Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. I share two methods: 1.) Needle material(e.g. Traditional Fair Isle (or stranded knitting) color knitting specifies no more than two colors per row and sequences of no more than six stitches of one color. Colorwork can be stressful worrying about having the right tension and this new method takes all of that away! If you've been wishing for a better way, this is it. Enjoy! Im off to knit all the yoked colorwork sweaters now! I get this question a lot, and its a tricky one to answer. In this example, the dominant yarn is the floating yarn, while the background yarn is the working yarn. Catching Floats - For Fair Isle or Stranded Knitting - YouTube 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. . If the pattern repeat for your sock issmallfor example, a four-stitch repeatyou can simply increasefour stitches after the cuff and work an additional repeat. Its a lot to read through, but I hope you find it helpful and please let me know if you still have questions about this topic by the end. It is fun to knit and easy once you get the hang of it. This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. We just dont get along. If theres one thing Ive learned from my students, its that knitters are all over the map as far as which method works best for them. How to double knit for beginners - Nimble Needles Most socks are knitted a tad smaller in circumferencethan the actual measurements of your calf and foot; theelasticity of the knitted fabric generally allows them to stretch. Longer stretches with more than one float tends to make the floats tight, but it's easy enough to pull a little. You can seein the photo abovethat Ive worked the first 5 stitches of my 21-stitch span. User account menu. Heres a trick I use for every round of stranded colorworkthat I knit on my socks: I flip the sock inside out, thenknit these rounds. Then move on to the section beside it. So what do I do? The last step is towet-blockyour socks. I tried holding one color on each hand, but my tension is awful that way. Im all about creativity. Archived post. Happy Monday, everyone! Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Please confirm you want to block this member. 4. One of the most common problems knitters encounter when starting to knit in stranded colorwork is tight knitting. The color changes in Fair Isle are close together. I have always loved the look of all those traditional colorwork sweaters but they can take so much time and worried that in the end all that effort would be wasted because of my tension. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Thoroughly soakyour socks in water, then roll them up in a towel to squeezeout any excess moisture. Unknown 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. Knitosophy Designs uses cookies on our site to improve your experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. I really love this scarf. 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. That said, it is important to remember to catch those floats overlong stretches of more than six stitches where a color isnt used(Photo 4 above). They should be about as wide as the stitches in the previous rounds. 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. My blue floating yarn is trapped on either side of the 6th stitch. For more information, please see our Knitting Colorwork Inside Out | Technique Tuesday - YouTube This helps increase the elasticity. This distinguishes it from other colorwork methods like mosaic knitting or intarsia. Marie has taught knitting courses at festivals, shops, and events around the world; her mix of best practices and renegade hacks, along with her charming personality, make her a highly sought-after instructor. Although you also dont want loose, wobblystitches, remember that even if some stitches look large when youfirst try it, youll be able to wear the socks. Intro to Stranded Colorwork // Technique Tuesday Tutorials Catching / Trapping Floats Invisibly. Try out some of these techniques in the evening with a glass of wine or whatever else relaxes you. Please confirm you want to block this member. Please note: Once you have gone over all the puckered fabric in this manner, repeat from the start - until the floats have stretched sufficiently. ), Heres the tutorial for you! Holding the main colour in my right hand (English) and the contrasting colour in my left hand (Continental). Now I'm making adult totoro mittens with a more complicated pattern. Thank you. The project that that strikes my fancy for todays post is from Vintage Modern Knits by Courtney Kelley and Kate Gagnon Osborn. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Go ahead and knit the next stitch normally. Cut off the excess yarn, leaving about a 1/2-inch tail. Have you knit with Nature Spun before? 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. The basics of colourwork knitting How to read a colourwork chart How to hold two yarns at the same time Floats and tension Joining a new colour Increases and decreases Yarn dominance Blocking Tangled yarns Weaving in ends Yarn choices in colourwork Choosing a colourwork palette The basics of colourwork knitting 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. Personally, I dont like this approach. Slide your right-hand needleunderneaththe floating strand (blue), then wrap the working yarn (charcoal) around your needle to knit the stitch. This article was originally published inSockupiedSpring 2014 andhas been updated. Knittersgenerally find that their gauge is tighter, with more stitches perinch, over stranded areas than plain stockinette stitch. I am starting my second color work project. Tryfollowing the pattern for the next size up, decreasing stitch countsfor the cuff and heel to fit. No need to trap floats there. Decreasethese four stitches at the ankle before working the heel. wood, metal, plastic) andneedle type(e.g. A baby sweater or a pair of mittens, however, will provide ample opportunity for fingers to catch on floats, so trapping those floats is a good idea. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Copyright2023Golden Peak Media. To help shorten the floats while maintaining good tension, tack these long floats to the wrong side of the work. With two hands, color work is both addictive and soothing. Use your best judgment and go with what youre comfortable with! It may take some trial and error to get the hang of it, but Ive seen this method yield results for several people. This will ensure that the unused yarn strandwill later relax against the back of the work. (Side note: its always better to have floats that are a little long than a little short you can always draw in the slack when youre weaving in ends, but you cant make a short float longer.). Thegreatest benefit of working this way is you cant inadvertently cutthe corner between needles. Its better to stagger the tension so you dont end up with one column of stitches pulling towards the inside of the project. Catching Floats in Stranded Knitting - YouTube These cookies do not store any personal information. Some knitters will have an easier time with smooth wools while others will have an easier time with sticky ones. Needle type and needle material. Now my tension is perfect every time! The color that isn't being worked is carried at the back, making a float, before being worked again. Tacking Long Floats. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. To do this, start by turning your sock insideout on the needles so that you can see the right side of the workinside on the needle farthest from you. The amount of elasticity you can achieve will also depend on how the yarn was spun and how many plies it has. To use Marie's words, it is a game changer! Ive made it pretty clear to the knitting world that when it comes to colorwork, floats and I are incompatible. Every knitter is different, so while some people knit tighter on wooden needles, others knit tighter on metal needles. Lisas List: 10 Reasons Knitting Is Better Than Dating, Spurned Gifts: When Knit & Crochet Gifts Went Wrong. Managing long floats in Fair Isle knitting | Interweave While cruising full-time on her sailboat throughout CentralAmerica and the Caribbean islands, TERRY MORRIS foundedthe Holiday Mystery Gifts Yahoo Group. 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. Ive found that this method of weaving in works best with worsted-weight and smaller yarns. A Free Bracelet Beading Pattern for Valentines Day. Theres a big difference between a knitted bag youll sew a lining into and a pair of mittens or socks. Problem is, my yarn gets tangled every time I twist my stitches to weave in the floats in the back so I don't have long lines of floating yarn for fingers to snag on. Picking Both Colours with One Hand. Enjoy! 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! Fortunately, there are tricks to create a moreelastic fabric and a successful sock fit. Float is a common term for the strand of yarn that runs across the back of colorwork fabric the strand that makes colorworkstranded. How to Measure Your Gauge in Knittingfrom Craftsy.com, Your email address will not be published. Cutting the corner pulls the floatshorter than the span of the stitches it should relax against on thebackside. Ive never knitted a scarf in the round; it forms a tube and when youre done knitting the main part of the scarf, you knit the front and back together with a version of the three-needle bind-off without actually doing the bind-off part. I am sort of figuring it out as I go but it is a little wonky. 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. These are just my preferred methods. First of all: choose the right pattern for learning to knit with two colors at a time. 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. How to Knitting: Colorwork Rescue - Yarn Vibes Instead of carrying the yarn used for the colorwork all the way around, when you get to the point where you switch back to the main color, just let it hang until you need to start using it again, the pull it loosely back to the beginning of the colorwork section. Lisas List: 10 Reasons Knitting Is Better Than Dating, Spurned Gifts: When Knit & Crochet Gifts Went Wrong. UFO to WIP: Can This Crochet or Knitting Project Be Saved? Don. Tips, Tricks and Treatsfrom Eunny Jang, On gauge: Catching Floats As You Go - YouTube Required fields are marked *. There are several different ways to manage carrying multiple yarns for colorwork knitting carryingboth yarns in the left hand, carryingboth in the right hand, holdingone yarn in each hand, carryingone yarn at a time, usingastranding guide, and the list goes on! Here are some things to consider: Smoother yarns are closer to the top of the list, while stickier wools are towards the bottom. Not to mention how much faster it seems to be and no fussing about trying to hold and knit with 2 yarns at the same time. This pulling can also really tighten your gauge and make garments too small. Some wools are grabby or sticky and some are much smoother (the method used to spin the yarn also affects this worsted spunyarns are much smoother thanwoolen spunyarns). This is due to the strands being carried across the back of the work (the floats) unlike knit stitches, these strands dont really stretch that much, so the stretch of the overall fabric youre creating is much less. Leave the color that is not on the hook hanging (keep it attached to ball of yarn or bobbin, don't cut) Fair Isle Knitting Tutorial for beginners - Nimble Needles WHAT I'M KNITTING:Sunset Highway Pullover by Caitlin Hunterhttps://www.ravelry.com/patterns/librWHAT YARN AM I USING?Asylum Fiber - \"House Coat\" (mauve)Woolen Boon - \"Truffle Shuffle\" (white)Machete Shoppe - \"Aqua Aura\" (teal) Yarn choice. 2.) You can read aboutcolor dominance here.). Knit.fm episode 5: Yarn[podcast] Weve got some handy tips on making this dream a reality. After knitting this stitch, I have 7 stitches of my 21-stitch span knit. You want to have the right side facing you at all times rather than messing with purling on the wrong side. It can be tricky tovisualize, but with the work turned inside out, youre working on the far side of the tube, rather than the near side. The Knitters Book of YarnandThe Knitters Book of Woolby Clara Parkes The charcoal grey isthe working yarnfor that length, while the light blue yarn is being carried across the back (the floating yarn). Like Alex I am interested in tidy float catching, working on a sock flat heel (stranded patterning a feature on it) ..so purling involved. Then you finish with 4 rows of garter stitch. Color Knitting: How to Lock Your Floats | Interweave I get this question a lot, and its a tricky one to answer. Whats the process for trapping non-dominant float? Stitches just knit spaced out along the right needle. Colorwork Sans Floats - Knitosophy Designs Catching Floats in Stranded Knitting Knitting with Suzanne Bryan 130K subscribers Subscribe 1.8K Share 181K views 9 years ago Stranded or Fair Isle Knitting There is an improved version of this. My first project was baby mittens with totoro on them. But, as crafters, we have, Knitting Instructions & AbbreviationsGuide to Subbing Brown Sheep Yarns in Knit & Crochet PatternsGuide to Weaving With Brown Sheep Yarns. [] used Dianna Wallas tutorials for dominant strands and trapping floats. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Because strandedcolorwork does not have the same stretch capacity as plain stockinetteknitting, you have a real problem. Enjoy! This method leaves floats, which are lengths of yarn carried across the back of the work that can be easily snagged. combatting tight colorwork - Paper Tiger This is more likely to keep them long, and it also keeps them visible, so you can constantly check your tension as youre working. Even if you get gauge for the stockinette portions of a sock pattern,you may have trouble maintaining it in colorwork areas. The reason for this is that the outer circumference of a tube is larger than the inner circumference perhaps not by much, but with the thickness of colorwork fabric, youd be surprised and turning your work inside out positions the floats on the outside of the tube (i.e. This tutorial will be all about the standard double knitting technique to created reversible colorwork. The colorwork pattern for the Ajio scarf calls for a 7-stitch float. If you havent tried more than one method, you may not have found your perfect match yet! How to knit colorwork - YouTube Strandless colorwork eliminates so many of the headaches that some knitters experience with traditional methods. But knitting colorwork can be a challenge. The long float pictured at the bottom of the swatch isnt trapped at all, so its floating across all twelve stitches. 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. Knit a few small swatches with different needle types/materials and see if it makes a difference for you! Colorwork and fairisle knitting offer a range of beautiful, unique patterns. Although these tricks may sound intimidating, strandedcolorwork isreally funto knitand the results are incrediblyrewarding. Let's talk about STRANDED COLORWORK | Knitting Q&A | PAPER TIGER Magic Loop Colorwork Knitting Help - Carrying Fair Isle Floats Skeindeer Knits Ep. 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). That being said, theres a great deal of variation in how stretchy colorwork fabric is from knitter to knitter. A new way to knit colorwork - without multiple strands! Three-Color Stranded Knitting - YouTube Easy Trick To Catch Long Floats - YouTube the larger circumference). This means picking up the float in the back of a stitch to hold it in place and keep some tension in the floating yarn so it doesnt pull too tight or loosen up. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Please feel free to share your methods below! I thought it would be a good idea to finally address this issue! Knit.fm episode 1: Gauge[podcast] A tightergauge means a tighter sockone that wont fit. click here to sign up for our newsletter & well send you a free PDF download of the Jeanette Hat & Scarf Pattern, Guide to Subbing Brown Sheep Yarns in Knit & Crochet Patterns. Knitting Colorwork and Color Dominance Theory explained 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. This is also part of why steeking is so common in these places - sticky wools are unlikely to unravel when the stitches are cut. 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!). 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. But even knitters whohave successfully used this technique for othergarments may find that their finished colorwork socks simplydont stretch enough to fit over their heels. We use cookies to optimize our website and our service. "Floats" are the yarn that's carried behind the stitches across a row. This is a very secure way to trap the float. Because of the physical nature of wool, wool fibers like to grab other wool fibers (this is what causes felting when wool is exposed to heat/agitation). *Membership cannot be purchased with Gift Cards or PayPal. This means you have to anchor the unused yarn by trapping it in between the needle and the working yarn on the backside so you don't end up with super long loops on the backside that my mess up your knitting. Crafty Confessions: Do You Make a Gauge Swatch? AboutPressCopyrightContact. Origins & Inspiration for Strandless Knitting, Part 1: Knit with Me - Step by Step Using the Strandless Method, Part 2: Knit with Me - Step by Step Using the Strandless Method, Part 3: Knit with Me - Step by Step Using the Strandless Method. All Rights Reserved. trapping long floats in stranded colorwork - Paper Tiger Back-knitting is just as easy with two strands of yarn as a single strand. The project is a scarf called the Ajiro Scarf. trapping long floats in stranded colorwork. What exactly is color work? The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user. We just don't 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. 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. 1. There is enough of the contrast grey []. 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. A float carried across five stitches in fingering weight is a much shorter float than one carried across five stitches in bulky yarn. Your email address will not be published. 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 create a float that is the right length, spread out the stitches on your right needle just before you change colors. For me, lifes too short to purl in colorwork! Omit them, of course! and our Get your copy of Vintage Modern Knits today and queue up your version of the Ajiro scarfor one of the other 25 designs in this fab booktoday! 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. My UPS gal surprised me again the other day with several new Interweave books full of wonderful, inventive projects. How often to catch floats when working colorwork comesdown to personal preference. Stranded colorwork gets its name from these strands of yarn, commonly called floats, that travel through the back of the work. And keep in mind thatmistakes are an important part of the process:we can learn from them. When you join a new ball of yarn, just weave it in for 1 1/2 to 2 inches using the tacking technique. Remember that there are no rules here and experimentation is key trying a new method often feels awkward at first, and your gauge may shift as you settle into it, but until youve given it a shot, how can you say it wont work? 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. I knit continental style, with two strand on left hand. You can see in the photo abovethat Ive worked the first 5 stitches of my 21-stitch span. 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. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Since different colors of yarn are used throughout thepatterned areas of socks (sometimes for only one round! 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. Go ahead and knit the next stitch normally. 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. It is an in-depth tutorial perfect for anyone who has no experience knitting colorwork and would like to learn how. Stretch your damp sock gently in severaldirections to even out stitches and floats. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. So what do I do? This always affects the knitted fabric youre creating, but it affects colorwork even more. Locking Floats - YouTube Catching Floats in Stranded Knitting Knitting with Suzanne Bryan Knitting Stranded Colorwork or Fair Isle Colorwork Continental! If you dont, its a good bet that youll pull the non-working yarn a little too tight, causing puckering problems. In reality, there are a few different methods, but Ill be demonstrating what I think is the most common below. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Carrying yarn. With two hands, color work is both addictive and soothing. Im trapping my float every 6th stitch as I work across the span of charcoal grey, but you could trap every 5th or 4th stitch as well. In this vid, I will demonstrate how to use TWO hands do two-colored knitting,. The duplicate-stitch weaving closely mimics the pathof the yarn and will stretch almost the same amount as the originalstitches. Focus on one section of the fabric at a time and knead it. A pattern like. "Float" is a common term for the strand of yarn that runs across the back of colorwork fabric - the strand that makes colorwork stranded. Simply pick up loose bars of yarn in the order they belong (according to your chart), and youll be back in business. Please note: 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. Strandless Colorwork We'll also talk about how to apply this method to all your colorwork projects. UFO to WIP: Can This Crochet or Knitting Project Be Saved? googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('interstitial-ad');}); Save patterns, share updates, and connect with your community. 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). stranded knitting without floats? : r/knitting - Reddit Now settled backin the mountains of Northern California, Terry enjoys thesocialization of knitting with friends once again. In order tokeep the tensionof your sock from getting too tight, you may want to considerletting your floats go a little longer without catching them thanyou normally would; catching floats too frequently can make thefabric less flexible. Now that weve covered when its a good idea to trap floats how do we actually do it? 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!).
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