Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. With two hands, color work is both addictive and soothing. beginning projects for stranded colorwork. Enjoy! For YEARS, well into her career as a pattern designer, Emily knit colourwork this way: Knit with the MC colour and then drop that strand. become indispensable in working with color patterns. Holding them 4:07 am. According to designer Courtney Kelley, This scarf was inspired by a picture in Handschuhe, a vintage knitting book from Germany by Eva Maria Leszner. We recommend starting with a hat and only two colours just dive in and enjoy the learning process! Going up a needles size can help compensate for this tighter tension. 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. This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. For more information, please see our Plus, use your imagination to modify, deconstruct, and combine the unique motifs to create your own designs. If the floats are too loose, they can get caught when you wear the garment or the stitches may recede in the background. Tension is my struggle-any tips or videos on how to tension properly to avoid floats? Enjoy! arlene j shipper Stranded colorwork knitting is referred to as such because of thesestrands(orfloats) left on the inside of your work. See our post on selecting color palettes for color inspiration. The relevant part starts at 23:15 so you can skip to that to see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Sex1qLRd_I&t=7s, [] started knitting the colourwork chart using the dark orange and the black. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. But I got big Vs in knitting color pattern stitches, then stockinette stitches. floats (with three stitches or less) alone, but floats of five or more stitches may benefit from Most often, knitters will "lock" these floats if they become longer than 3 or 4 stitches. the other, as is the case when just carrying two yarns in one hand without the Yarn Guide. In typical fair isle knitting, as you switch from one color to another, the inactive color drops to the back of the work. In this day and age, its extremely difficult to go for knitting lessons and I feel like Im sitting right there with you learning. Tacking Long Floats. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you. This week we take a close look at the back of our knit wear to show you how we carry our floats. Laura Trickel Lisas List: 10 Reasons Knitting Is Better Than Dating, Spurned Gifts: When Knit & Crochet Gifts Went Wrong. In this example, the dominant color, carried in my left hand, is the contrasting color (blue), while the background color, carried in my right hand, is the main color (charcoal). Lisa Narayanan Likely because I need to work on the tension of my floats. Im all about creativity. We just don't get along. 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. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This creates floats, where yarns pass across the back for several stitches. Firstly:what is a float, and why would I need to trap it? 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. Once youve knit a project or two, youll be ready to tackle any colourful knit. When you have several stitches worked in one colour, the unused strand "floats" across the back of the work. What a great tutorial! It can elongate the stitches a little bit because youre adding bulk as youre knitting the stitch, which is especially noticeable when using larger-gauge yarns. stitches on either side of every wrapped stitch or the weaving effect wont work. Okay, excellent, so do I! Keeping your Dominant Color and Background Color consistent will ensure that your colorwork motifs pop rather than recede into the background. You cant avoid them, but they need to be loose so they arent causing your fabric to pinch in. One of the many reasons we love this technique is that it creates a visually intricate fabric, but is deceivingly simple to work. 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. The project that that strikes my fancy for todays post is from Vintage Modern Knits by Courtney Kelley and Kate Gagnon Osborn. The pattern can have a million different colors included, but only two are used within a single row. 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. I really love this scarf. The only color you knit to create a new stitch is the one from your right hand. 1:35 pm. It might sound daunting, but once you get the hang of it you'll be sailing in no time. Stitches & Technique My blue floating yarn is trapped on either side of the 6th stitch. 8:17 pm, Hi Ladies Sometimes the toughest bit is casting on :), askcarolynwarren Heres an extra special tip for you: I use the tacking technique to weave in ends as I knit all kinds of projects, color knitting or solid knitting! Nothing wrong with that, but it would slow you down a bit. . Foreground color nearest the fingertip, background further down. 7:56 am. Tension will be easiest to tackle if you choose a pattern that doesnt require long floats. . One way is to go up a needle size when working colorwork (but doswatchto make sure your gauge remains accurate to the pattern youre following!) Im going to queue it up today and start looking through my stash for appropriate yarn (or I may just have to spring for the luscious Fibre Company Road to China Light thats used in the book!). This effect is referred to as. knitting your multi-color project. 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. Tears. 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. Use this method when your WORKING yarn is in your RIGHT hand and your FLOAT yarn is in your LEFT hand. I loved your tutorial on catching floats! Contains spam, fake content or potential malware, https://www.interweave.com/store/vintage-modern-knits-ebook, Free Resin Jewelry Video: Yupo Paper, Alcohol Inks, and Resin, Knitting-Themed Artists We Love: Inspiration from Fiber & Needles, Celebrating Beadwork Artists on International Womens Day. joan Some knitters like to wrap floats frequently and regularly, while others do so when the floats feel too I know: slow and steady, right? 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. And vice versa hold the Background Color in your right hand and strand it above the Dominant Color on the WS of the fabric. Hold your float yarn away from your working yarn as you knit your next stitch. Step 2: Thread the first color (your dominant color) through the left eyelet by wedging it through the cleft and pulling the tail down. Suck it up, buttercup those yarn tails arent gonna weave in themselves! So for knitted fabric thats likely to come into things that may catch on floats, like fingers and toes, we musttraporcatchlong floats to anchor them to the fabric. These non-traditional colorwork charts are perfect for the creative knitter . Ive made it pretty clear to the knitting world that when it comes to colorwork, floats and I are incompatible. Weve got a long list of posts that are all about picking palettes and combining colours. Simply pick up loose bars of yarn in the order they belong (according to your chart), and youll be back in business. Hi Lisa Yep, lots of folks find going up a needle size very helpful! 9:28 am. Keep one ball of yarn on either side of you while youre knitting, so youll not only keep the September 29, 2021 @ One thing that is important to keep in mind in stranded colorwork knitting ismaintaining even float tension. Below is a video demonstrating my method for knitting colorwork sans floats. And you can see these steps in action here: trapping long floats carrying both yarns in your left handfromDiannaonVimeo. Linda Natanagara The timing of this is hilarious. Thank you. Yarn floats, the strands of yarn you carry behind your knitting for some colorwork, are perhaps the trickiest part of knitting colorwork for beginners. Your email address will not be published. A colourwork chart is typically read right to left, starting from round 1 at the bottom of the chart and working your way up to the top, one round at a time. Thank you knittingissofun strands can be tightened, but its virtually impossible to loosen stitches that are too tight. 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. Its not as slow as you might think (though its also not fast ). The basketweave pattern is reminiscent of fishing nets, so I chose blue and natural colors to accentuate the ideas of sea and shore. 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. Laurie Rickward each yarn strand in its own pathway. Oneof the questions I get most often from students or knitters working from my patterns is how to trap floats in stranded colorwork. can try both out on a colorwork swatch before you cast on to see which you prefer. Now that weve covered when its a good idea to trap floats how do we actually do it? yarns at a time. You want the design to appear as if its laid over the top of the background color, rather than trying Check out our tutorial on swatching for colourwork here. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. So Im sorry Im not the most helpful person for that! Tension is the most difficult aspect to master in colorwork knitting. The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user. Bringyour float yarn (right hand) behind and aroundthe right needle as though you are going to knit but don'tcomplete the stitch. These cookies do not store any personal information. The hat used almost one full skein of the main colour yarn. over your finger like a ring, halting at or near your first knuckle, with a multi-channel top that keeps other. Im working on it and I realize no matter which method I use for trapping the longer floats, Ill sometimes have to loosen the yarn. Here is a nice tutorial from Jimmy Beans Wool on how to catch floats. This is a very secure way to trap the float. The rest is just details! Most knitters would probably leave shorter floats (with three stitches or less) alone, but floats of five or more stitches may benefit from wrapping. September 27, 2021 @ Great tutorial. So glad I found you. Below is a video demonstrating my method for knitting colorwork sans floats. Insert your right-hand needle into the next stitch, but dont wrap your working yarn around the needle yet. Ive knit for over 50 years and have just stuck my toe into colorwork. I I knit continental style, with two strand on left hand. The most important thing is to consider what kind of item youre knitting, and whos going to be wearing/using it. This method (pictured below), 11:25 pm. I like to knit stranded colourwork holding one yarn in each hand. 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. 6:08 am. Thank you so much! Most color work patterns use a light to medium weight wool yarn our Nature Spun Fingering, Nature Spun Sport, Lanaloft Sport, and Prairie Spun DK are ideal for color work projects. This looks like a really fun project, and the authors have included a little tutorial about how to deal with long floats, too, which is one of the challenges lots of Fair Isle knitting projects. To accomplish this, you need to invisibly tack down or "catch" the float on the wrong side of your work as you knit with the working yarn. Theresa Hofstetter After knitting this stitch, I have 7 stitches of my 21-stitch span knit. I have some puckering snowmen on a hat right now, but Ill live with it. Your explanations and videos are so helpful (as always). A quick little video showing how to cable without a cable needle. Once you have gone over all the puckered fabric in this manner, repeat from the start - until the floats have stretched sufficiently. and sheep. There are several ways knitters do this, and the right choice is the one that feels most comfortable To help shorten the floats while maintaining good tension, tack these long floats to the wrong side of the work. to you and that allows you to get the most even tension in your knitting. 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. In this video I demonstrate a couple of ways to carry floats in fair isle knitting. (Wondering what the dominant yarn is? You can clip off a little more after you block the piece. The most important thing is to consider what kind of item youre knitting, and whos going to be wearing/using it. Whichever camp you fall into, note that you must have normal (non-wrapped) If you're unsure about what patterns to start with, we recommend the following form our Pattern Database (from left to right): Lucerne, Morse, Seeds, and Sommers. Back-knitting is just as easy with two strands of yarn as a single strand. 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. This is all very helpful information. These patterns are particularly well-suited for practicing stranded colorwork as they're smaller projects, worked in the round, and feature motifs that don't require working with more than two strands or colors of yarn in the same round. it both ways before getting too far into a project. September 26, 2021 @ Because Im a continental knitter and I carry both yarns in my left hand, that series of photos is first, but if you scroll down youll also find a series of photos demonstrating the same technique in the two-handed method, with one yarn carried in each hand. This is convenient because youre always looking at the knit side of the work and thus can ensure that the pattern is forming correctly. youre ready to go. pattern), the first stitch is worked in C1, the next in C2, and the following two stitches are worked in C1. Of course, which color you want to be the dominant one is entirely up to youand since its 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. 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. moon sprites & icelandic wool month at tolt, Float is a common term for the strand of yarn that runs across the back of colorwork fabric the strand that makes colorwork, So, if Im knitting a piece that has long floats, how often should I trap them? Remember, loose stitches or knit with US 6 needles, for instance. I have done very little colorwork but am working on a hat with some simple(ish) colorwork. If you finish knitting something and onlythenrealize that you should have trapped the long floats dont worry! It is my goal for this winter to knit my first colorwork sweater. Ill be using myHearth Slippersto demonstrate in the photos, as this pattern involves a very long float the first time you work Chart C. Im working the Large size, and the float is carried across 21 stitches. > >, Knitting on an Airplane and Other Travel Tips for Makers, Why You Shouldn't Buy a Knitter Yarn as a Gift, Reasons to Take Your WIP to a Sporting Event, A Free Bracelet Beading Pattern for Valentines Day. Omit them, of course! September 27, 2021 @ First of all: choose the right pattern for learning to knit with two colors at a time. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. But, as crafters, we have, The new year is a fantastic time to reflect on last year's accomplishments. sometimes called Scandinavian knitting, is the one endorsed by Elizabeth Zimmerman in Knitting November 1, 2021 @ often, it is not uncommon for knitters to knit stranded colorwork with a tighter than usual tension, due to the mechanics of alternating between multiple working yarns. September 27, 2021 @ (We found that for this reason, colorwork charts are quite helpful forlearning how to read knitting charts.). Holding the CC as the dominant color, then, makes sure this is the look Wool will naturally relax into a smooth, even surface after blocking to improve any tight or loose spots in your knitting. Unknown Follow the instructions in theSwatching for Circular Knittingsection of ourSwatching 101article to learn more. One of the challenging things about colorwork is working with two (or more!) Thank you again for all your beautiful patterns and knitting lessons. Great videos. How to Make Stranded Colorwork Knitting Go Smoothly The biggest problem most people new to stranded knitting have is pulling the yarns too tightly when changing between yarns. 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.
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