QuestionRounds & spiralsBy The Hook Desk9 Sep 2026
How do I change colour in joined rounds without a visible step?
Stripes in the round fail in two places: where the colours meet along the vertical join, and where each round starts one stitch higher than the last. This handles the first; the second is a placement decision covered separately.
Step by step
Note 1Finish the old colour with the new one
Work the final sc of the old colour normally until two loops are left on the hook. Drop the old colour, pick up the new, yarn over with the new colour and pull through both loops. The stitch top is now new-coloured and looks identical to its neighbours.
Do not tie a knot and do not cut the old colour yet. Leave it hanging and pick it up again when you come back round, or cut it at 8 cm and weave it in later.
Note 2The slip-stitch join that does not show
Slip stitch into the first stitch of the round using the new colour. Then chain 1 — but work it tightly, pulling the loop down to about half the height of a normal chain. That tight chain is what makes the join look like a stitch rather than a gap.
Work round 1 of the new colour into the same stitch you just joined into, not the next one. Skip that step and you lose a stitch at every colour change, which after four stripes is four stitches of drift.
Note 3Hiding the jog when the join must be visible
Even done well, a joined-round join reads as a faint vertical line. Put it at the back of the piece: mark the join on your very first round and keep it at the same clock position throughout, then turn the work so that position faces away in photographs.
If the piece will be seen from every angle — a sphere on a shelf — use a spiral instead and accept the diagonal jog, or place the colour change inside a bobble round where the texture hides it.
Where it usually goes wrong
- Cutting the old colour immediately and knotting it, which leaves a knot bulk that shows through a light-coloured fabric.
- Working the new round into the next stitch after the join, losing one stitch per stripe.
- Carrying the unused colour loosely around the inside of a small piece; for anything under 6 cm, cut and rejoin instead.