Have you heard of Izzy Dolls? They're darling little toys that are included in aid packages, and are sometimes a child's first toy. Designer Esther Braithwaite has developed many patterns for Izzy Dolls, sometimes called Comfort Dolls, and they're available free in her Ravelry store.

Pretty Izzy Dolls. Photo by Esther Braithwait.

After one of our Facebook VIP group members, Peggy Mowry, knit a few of them and shared them with our members, Kelley fell in love with them and decided to feature Izzy Dolls on her weekly Facebook Live broadcast, Technique Tuesday.

Knitting Jogless Stripes

One of the really cool things Peggy shared is a method for knitting stripes in the round without that unsightly jog. This technique is from the Icelandic Knitter, Hélène Magnússon.

Kelley demos the jogless join at minute 12:44 in the video above.

The Icelandic Knitter's Jogless Join

Knitting in the round is really knitting in a spiral, so the stripes don't line up at the "end" of a round. The Icelandic Knitter's jogless method creates an optical illusion that makes it seem like each stripe begins and ends on the same round.

This technique can be used in every round.

1. At the end of the round, after working the last stitch of the round, place this last stitch back on the left needle.

2. Knit that stitch again with the new color (if working stranded knitting or stripes, it's the color of the first stitch in the next round).

3. Knit the next round normally, but knit the last stitch in this round together with the stitch below it (below the one that was knitted twice) like this: with tip of right needle, LIFT the stitch below from back to front under the right leg of the stitch onto the left needle, then K2tog. You're knitting the last stitch of the row with its lifted stitch. This returns the last stitch in the round to its correct color.

4. This stitch is then moved back to the left needle to accept the new color of the next round, beginning again.

On her website, Hélène has a great photo tutorial for the jogless join.

We hope you're inspired to knit an Izzy Doll (or two or three!) to bring comfort wherever it's needed. Kelley is working on several, and they're just precious.

Kelley's Izzy Dolls, in progress

She's using CoBaSi Plus, a kid-friendly (machine-washable) worsted-weight yarn. This line includes a great caucasion skin-tone color, Karin's Birthday Suit, and one called Chocolate Milk if you want a darker skin-tone.

Esther's Izzy Doll designs include something for just about all interests, including puppy dogs, mermaids, jungle animals, unicorns, woodland creatures, little boys and girls, and many more. So fun!

If you knit an Izzy Doll, share it with us on our VIP Facebook group so we can all see the sweetness.

Cheers,