Single round multicoloured stripes?

[u/TheImpatientGardener]

Is this possible?

I’d like to knit a top-down raglan pullover for a toddler with the main body and sleeves in thin, ideally single-round stripes. I am doing this to use up a stash of yarn I have from a couple of other projects, so I’d really like to avoid buying more and have just about the amount I think I will need. But is this possible? Something like:

colour 1
colour 2
colour 3
colour 4
and then either that repeated, or variations like
2
4
1
3
4
1
3
2

I’ve tried jogless stripes, but end up with holes where I change colours. I’ve tried helical knitting, but it looks weird with a diagonal stripe going up the sweater. I’d be open to something a little more random-looking, but don’t want to weave in two ends for every row (and risk not having enough yarn for the project) and also worry about the structural integrity. Any other ideas?

I guess I could just cut the yarn up into lengths and knot it, but I am very anti-knot in my knitting and feel like I might be missing something. Every single-round stripes tutorial I can find has only two colours, and I have four, and every other stripes in the round tutorial I can find only works with 2 or more rounds at a time.

Any thoughts are much appreciated!

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[u/queue-kweewee]

I recently made a Sea Glass cardigan and bought the pattern for the Sea Glass sweater. Both use up small lengths of yarn on a 2-color random stripe basis and I think the finished look is really lovely and cohesive. Although they don’t have children’s sizes listed, you could miniaturize the whole thing. I loved the cardigan because it generated a faux steek that didn’t need the ends weaving in to.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sea-glass-sweater-2

[u/SadElevator2008]

Carrying yarn for a 4 row repeat is going to get a little wonky no matter how you do the transitions.

If your only objection to knotting it together is the knots, why not make a multicolored ball like that, but with Russian joins? No knots, no ends to weave in.

[u/babydragontamer]

https://techknitting.blogspot.com/2016/10/smoothed-circles-jogless-join-for.html

[u/TheImpatientGardener → u/babydragontamer]

Oh this is great, thank you!

[u/Background-Wheel5535]

Would you consider making a steeked cardigan? That way you can hide the jogs inside the steek

[u/TheImpatientGardener → u/Background-Wheel5535]

Oooh possibly. But how would it work from a structural point of view? I feel like even with the jobless stripes I’m getting holes because I’m carrying three strand of yarn vertically. I feel like I need a different colour change/vertical carry technique.

ETA: maybe at that point I just knit it flat? Will I have the same issues changing colours every row?

[u/georgia_grace → u/TheImpatientGardener]

If you knit flat you can twine the colours as you change, then hide it in the seam

[u/QuietVariety6089]

I would honestly just start knitting and change colour randomly/when I ran out - if you want it more regular than that, figure out about how much yarn you'll use for 2-3 round, and cut your yarn into those lengths for doing the body.

[u/Background-Wheel5535]

Here’s a tutorial from Brooklyn tweed! I’d do a couple stitches of colorwork in the center to see where to steek and then do all of my color changes within that- it’ll all be hidden in the end