There is No Seam

I'm learning two-handed colorwork, and am practicing by making a small bag with rows of peerie patterns from Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting. The yarn is Hazel Knits artisan sock in two Rogue colors: mossy green and plum.

My colorwork is suitably wonky for a knitter new to working one color in each hand; my floats are not even (yet) and the bag bunches a little when not blocked out by the iPod. I hope to improve with practice.

Notice the nice smooth seam at the bottom of the bag? In fact, there is No Seam. I started by casting on an even number of stitches on one needle, then did rows of *K1, SL1*, until I had about 7 rounds done. On each row, you are knitting one side of the bag while slipping stitches of the other side. After several rows, slip one side's stitches to one needle, and the other side to another needle. Then turn the bag rightside out to hide the cast-on "seam" inside. Continue on with your pattern as you wish.

This method can be done with dpn or circs, but with this tiny bag it's easier with circulars. For the bag above (to fit a Classic iPod) I cast on 44 st (my gauge is 7 st / inch on 2.5mm needles). I learned this double-knitting technique in a Magical Knitting class taught by Annemor Sundbø last year at the Nordic Knitting conference.