I definitely feel more confident. We just don't get along. Hi Elizabeth Thanks so much for your kind words! All Rights Reserved. Suck it up, buttercup those yarn tails arent gonna weave in themselves! You can clip off a little more after you block the piece. For keeping those floats nice and loose I recommend trying a longer cord to your circular needle (this spreads out the stitches and forces those floats to be nice and long) and spreading out your stitches on the right hand needle after a long stretch of one colour. Youll want to keep this in mind when choosing the right size if youre knitting a sweater with a colourwork body (get more info on choosing a colourwork sweater size here). thistheyre twice as thick! Give it a try and see if its the solution for you. 7:46 am. This week we take a close look at the back of our knit wear to show you how we carry our floats. You can find more information about Knitter's Pride needles from these retailers: Bryson Distributing Accessories Unlimited Knitter's Pride Shop finder Plus, use your imagination to modify, deconstruct, and combine the unique motifs to create your own designs. 8:01 am. the other, as is the case when just carrying two yarns in one hand without the Yarn Guide. Finally, spread out your sweater and leave it to air-dry. Keep in mind that if the pattern youre working on has significantly more stitches with one color vs. strands in Regardless of how you hold your yarns when working stranded colorwork,the float of the Dominant Color should always be stranded below the Background Color. We just dont get along. The only Marie Wallin garment Ive knit, I adapted to be knit in the round and I steeked the armholes and front neck. 7:56 am. Some motifs, however, involve longer floats and long floats are exceptionally good at catching on fingers, jewelry, or other things that can work their way between the knitted fabric and the float. My blue floating yarn is trapped on either side of the 6th stitch. Heres a closer look at what that looks like from the wrong side of the fabric: You can see how the float is trapped at the sixth charcoal grey stitch. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. Once youve knit a project or two, youll be ready to tackle any colourful knit. Check out our posts about: You sure you really wanna open that can of worms? tangled, then, is key to working with multiple colors. If you place the CC ball to the left of your body and the MC ball to the right of your body (and always keep them in those positions), they will not tangle. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. I thought you said to put the red yarn in your left hand to make it dominant, but then I thought you said to make a diamond shape stand out, you would put the yarn in your right hand. One way is to go up a needle size when working colorwork (but do, When working stranded fabric with two or more colors, one color (the Dominant Color) will always be more prominent on the right side (RS) while the other (the Background Color) recedes to the background. Hi Eva This isnt the most satisfying answer but: if you have big Vs it probably means its a little too loose. Weve got an opinion (or three) on this topic! Wrapping Floats To keep the back of your work tidy, you may want to consider securing the longer loose strands, or "floats," by wrapping the two yarns while you're knitting. If a pattern row has you knit two white stitches, then two black stitches and repeat that to the end of the row, you could literally knit the two white stitches, drop the yarn, pick up the black yarn and knit two stitches, drop it, etc. You can read aboutcolor dominance here.). If youmustuse a general rule, going by length in inches or cm is a better way to go (e.g. Oneof the questions I get most often from students or knitters working from my patterns is how to trap floats in stranded colorwork. Also, if you need to catch floats in a bunch of rows dont catch in the same place every row. Alexa Ludeman Floats can get in the way in the finished project because they can snag - and, they can mess with the tension of the knit stitches around them. Thank you!! Unlike other types of colorwork knitting techniques (such as striping or intarsia), stranded colorwork requires you to carry along the strand of yarn not in use across the back of the work. can make the fabric look strange. become indispensable in working with color patterns. September 26, 2021 @ 8:17 pm, Hi Ladies With this weather were all having, doesnt this scarf sound tempting? layers to the fabric as there are strands of yarn. Katherine Hill Stranded colorwork knitting is referred to as such because of these, One thing that is important to keep in mind in stranded colorwork knitting is, There are a number of ways to manage the tension of your floats. The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes. Because knitted fabric is elastic, the floats traveling behind worked stitches must be long enough to span the width of those stitches, both when stretched and relaxed. It is also helpful to spread out the stitches just worked on the right needle each time you switch yarns or colors, so that when you draw the next working yarn (C1) behind the stitches just worked in the previous (C2), you can be sure that its float can span the full width of the stitches just worked. Method 2 - Working Yarn in Left Hand Use this method when your WORKING yarn is in your LEFT hand and your FLOAT yarn is in your RIGHT hand. The basketweave pattern is reminiscent of fishing nets, so I chose blue and natural colors to accentuate the ideas of sea and shore. When carrying both yarns in the left hand, you may need to use your thumb to hold the floating yarn (blue) out of the way. A quick little video showing how to cable without a cable needle. My blue floating yarn is trapped on either side of the 6th stitch. to peek through from underneath. 1:50 am, Good luck! I really love this scarf. Colorwork motifs are often presented in charts, as this is an intuitive and shorthand way of showing how the motif builds round by round. Alexa Ludeman Ive taught countless colourwork classes and literally NEVER had a student who couldnt learn to do colourwork using this method but they did find it difficult it at first (theres always a bit of cursing). Hi Anna For the odd 3 colour round I usually have one yarn in my right and two yarns in my left, but I drop and pick up with the two in my left hand. free download when you sign up for our newsletter! September 30, 2021 @ swatch) the one you prefer. October 28, 2021 @ September 27, 2021 @ If youre ready to take the plunge, click here to sign up for our newsletter & well send you a free PDF download of the Jeanette Hat & Scarf Pattern, a lovely colorwork ensemble in which both pieces are knit in the round! Use this method when your WORKING yarn is in your RIGHT hand and your FLOAT yarn is in your LEFT hand. Your videos have inspired and taught me so much. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. I am a knitting chicken. The unused yarn ends up floating behind the pattern. Next, start to knit from the yarn in your left hand. Keep one ball of yarn on either side of you while youre knitting, so youll not only keep the Hats or mittens are also great choices. This method leaves floats, which are lengths of yarn carried across the back of the work that can be easily snagged. Going up a needles size can help compensate for this tighter tension. One of the many reasons we love this technique is that it creates a visually intricate fabric, but is deceivingly simple to work. Just perfect. I dont enjoy trapping floats very much, as it slows down my knitting and can affect the look of my knitted fabric, and Ill avoid it if I can get away with it. What is the best method for making sure your floats are loose enough when knitting. The mechanics are REALLY that simple, and if you know how to follow a chart, then you can stop reading, grab one of our free colourwork patterns (like the Anthology hat and cowl or the Clayoquot toque), and start knitting right now. Sometimes the toughest bit is casting on :), askcarolynwarren And you can see these steps in action here: trapping long floats carrying both yarns in your left handfromDiannaonVimeo. For example, in Round 1 of the colorwork chart below (adapted from the Lucernepattern), the first stitch is worked in C1, the next in C2, and the following two stitches are worked in C1. A long float would be considered more than 5 stitches in a row of one color before changing. making sure no floats are longer than 1 or something similar). Or, you can be a lazy ass like me I just tie them to the next colour, trim them fairly short, and then hope that, with plenty of time and wear, theyll eventually felt themselves together into a nice, solid, woolly mess. Simply follow the colourwork chart, and the pattern appears! You initially catch the floating yarn by changing its position as you knit, then you go back and make the floats ladder up themselves, in a technique that is somewhat similar in look to the ladderback jacquard technique used in commercial knitting. The project is a scarf called the Ajiro Scarf. Thank you for the idea of tying ends and letting them felt themselves over time. through, push the left-hand yarn strand back off the working needle. CARRYING YARNS WITH THE TWO-HANDED METHOD. There are about as many ways to knit colourwork as there are ways to knit, so feel free to experiment and find the technique that works for you. For example, if there are 3 stitches in a row of one color, the other color will need to be carried behind it for 3 stitches. Are there any other pages/videos showing this technique? Making mistakes in any technique is inevitable, because were all human! I like to knit stranded colourwork holding one yarn in each hand. Winter begins to feel interminable around this time of year. September 28, 2021 @ Please, for the sake of your sanity, choose a pattern thats knit in the round! in your left or right hand, its important to keep the strands separate enough that you dont When working stranded fabric with two or more colors, one color (the Dominant Color) will always be more prominent on the right side (RS) while the other (the Background Color) recedes to the background. Ive completed a few stranded colorwork projects in which I had to switch position of the yarn balls every time I trapped a float: trapping a float without taking my hands off the needles was a revelation and a relief! In other words, when you alternate between colors of yarn, the previously unused strand travels behind the stitches just worked until it is ready to be used again, resulting in a horizontal strand on the wrong side (WS). Neisha Dahlstrom Holding both strands of yarn too tightly can result in fabric that is taut and puckered. :). For more information, please see our Hats or even can koozies can be excellent This was so helpful! I am sort of figuring it out as I go but it is a little wonky. Typical stranded colorwork motifs are worked with two different colors per round, with the colors changes happening often (this keeps the floats short). Focus on one section of the fabric at a time and knead it. If you hold your yarns in each hand, check out this video for a slightly fancier way of trapping: To join a new yarn, just leave a yarn tail and then get started with the new yarn from the beginning of the next round. Knitting colourwork (also known as stranded colourwork or Fair Isle knitting) may seem difficult, but its actually quite simple. To help shorten the floats while maintaining good tension, tack these long floats to the wrong side of the work. I get this question a lot, and its a tricky one to answer. Thank you. Some knitters go up a needle size (or two or three) just for This scarf is knitted in the round, which simplifies the Fair Isle patterning (no wrong-side rows) and creates an insulating double layer of fabric. So, dont let the fear of making mistakes stop you from trying a new technique. Hi Julie The key to tension in colourwork is keeping those floats nice and loose. Bringyour float yarn (right hand) behind and aroundthe right needle as though you are going to knit but don'tcomplete the stitch. Holding the CC as the dominant color, then, makes sure this is the look Tension is the most difficult aspect to master in color work knitting. That being said, if a rule doesnt jive with your personal preferences, thats perfectly fine! 10:33 am. When carrying both yarns in the left hand, you may need to use your thumb to hold the floating yarn (blue) out of the way. Required fields are marked *. Mary Thank you so much! Personally, I dont like this approach. Ive done a couple colorwork projects and I appreciate all of this good info in one place! You can see how much easier it is to catch a finger (or a toe, or a hand) on the open, un-trapped float: So, if Im knitting a piece that has long floats, how often should I trap them? To help shorten the floats while maintaining good tension, "tack" these long floats to the wrong side of the work. Some folks will tell you to trap floats every 3, 5, 7, 10+ stitches, but we almost never do (mittens are the exception). Tension is my struggle-any tips or videos on how to tension properly to avoid floats? Thank you for the information I feel more confident about trying colorwork . Next: choose a natural, non-superwash wool yarn. According to designer Courtney Kelley, This scarf was inspired by a picture in Handschuhe, a vintage knitting book from Germany by Eva Maria Leszner. Like Alex I am interested in tidy float catching, working on a sock flat heel (stranded patterning a feature on it) ..so purling involved. I was told it is never too loose when knitting multi colors . When doing more than 4 stitches in a row, just flip the unwanted color over the correct color. If your stitches are twisted, then you are bringing the yarn through the wrong way. Regardless of how you hold your yarns when working stranded colorwork, the float of the Dominant Color should always be stranded below the Background Color. Wool will naturally relax into a smooth, even surface after blocking to improve any tight or loose spots in your knitting. Then you knit a stitch (or several) in another colour - let's call it the contrast colour (CC). 12:24 pm. Add a key, so you remember the boxes with dots are purls, and the boxes without dots are knit. There is enough of the contrast grey []. Knitosophy Designs uses cookies on our site to improve your experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Who are we: Scandinavians Arne Nerjordet and Carlos Zachrison are highly regarded designers, textile artists and authors. knitter), then you may want to hold both strands of yarn in the same hand. This past week I was thinking, Maybe if I had someone really break it down for me . Its possible to trap those long floats as youre weaving in ends after the fact (and if there isnt a long end to weave in where you need to trap a float, you can take a spare bit of leftover yarn and just weave it into the wrong side of the fabric as if it were an end, trapping the floats as you go). This creates floats, where yarns pass across the back for several stitches. ): While all this can seem like a lot of info, you wont figure any of it out unless you get going. If the floats are too tight, they will draw your fabric in, causing puckering which will change the look and fit of your finished item. If you can pick up a regular knit stitch, then you can definitely pick up and fix a dropped stitch within a section of color work. If you hold one color in each hand, the easiest way to manage color dominance is to hold the Dominant Color in your left hand and strand it below the Background Color on the WS of the fabric. I loved your tutorial on catching floats! After knitting this stitch, I have 7 stitches of my 21-stitch span knit. colourwork, techniques colourwork, tutorial. Now that weve covered when its a good idea to trap floats how do we actually do it? We hope you enjoy it! See our Japanese site: http://arne-carlos.co.jp/ Instagram: arnecarlos Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ARNE-CARLOS-164370623579070/?fref=ts Buy our yarn here: http://arnecarlos.com/yarn/ Buy our books here: http://arnecarlos.com/buy/ You find all the patterns in our blog: http://arnecarlos.com/blog/For any business inquiries please contact:anna@noefornett.no Stretch Gently stretch out the stitches on your right needle as you strand the unused yarn across the back of these stitches (Photo 1 below). Moveyour float yarn out of the way ofyour working yarn to the right of the right needle, keeping it behind the left needle and in front of the right needle. My first stranded colorwork project was the Herringbone Hat by Anne Mizoguchi, who has several other similar free colorwork . arlene j shipper Start small! If you do come to a spot where its necessary to carry your yarn across more than 5 stitches, remember to catch your floats every so often. Once you have gone over all the puckered fabric in this manner, repeat from the start - until the floats have stretched sufficiently. Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete. Whale woman, Lindy Van Fleet When you come to the stitch you want to wrap, put your working needle into the stitch on the Then move on to the section beside it. I have done very little colorwork but am working on a hat with some simple(ish) colorwork. September 29, 2021 @ Colorwork motifs are often presented in charts, as this is an intuitive and shorthand way of showing how the motif builds round by round. you get. When you have a pattern that calls for long floats (the strand of yarn that you carry behind the color youre knitting with at any one time), its a good idea to tack them, or trap them. This was all very helpful. Someday I may get to this, but as of now Ive never really purled colorwork (beyond a small swatch with short floats). We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. dominant color in a pattern is not necessarily the same as your MCin fact, it usually should be Pick up the other strand and knit with itand so forth. This is perfect timing. 10:49 am. No matter what you decide, the dominant color should always be held to the left of the non-dominant Some teachers use hard-and-fast rules, like never carry a float more than five stitches without trapping it. Some teachers tell you not to go more thanthreestitches. too loosely can make the fabric look messy. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. You want to have the right side facing you at all times rather than messing with purling on the wrong side. beginning projects for stranded colorwork. Thank you!! You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Insert your right needle into the next stitch like normal. Theres only what you prefer. The most important thing is to consider what kind of item youre knitting, and whos going to be wearing/using it. each yarn strand in its own pathway. If you're unsure about what patterns to start with, we recommend the following form our Pattern Database (from left to right): Customer accounts enabled in your Store Admin. You can seein the photo abovethat Ive worked the first 5 stitches of my 21-stitch span. For some knitters, the difference is glaring, while others hardly notice it at all. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. A critical thing to keep in mind when knitting colorwork is where you're holding your main color (MC) vs.