, you have to make sure your work is not twisted around your needles (you will probably hear this a thousand times but it is important).

The first way is the simplest option: do nothing. That means cast on the number of stitches required by your pattern and without turning your work, start knitting the first cast on stitch (the first stitch on the left-side needle). This one is a no-brainer, fast and it does the job: joins the two ends of your cast on edge. However, if you knit a few rows and look back on this join, you will see a gap is forming at the place of the join:

You may hide this gap at the end with a simple trick with the tail of your work (it will require a tapestry needle but you would have to weave it in anyway…), I will show how to this trick in the video below.

If you want the perfect, seamless join on the first run, I will show you another way for joining. To be able to accomplish this, you will need an extra stitch on top of what your pattern requires. You will immediately bind this stitch off, which will create your seamless join: slip the first cast on stitch from the left hand needle to the right hand needle purlwise, and pass the last cast on stitch over this stitch. Then slip the stitch back to the left hand needle.

A few rows later you will see this:

Too watch all this in practice, please watch my video on the topic:

Was this helpful to you? Please share your thoughts in the comments below! If you still need assistance, do not hesitate to contact me via this form or write an email to gynkaknitwear@gmail.com – I will do my best to help you ASAP!

Thank you for your attention and see you in my next tutorial! 🙂

Happy Knitting!

Mici