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It seems counter-intuitive that the same small number of stitches should be added on every round of knitting to make a circle keep growing and to lie flat but that is exactly what happens.

This afghan was made partly to prove that point and partly to use an interesting technique to show off a ‘colour-changing’ yarn. The yarn I chose has irregular colour changes so was perhaps not the best choice. The multi-coloured rings are not all the same width so the number of rows that can be knitted with a particular length of yarn will vary depending on the length of the rows. Some of my rings had rows with 6 stitches, others were 8 or 10 stitches. The blocks of colour should be proportionately narrower or wider but that is not immediately obvious with this yarn.

I did a lot of calculations, requiring spreadsheets, to work out how many rows/stitches to work in each ring. I wanted to keep increases evenly spaced throughout so any decisions made had repercussions in subsequent rings. I probably made it far more difficult than it should have been because I kept changing my mind.

There are two types of ring. Some are knitted backwards and forwards round the circle, in a conventional manner, inserting the necessary increases. The others are short rows that look lie radiating spikes where extra rows have to be added to maintain the circle.

I made a small sample of a second version, using a yarn with very short colour changes, where all the rings are the same width