Corrugated Rib

Ribbing is on my mind. No surprise, given the topic of the last post.

By the way, readers offered excellent suggestions to the problem of chronic "join, being careful not to twist" stupidity: 

After I cast on 370 stitches in corrugated ribbing and knit 6 rounds (TWICE!!!) I found a trick that has since saved my sanity. I bought a bunch of small hair clips .... the curved kind that snaps..... and I place one every inch or so around my ribbing..... that makes it possible to see any twists, as you are not comparing long stretches, just tiny ones. As long as I get to the end and all the clips point the same way, I'm safe! It's a nuisance to do, but nowhere as annoying as ripping out corrugated ribbing once, let alone TWICE!!!! Barbara M.

My trick for not twisting the cast on is to knit the first row back as if I were knitting flat, and to join at the SECOND row to knit in the round. A moebius error becomes glaringly obvious at that point. Also, because your cast on is now its own row, when weaving in the ends you can create a neat stitch with the tail yarn invisibly completing the circle of the cast on row. Don't remember who taught me this, but I do often offer thanks. Mary Arrr.

Thanks for the tips!

At any rate, corrugated ribbing.... Corrugated ribbing, in which the knit column uses one color and the purl column uses another, is not a true rib because the same yarn is not being knit AND purled. Therefore, it does not have a rib's non-rolling quality. 

Here's my trick (I think I made this up—I don't recall learning it from anyone): 

• Cast on using any cast on except the e-wrap version. I use a standard long-tail cast on.
• Join, being careful not to twist (don't be a fool).
• Round 1: Knit 1, purl 1 around (a 1/1 rib).
• Round 2: NOW start the corrugated rib.

That single round of K1P1 at the start seems to calm the rolling tendency. At least it does for me! 

The most common form of corrugated rib is a 2x2 arrangement, as in the photo at the top of this post. Both the knit and the purl columns can have color movement—in this example, only the knit column changes color.

But corrugated rib can be less rigid than this! 

What people generally love about corrugated ribbing is the effect of luminosity created when there is a clear color at the center point sandwiched by grayed colors. (I learned this from Joen Wolfrom's Color Play, available at Feral Knitter.)

There you have it: pretty much everything I know about corrugated rib!

 

Comments

[Jennifer]

Love the post - and the stunning pictures. Thanks a bunch.

[Laura]

Great tip. I'll have to try it. I also found that using the same size needle as for the body of the garment helps to keep the corrugated ribbing flat.

[Caroline]

I love corrugated rib. Ron Schweitzer does cool stuff with corrugated rib too, I made one of his that makes little triangles in the rib like sailing flags.

[Linda]

I haven't tried this technique yet, but I hope to, soon. Thanks for sharing.

[Gretchen]

Good tips, Janine, and the pictures inspire further experimentation.