Hi all! 🙂  I know I’ve been away from blogland for a bit, but I haven’t been idle with my yarns, I promise!  I’ve been working with a couple of lovely ladies on developing a new way to work cables that I think you will find so exquisitely simple and made without fuss…awesome, right?? We can’t wait to show the idea to you!  I will be working on new tutorial videos and to go along with this new concept, and we will be releasing a fantastic collection of projects in an ebook format for you to put those cables to the test…so exiting! 🙂

As I was working on one of the projects for this new ebook, I ran into the “Double Ribbing Mishap”…again.  You know what I’m talking about, right?  When you’ve decided to work double ribbing in the round and you think you’re just fine because you’re using an even amount of pegs to create these 2 x 2 ribs (2 knits, then 2 purls), but when you end up at the end of the round, you realize that it doesn’t work out quite right…there are knits up against each other that would ruin the pattern.  So frustrating!

Well…this happened to me again and I thought, “Sheesh!  There has got to be a formula that will enable you to figure out beforehand if you’re going to come out right on those double ribbing rounds, because, obviously, it doesn’t work for just any ol’ even number of pegs!” 

So, I got to thinking about it and experienced a Eureka Moment. 🙂

This might be something that everybody already knew about and somehow I was left out of the loop, haha.  I can only say that when I finally hit upon the answer, I heard angels sing and felt the deep need to share the good news! 😉

Okay…here it is:

When you’re planning on working out a 2 x 2 ribbing pattern in the round, you not only need to be using an even number of pegs, but when that total number is divided by 2, the resulting number must also be an even number.

So, if I have 10 pegs (10 divided by 2 = 5, which is NOT an even number)  and want to work a 2 x 2 rib, here’s how it will look:

k k, p p, k k, p p, k k

*see how the end of the row would cause the knits to run into each other?

But, if I have 12 pegs (12 divided by 2 = 6, which IS an even number), it will look like this:

k k, p p, k k, p p, k k, p p

*the purls are now sitting happily at the end, ready to meet up with the knits at the beginning!

That’s it!  The secret to double ribs in the round.  The holy grail of ribbing.

Lol. 😉

Anyway…I hope it helps you all in your loomy endeavors…or actually in any knitting endeavor, as you can simply replace the peg count with a stitch count and you’re good to go!  Oh, happy day!

Bethany~

*Edited to add:  I told you that I might have just been left out of the loop, haha! 😉  Our good loomy friend and mentor, Isela Phelps added these nuggets of gold to the subject:

Angels singing , love it! I always just think that it needs to be a multiple of 4 (4, 8, 12, 16, 20, etc) and it works out, or if I want it to be triple ribs, it needs to be a multiple of 6.

If the number of pegs is divisible by 4, it should work. It should give you the number of repetitions around the circle–ei: 20 pegs, 20/4=5, so it should be 5 reps of the double ribbing.

Now the above is for working in the round. If it is for a flat project, like a scarf. Then it would be a multiple of 4 + 2. So in the same example of the 20, it would be 20 + 2, so 22 pegs, that would provide you with two k2 at each end.

Absolutely brilliant!  Where have I been, lol?  I think my head must have been buried deep within the yarn basket. 😉