Make sure you're also bringing the next colour under (for the foreground) or over (for the background) the other strand. So its extra important to watch out that your floats are consistently loose enough. nocrn 8 yr. ago Ok this looks complicated but hopefully if I follow it step by step with yarn I can figure it out. An age-old craft, weaving has recently experienced a comeback in popularity. As you move your yarn across the back of the fabric, one color has to be held above the other. (In two-hand stranded knitting, that has the main color in the left hand, background color in the right hand, like I showed above.) Trapping Floats - Ann Kingstone. In that case the most important thing is to be consistent. Wall Hangings Wall hangings are among the most well-liked Colorwork is among the best techniques to give your handmade masterpieces life. This email address is already registered. Automatically applied discounts will also be shown there. (Your phone camera probably has a black and white filter option.). 2020-present TheYarnSite. The non-dominant floats traveling on the back push the dominant ones closer to the surface, making these stitches look bigger and therefore stand out better. Color dominance in stranded color knitting, 200 Fair Isle Motifs: A Knitter's Directory, Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible and 250 Japanese Knitting Stitches, How to use knitting stitch books to create your own knitting designs, A beginner lace knitting pattern: English Fern. While focussing on playing with colours and practising knitting with dpns and a belt I got distracted from paying attention to the arrangement of my yarns. The crochet provisional cast-on is easy to work and unzips perfectly every time! And dont let yarns get tangled at all. This method is great for Continental and Combined knitters who tension the yarn by holding it with the left hand, and use the needles to pick the working yarn and draw it through the stitch. I always set my dominant/pattern color yarn down on my left side and the non-dominant/background color one on my right. To work a stitch in the foreground colour (purple), pick up the strand from BELOWthe background yarn. Look at the photo above. Stranded colorwork knitting is traditional, stunning and looks so intricate! The dominant or foreground colour is held with the left hand, and the background colour is held with the right hand. Usually keeping the yarns in the same order at the back (dominant to the left/dominant underneath) will take care of it - advice to always hold them in the same hand assumes you are using one hand to hold each yarn, which not everyone does; some people use a thimble or tensioner (in which case you keep the yarns in the same slot), some people drop the yarns in between and some people hold all the yarns on the one hand, whatever works for them. Sometimes its obvious like in the Boreal Toqueshown below (the gray is the background and the blue creates the pattern in the hat on the left, and the gold creates the pattern and the brown the background color in the hat on the right), but sometimes its arbitrary. All Rights Reserved. This is how I hold my yarn for stranded knitting with two colors. Always keep your yarns separate, and in the same order. You can do this every 3-5 stitches or, if you have a whole lot of really long floats between color changes, you can catch the floats every other stitch to create a consistent fabric as is shown in the videos (I did this for my Knitters Dudesweater shown above. A provisional cast-on can be used anytime you want to pick up live stitches from your cast-on edge, either to knit in the opposite direction from or to create a seamless kitchener stitch join. . By this I mean which yarn is stranded over the top of the other at the back of the work when it is not the colour being knitted with at the time. In the top section of the swatch, the dark checks are slightly more prominent than the white checks. I would like to see a video on how to work with 3 or more strands of yarn for Stranded Colorwork (Fair Isle). This is to avoid the tension issues that can result from over-long floats. Save this tutorial for later on pinterest! Get everything included in Premium plus exclusive Gold Membership benefits. The biggest challenge with two-handed colourwork is getting even tension between the two hands. Save BIG on yarns while supplies last! As we knit, the completed stitches tend to bunch up on the right needle, making the width of the fabric seem narrower than it really is. At this interesting & informative session you will learn the basics of stranded colorwork, color theory & dominance. Your personal data will be used to support your experience throughout this website, to manage access to your account, and for other purposes described in our privacy policy. our Privacy and Cookies policy. Use a needle 1-2 sizes bigger for colorwork than you use for Stockinette stitch. So you can imagine that my work isn't very consistent. Pattern dominant Background dominant When knitting colourwork patterns, you use two colours (sometimes more) in a single row or round. Make sure to be consistent here. If you draw your float across bunched-up stitches, it wont be long enough once the fabric is relaxed and will cause the fabric to pucker. I prefer to hold one in each hand but you might like both in one hand better. Sometimes in a stranded knitting project there are stretches of stitches in one colour of yarn that span a length of more than 3cm (1.5). Here you can see the light grey floats are above (closer to the needle) and the purple floats are below (further from the needle). Just remember to always end up with the same color "on top" to avoid tangles (aka, color dominance ). I am working on a hat with a swirl 3 e wrap 2 over pattern. Arne & Carlos are wrong about that there are lots of experts with just as much experience in colorwork who would also disagree with them. So my contrast color is usually held on the left for me, so those stitches pop more because they're slightly larger. The long tail cast on is a great multi-purpose knitting cast on and the perfect place for beginner knitters to start. Quick trick: take a black and white snapshot of your yarns together to see how well they contrast. Learn how to work the long tail cast on and how to estimate the length of yarn needed with our clear step by step tutorial and video. After working a few stitches in one colour, simply spread out the stitches of that colour on the right needle so that they arent bunched anymore before working the next stitch in the other colour. - Both yarns on the same hand: One yarn will be carried below the other, and that makes it travel further to get to the needle. Not all designs have a clear pattern vs background. I check for the dominant thread riding below the other on the wrong side, but thinking closest and furthest from the needle is a much quicker and easier way to remember it. The yarn held lower is dipping down a little before stranding across and then back up again to reach the stitch. In this case, the red yarn was held as the dominant color. Repeat every time you change colours, and youre unlikely to end up with puckery fabric. With the background colour held on the index finger, it'll always be kept above the foreground colour to maintain colour dominance. There isnt yarn dominance unless your tension is different. A lot of knitters work more tightly in stranded colorwork than in Stockinette. If you are working a sweater, for example, and there is a pattern around the yoke, it is likely that you want the contrast color of the pattern to stand out from the main body color of the sweater. Hold the pattern color in your left hand and the background color in your right. Colour dominance happens because one yarn has slightly longer floats that end up absorbed into the stitches, making them slightly larger (more dominant). As long as you consistently hold the same colour in the same hand, the yarns will automatically be in the correct position, under or over, to maintain colour dominance. What is it? Yarn bowls and project bags can be handy for this - just use two instead of one! The yarn held lower is dipping down a little before stranding across and then back up again to reach the stitch. Get exclusive premium content! You may not see this on a single roundbut over a few rounds, it can be very obvious. Your personal data will be used to support your experience throughout this website, to manage access to your account, and for other purposes described in our privacy policy. If you prefer to hold both strands in the same hand, just be sure the pattern color is consistently held below the background color. If you set down your knitting, then later pick it up again, remember the correct positioning when setting up the strands around your fingers. AC - accent/dominant color Pattern Notes Skill level: Intermediate for color work Gauge: 18 sts and 21 rows in 4 inches. There really arent any rules. ), How I wrap floats every other stitch. If you were considering starting a Yell sweater by Marie Wallin (we shared this pattern last week), or if youve ever done colorwork previously, no doubt you want the extra effort to stand out and be as beautiful as possible. If you're new to stranded color knitting, I recommend not worrying about yarn dominance for a while. This is a wonderful pattern to learn stranded colorwork. Session 1: Sunday October, 2: 11am-12pm . Colourwork fabric is generally tighter than single colour knitting in the same yarn, so its important to keep the unused strands loose enough to stretch with the rest of the fabric. Two-handed colourwork is a blend of both throwing (with the right hand) and picking (with the left hand). The top half of the swatch - or the top three rows of the motif - was knit with the white yarn held lower. What this class will teach you: . My earlier book,Rugged Knitsincludes a bunch of patterns with colorwork too:Gleaming Horizon,Boreal Toque,Woolen Explorer,Passing Glacier, and Hazy Cloud. Find out the latestnews from the studio such as sales, pattern releases, and new workshops or KALsour learning community, The Knitwork. Have the contrast / dominant ball of yarn to the left, and the strand of that color yarn further to the left on your index finger. Alterknit Stitch Dictionary includes 200 original colorwork motifs and five new projects. . Or if youre holding both colours in the same hand, the grey floats always travel above the purple floats. The online store is open and we are shipping. October 7, 2020 By Michele Lee Bernstein & filed under Articles. Even with absolutely perfect tension, there is a very slight height difference in the stitches based on which is stranded on top or on bottom. Even if you cant remember which is dominant, always have the colors in the same position so your colorwork looks crisp. But whichever color you wish to highlight is the dominant one. How you carry your colors affects how they appear in your knitting. Spread out your stitches. There is more than one way to work stranded colorwork with two colors held in one hand (left or right) the important thing to be aware of is that the Dominant Color consistently floats below the Background Color throughout a project regardless of your individual method for carrying the yarns. In stranded color knitting (often called Fair Isle knitting), two or more colors are used on each row. 9+ Colorful Patterns to Brighten Winter Knitting Favorite Brown Sheep Patterns of 2022 EVEN MORE Last-Minute Holiday Gifts 9 Felted Holiday Projects! We will always recommend swatching to ensure you are satisfied with the final outcome, but have fun playing with this technique! Any advice on how to determine which color is dominant? When knitting with two colors, the two yarns cant be in exactly the same place. Shipping calculated at checkout. When knitting with two colors, the two yarns can't be in exactly the same place. This is known as color dominance. This is the case no matter what method of stranded knitting you prefer, but typically the two working yarns are carried as follows: Two-handed stranded knitting: The dominant color is held in the left hand, while the background color is held in the right hand.