needle and wrap the yarn from your right hand around the working needle as if to knit itbut to you and that allows you to get the most even tension in your knitting. You may only see one color in each stitch on the front of a project, but remember that there are as many The only color you knit to create a new stitch is the one from your right hand. The rest is just details! Wrapyour working yarn (left hand) around the right needle as though to knit but don't complete the stitch yet. trapping long floats in stranded colorwork. But if you're not working one color for a longer bit, that float can get so long that it is at risk ofsnagging on things (like fingers or earrings) or pulling and stretching your work. This is convenient because youre always looking at the knit side of the work and thus can ensure that the pattern is forming correctly. Most knitters would probably leave shorter floats (with three stitches or less) alone, but floats of five or more stitches may benefit from wrapping. :). 8:59 pm. A huge thank you for sharing your wisdom! They work under their artist name ARNE \u0026 CARLOS, which they established in 2002.We publish a weekly, new tutorial every Sunday on both our YouTube channel and our Facebook page. Otherwise, the fabric will be tight and compressed horizontally, which is NOT fun as you knit it and it doesnt look good when its done, either. I watched the video but would like more information & can't seem to find it. I really love this scarf. would you do one on catching floats in purl side?Im knitting a Marie Wallin pattern in pieces and Im trying to find the best way to trap the floats in purl. Eva Use this method when your WORKING yarn is in your LEFT hand and your FLOAT yarn is in your RIGHT hand. Stranded colorwork knitting is referred to as such because of thesestrands(orfloats) left on the inside of your work. Just starting a colour work sweater. If youmustuse a general rule, going by length in inches or cm is a better way to go (e.g. My UPS gal surprised me again the other day with several new Interweave books full of wonderful, inventive projects. The Knitter's Pride Royale 16 needle set I use in the video can be found here. 9:04 am. Privacy Policy. Floats are the yarn thats carried behind the stitches across a row. Like Alex I am interested in tidy float catching, working on a sock flat heel (stranded patterning a feature on it) ..so purling involved. Im all about creativity. Required fields are marked *. Thank you for the simple, easy to follow directions. exactly the opposite. I recently completed a color work sweater and the yoke is snugger than the body. September 27, 2021 @ 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. With two hands, color work is both addictive and soothing. Thank you for your generosity in sharing your knowledge. Thank you for the information I feel more confident about trying colorwork . The guidance suggested catching the floats (the stitches youre carrying of one colour behind the colour youre working with) every [], [] After that I got to start on the yoke and the colourwork. In the words ofJune Hemmons Hiatt, the most successful method is as much a matter of anatomy as it is of dexterity, so keep swatching, experimenting, and practicing to find what works best for you. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Wool will naturally relax into a smooth, even surface after blocking to improve any tight or loose spots in your knitting. The Knitting Man's Tiny Shorts, How to knit stranded colorwork NO FLOATS METHOD - in just 3 minutes - colourwork fairisle techniques tutorial Teaching and g. Copyright2023Golden Peak Media. I was introduced to your helpful tutorials when knitting the Grumpy Grandpa Cardigan. Our Jeanette Scarf is a nice choice because its knit in a small tube in the round (its also available as a free download when you sign up for our newsletter!). Suck it up, buttercup those yarn tails arent gonna weave in themselves! If you finish knitting something and onlythenrealize that you should have trapped the long floats dont worry! 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). Without Videos. We recommend starting with a hat and only two colours just dive in and enjoy the learning process! I may seem biased in encouraging you to knit with wool, but seriously the natural barbs in wool fiber will cling together, helping the stitches to stay in place. Tension will be easiest to tackle if you choose a pattern that doesn't require long floats. What Im gathering is that the ease of the floats comes with practice. September 27, 2021 @ 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). Start small! Typically, stranded colourwork is knit in the round, rather than back and forth in rows. 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. Great videos. The pattern can have a million different colors included, but only two are used within a single row. This is a very secure way to trap the float. Slide your right-hand needleunderneaththe floating strand (blue), then wrap the working yarn (charcoal) around your needle to knit the stitch. 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. Hold your float yarn away from your working yarn as you knit yournext stitch. To keep the back of your work tidy, you may want to consider securing the longer loose strands, or We use cookies to optimize our website and our service. Holding the CC as the dominant color, then, makes sure this is the look I so appreciate it and YOU! I'd start with something where there's only a few stitches between colors so you don't have really long floats. How can one get a copy of the pattern? Your videos have inspired and taught me so much. Step 1. My first stranded colorwork project was the Herringbone Hat by Anne Mizoguchi, who has several other similar free colorwork . 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. through, push the left-hand yarn strand back off the working needle. This looks tricky to the uninitiated; however, the pattern is formed using only knit stitches, so its not nearly as complicated as it looks! As a, It's the holiday season and you know what that meanstime for last-minute handmade gift ideas!, Knitting Instructions & AbbreviationsGuide to Subbing Brown Sheep Yarns in Knit & Crochet PatternsGuide to Weaving With Brown Sheep Yarns. 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! Your great presenation has take the fear out of at lease trying colorwork. The background color/main color is also my working yarn here, while the dominant/contrasting color is being carried across the wrong side of the work. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. As you work following the chart, the fabric grows to create the pattern shown, so you can look at the colourwork chart and make a fair guess at what the finished product will look like theyre closely related. 1999-2023 Crafts Americana Group, Inc. All rights reserved. It there any way to fix this problem? Keep one ball of yarn on either side of you while youre knitting, so youll not only keep the These non-traditional colorwork charts are perfect for the creative knitter . You can read aboutcolor dominance here.). the other, you may need to readjust your tension frequently as you pull from one strand more than the Yarn floats, the strands of yarn you carry behind your knitting for some colorwork, are perhaps the trickiest part of knitting colorwork for beginners. 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. Ive done a couple colorwork projects and I appreciate all of this good info in one place! You want it to be loose, so the floats dont cause puckering, but not so loose that you get distorted stitches. 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. When working a stranded pattern, you never want to carry the non-working yarn across the back of the work for more than about 5 stitches, or whatever constitutes about a inch at your gauge. 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. This email came at the perfect time. This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. September 29, 2021 @ A quick little video showing how to cable without a cable needle. Then you finish with 4 rows of garter stitch. September 26, 2021 @ pattern), the first stitch is worked in C1, the next in C2, and the following two stitches are worked in C1. I found this page which shows a technique for capturing the floats & providing a nice stretch. The two-handed method is great because the two yarns do not get tangled. holding one strand in each hand is the easiest way to knit colorwork. The basketweave pattern is reminiscent of fishing nets, so I chose blue and natural colors to accentuate the ideas of sea and shore. I am a knitting chicken. A critical thing to keep in mind when knitting colorwork is where you're holding your main color (MC) vs. The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network. Hold your float yarn away from your working yarn as you knit your next stitch. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Hi Eva This isnt the most satisfying answer but: if you have big Vs it probably means its a little too loose. The floats across the back of the work need to be flexible enough to allow the front of the work to lie flat. In this day and age, its extremely difficult to go for knitting lessons and I feel like Im sitting right there with you learning. your contrast color (CC). This was all very helpful. It might sound daunting, but once you get the hang of it you'll be sailing in no time. Float is a common term for the strand of yarn that runs across the back of colorwork fabric the strand that makes colorworkstranded. Lisa Narayanan knitting your multi-color project. You can find more information about Knitter's Pride needles from these retailers: Bryson Distributing Accessories Unlimited Knitter's Pride Shop finder 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? in your left or right hand, its important to keep the strands separate enough that you dont What are your thoughts on this? Ive always been intimidated to try anything with more than one color. Tears. Now that weve covered when its a good idea to trap floats how do we actually do it? 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. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Thank you so much , Mona Wadington In reality, there are a few different methods, but Ill be demonstrating what I think is the most common below. Excellent timing as I start a pair of colorwork advent socks. actually a pretty fun experiment to try this, switching which color is dominant and which is not, you This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. When you come to the stitch you want to wrap, put your working needle into the stitch on the Because you have floats making a straight line across the back of the work, the fabric formed by stranded colourwork is much less stretchy than that formed with a regular knitted fabric. 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). What's a Knitter To Do? Whale woman, Lindy Van Fleet I definitely feel more confident. When flipped to be a Background Color (right), these Hammock stitches become smaller and less distinct. 9:28 am. 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. Bringyour working yarn betweenthe needles as though you are going to knit but don't complete the stitch. dominant color in a pattern is not necessarily the same as your MCin fact, it usually should be and thought I might start poking around to find tutorials for beginning colorwork. Cut off the excess yarn, leaving about a 1/2-inch tail. Holding both strands of yarn too tightly can result in fabric that is taut and puckered. Theres a big difference between a knitted bag youll sew a lining into and a pair of mittens or socks. 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. Keep in mind that wrapped floats may sometimes be visible from the front of the work, so test 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. The long float pictured at the bottom of the swatch isnt trapped at all, so its floating across all twelve stitches. Also note that if you Knitosophy Designs uses cookies on our site to improve your experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. knittingissofun Most knitters would probably leave shorter Dive into stranded colorwork with confidence with a section on reading charts, working floats, and choosing . For me, lifes too short to purl in colorwork! After knitting this stitch, I have 7 stitches of my 21-stitch span knit. When you come to the stitch you want to wrap, put your working needle into the stitch on the A long float would be considered more than 5 stitches in a row of one color before changing. youre ready to go. Here is a nice tutorial from Jimmy Beans Wool on how to catch floats. KnitChats - Tip to Keep Loose Floats in Stranded Knitting KnitChats 473 subscribers Subscribe 54 Share 5.6K views 3 years ago Here's a demonstration of one way to keep your "floats" loose when. Many knitters like to wrap each strand around a different finger and knit all stitches English style (throwing) or Continental style (picking). over your finger like a ring, halting at or near your first knuckle, with a multi-channel top that keeps Thank you! I know its a slow work in progress. free download when you sign up for our newsletter! multiple strands requires some adjustments. These cookies do not store any personal information. 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. For just a few stitches, this is fine and tidy! . a fabric they like. 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. have several rows in a pattern that may require wrapping, dont wrap at the same places in each rowthat Hi Elizabeth Thanks so much for your kind words! Knitting colourwork (also known as stranded colourwork or Fair Isle knitting) may seem difficult, but its actually quite simple. Feel free to post questions in the comments, orshare other tips or methods you know of! So what do I do? One thing that is important to keep in mind in stranded colorwork knitting ismaintaining even float tension. 10:53 am. October 28, 2021 @ Typical stranded colorwork motifs are worked with two different colors per round, with the colors changes happening often (this keeps the floats short). dont. You can clip off a little more after you block the piece. September 28, 2021 @ Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Its better to stagger the tension so you dont end up with one column of stitches pulling towards the inside of the project. Who are we: Scandinavians Arne Nerjordet and Carlos Zachrison are highly regarded designers, textile artists and authors. What is the best method for making sure your floats are loose enough when knitting. Here's a video from Tiara the Unicorn explaining three different ways to catch floats, followed by written directions below that.