How can one get a copy of the pattern? Below is a video demonstrating my method for knitting colorwork sans floats. Start small! Linda Natanagara Shop our 50% Off Online Workshop Sale! The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user. get more info on choosing a colourwork sweater size here, Check out our tutorial on swatching for colourwork here, Week of Colour: Strategies for Designing a Palette, Applying Colour to Stranded Knitting Motifs, design your own Strange Brew colourwork yokes, like these ones, The Three Needle Bind-off: A Bind-off and Seaming Method, Blocking: how to finish your hand-knit hat, First, you knit a stitch (or several) in one colour lets call it the, Then you knit a stitch (or several) in another colour lets call it the. Slide your right-hand needleunderneaththe floating strand (blue), then wrap the working yarn (charcoal) around your needle to knit the stitch. The project that that strikes my fancy for todays post is from Vintage Modern Knits by Courtney Kelley and Kate Gagnon Osborn. Whats the process for trapping non-dominant float? Hats or even can koozies can be excellent 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. A pattern likePine Bough Cowlis worked in a tube and then grafted together, so the floats on the inside of the tube will never be exposed one its finished theres really nothing they can get caught on. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Nervous about your first colorwork project? There are other ways to trap floats, but in my experience, this is the most common (and its a pretty simple way to trap floats as youre working, so theres less finishing after the fact). Ideally, as a rule of thumb, you want your floats (those unworked strands that end up behind your work) to be less than 1"/2.5 cm. Youll definitely want to block your colourwork piece after you complete it, and regular wet blocking works just fine. Typically, stranded colourwork is knit in the round, rather than back and forth in rows. When knitting the MC with my right hand, I throw (English style), and when knitting the CC with my left hand, I pick (Continental style). When theres an increase or a decrease in a colourwork pattern (like in a colourwork round yoke), youll simply work it in the colour shown on the chart. [] used Dianna Wallas tutorials for dominant strands and trapping floats. Colorwork Without Interlocking Floats - Technique Tuesday - YouTube Kelley Hobart from Alpaca Direct shares tips on how to knit colorwork without the need for interlocking floats as. Copyright2023Golden Peak Media. Suck it up, buttercup those yarn tails arent gonna weave in themselves! This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. You have inspired me to cast on a colourwork hat this week! There are a multitude of techniques used to carry two strands of yarn across a row of knitting. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Back-knitting is just as easy with two strands of yarn as a single strand. I definitely feel more confident. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. floats, by wrapping the two yarns while youre knitting. That being said, if a rule doesnt jive with your personal preferences, thats perfectly fine! Weve got an opinion (or three) on this topic! 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. Marge Sturgill What are your thoughts on this? I usually do colorwork with the two hand method any tips for how to add in that third color? 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. What a great tutorial! Keep in mind that wrapped floats may sometimes be visible from the front of the work, so test 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. Hi Elizabeth Thanks so much for your kind words! Its not as slow as you might think (though its also not fast ). September 27, 2021 @ Cotton or acrylic blend yarns are not ideal because they are too smooth to cling together properly and dont have the memory that wool does to hold its shape. beginning projects for stranded colorwork. Not following a pattern, just my rough one I made. Who are we: Scandinavians Arne Nerjordet and Carlos Zachrison are highly regarded designers, textile artists and authors. Wrapyour working yarn (left hand) around the right needle as though to knit but don't complete the stitch yet. One of the challenging things about colorwork is working with two (or more!) Here they are in order of relative usefulness (just my opinion! 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. You may still need to readjust your tension regularly if one yarn is used more than January 22, 2022 @ Ive made it pretty clear to the knitting world that when it comes to colorwork, floats and I are incompatible. Your explanations and videos are so helpful (as always). colorwork with 200 new motifs. Unknown If you are (or can get) comfortable with either left-hand or right-hand knitting, you may find that your contrast color (CC). When you go from knitting one stitch in the MC to one in the CC, they dont sit as perfectly as they might if they were done in the same colour. Colorwork motifs are often presented in charts, as this is an intuitive and shorthand way of showing how the motif builds round by round. If your stitches are twisted, then you are bringing the yarn through the wrong way. Tension is the most difficult aspect to master in color work knitting. I can see improvement. So, dont let the fear of making mistakes stop you from trying a new technique. A critical thing to keep in mind when knitting colorwork is where you're holding your main color (MC) vs. When you come to the stitch you want to wrap, put your working needle into the stitch on the To keep the back of your work tidy, you may want to consider securing the longer loose strands, or Colourwork Knitting: An Introduction - tin can knits These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. tutorials Andrea Rangel January 15, 2020 video, tutorial, . But, as crafters, we have, The new year is a fantastic time to reflect on last year's accomplishments. Float is a common term for the strand of yarn that runs across the back of colorwork fabric the strand that makes colorworkstranded. Okay, excellent, so do I! Some knitters go up a needle size (or two or three) just for trapping long floats while using the two-handed stranded colorwork methodfromDiannaonVimeo. Ive heard of some people switching to a larger needle for the color work. 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. So what do I do? September 28, 2021 @ Wool will naturally relax into a smooth, even surface after blocking to improve any tight or loose spots in your knitting. In this day and age, its extremely difficult to go for knitting lessons and I feel like Im sitting right there with you learning. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. The long float pictured at the top of the swatch is trapped twice so that the blue float never carries across more than fourstitches (it looks like three shorter floats instead). Making mistakes in any technique is inevitable, because were all human! The charcoal grey isthe working yarnfor that length, while the light blue yarn is being carried across the back (the floating yarn). (Wondering what the dominant yarn is? Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. holding one strand in each hand is the easiest way to knit colorwork. 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. 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. For stranded colorwork knitting in particular, swatching may be even more invaluable, as it allows for the opportunity to practice stranding techniques, get acquainted with the mechanics of working with multiple strands of yarn, and test color combinations before committing to a larger project. Give it a try and see if its the solution for you. Alexa Ludeman If you are able to take a class on this technique, or self-learn the opposite knitting style from your current preference, I highly recommend giving it a try. Colorwork Without Interlocking Floats - Technique Tuesday The method you use to strand your working yarns may also have different effects on your tension. I havent written it up in a blog post, but I covered trapping the non-dominant float in my video on Youtube about stranded colorwork. 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. 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. Tutorial - Fair Isle Locked Down - Stitches n Scraps Also, if you need to catch floats in a bunch of rows dont catch in the same place every row. Please confirm you want to block this member. and thought I might start poking around to find tutorials for beginning colorwork. When you knit colourwork, the stitches sit a little differently than in regular stockinette. Knitosophy Designs uses cookies on our site to improve your experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. So Im sorry Im not the most helpful person for that! Regardless of how you hold your yarns when working stranded colorwork, To swatch for a stranded colorwork motif, we recommend the Speed Swatching method for circular knitting; because most stranded colorwork patterns are worked in the round, it is best to swatch in the round as well. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. 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. Katherine Hill The most important thing is to consider what kind of item youre knitting, and whos going to be wearing/using it. dont. Just starting a colour work sweater. Why would the shape be different from the color dominance? 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. the other, as is the case when just carrying two yarns in one hand without the Yarn Guide. This effect is referred to ascolor dominanceand is a result of how the yarns are stranded in relationship to one another on the WS of the fabric as you work. to you and that allows you to get the most even tension in your knitting. Learn how stranded colorwork can be used in design with five accompanying projects including mitts, cowls, and sweaters. CraftGossipAbout CraftGossipContact Us | Privacy and affiliate policy, This Colorwork Cowl is a Great Way to Play with Color, Grab a Deal on Knitting Designs through 11/29, How to use a reusable adhesive to make reverse stamps, Spring Minis and What to Do with Mini Cross Stitch Patterns, Fun Games for St. Patricks Day Class Parties, Free Knitting Pattern Twisted Stitch Blanket, 20+ Airplane Themed Quilt And Block Patterns. can make the fabric look strange. 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. But I got big Vs in knitting color pattern stitches, then stockinette stitches. I really love this scarf. left-hand With this weather were all having, doesnt this scarf sound tempting? 7:46 am. This is all very helpful information. Thanks again! This looks tricky to the uninitiated; however, the pattern is formed using only knit stitches, so its not nearly as complicated as it looks! To accompany the colorwork charts in our patterns, we provide a key showing which colors should be held as the Dominant Color and the Background Color. 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). Once youve knit a project or two, youll be ready to tackle any colourful knit. If you stop here and look at your float, youll see that its caught in the space between the stitch you just knit and the previous stitch.