Remember last week when I lost my mind over the adorable charity knitting project of knitting nests for baby birds at wildlife rehab centers? I lost my mind again this weekend, but in a bad way. I tried knitting my first orphan bird nest, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not get the bottom to lay flat and stop cupping.
When you knit a circle, whether from the outside in or the inside out, it can be very tricky to avoid cupping. Cupping happens when you don't increase fast enough; because each row is a little bit too short, it pulls the whole thing up into a dish shape.
The companion problem to cupping is ruffling. Ruffling happens when you increase too fast; the extra fabric bunches up into ruffles.
Needless to say, the only way to fix this problem is to get the math right. You can try blocking it flat but I guarantee you that this is only a temporary solution to the issue. As soon as you turn your back, that knit circle will start cupping or ruffling. You can bet on it.
One way to knit a flat circle is to use Elizabeth Zimmerman's pi shawl ratio. Zimmerman's formula relies on increase rounds, where you k2tog each stitch, thus doubling the number of stitches. To get it to lie flat, you double the distance between the increase rounds. 1 round, then 2 rounds, 4 rounds, 8 rounds, and so forth.
Another is what I will call the "hexagon method." You simply increase at the end of each needle on every round, BUT you have to arrange your stitches onto six DPNs (and knit with a seventh). Or use stitch markers.
(I was close - I was increasing at the end of each needle, but I had the stitches on only four DPNs, thus only four increase points in each round.)
Image courtesy Flickr/smithsoccasional
0 comments