Cybersocks
Judy's Kick-back
Two-color Socks
Instructor: Judy Gibson
Mastering the jogless job
Meg's Jogless Jog
The classic method for disguising the color jog was developed by Meg Swansen, and described in great detail in an article in Knitters 45 (Winter 1996, pages 33-35), called "The Jogless Jog." My friend Gloriamarie Amalfitano kindly demonstrated this technique for my camera (we used a sample on straight needles, but pretend it was circular).
Here is how it's done--
Knit a complete round in the new color. When you come to the end of the round you will see that the last stitch is one round higher than the first stitch of the round
With the tip of the right needle, reach into the old-color stitch below the first stitch, which is on the left needle
Lift that stitch onto the left needle
Knit the two stitches together with the new color
Tug the loose end of the yarn that is behind the work to pull the first stitch out of sight. The old color now covers the first stitch, and the jog is pulled more or less straight. The beginning of the round has now moved one stitch to the left.
If you do this at each color change (every five rounds), the "seam" will move diagonally leftward in a ripple that is slightly visible. It shows in the photo of the gold-and-rust socks on the introductory page for this class. Meg's article shows some additional tricks for hiding the jog throughout a complex color pattern, but for our purposes, we'll only do it at the point of the color change for the stripes.