how to hold yarn for stranded knitting

1215 stitches. What you are trying to do here is to trap the stranded yarn between the back of the project and the working yarn. But how do I hold two yarns when knitting colourwork? DK weight yarn. *Seriously, stranded knitting will be much, much faster, and less angsty (the yarns wont twist and tangle together), if you learn to hold both yarns at once as described above. The yarn should come over top of the index finger towards the knitting. As long as we make sure to hold all strands to the front of the work, you can continue carrying your unused yarn along the wrong side and forming floats as usual! Scroll to just past the first set of photos and click Get the instructions for Aarne the owl mittens from here to access the pattern. The wrong side of a swatch knitted using the Fair Isle knitting technique. B. Supplies: Yarn: Model is done in 3 colors of Ewe Ewe Wooly Worsted. Puckers and pulls are the scourge of colourwork knitting. Hold one strand (or more) strand in each hand. A. I use stranded knitting for the hats I make. The bigger the project, the more weight, the more stretchyou get the idea. Loop both strands over your non-dominant index finger. Getting In a Tangle. We modernized the sizing and used our new buttery cotton yarn, Pima Soft, making it a perfect tee for summer. Swatch of easy-to-knit mock houndstooth pattern. Stranded knitting is often worked by holding one color in each hand. Choose colors with high contrast. Colourwork yarns can be doubled. 1. Easy throw knit mostly in stockinette with garter stitch pockets to hold books, knitting patterns, remotes, and more. The book shows you how to hold your needles and yarn properly, how to gracefully handle the yarn and how to switch colors, carrying the unused yarn across the back I have created a video on stranded knitting to show how I hold the yarn and switch colours. She discusses how to hold 2 colors of yarn simultaneously, and how to catch floats for both right and wrong side rows. 711 stitches. Of course, always swatch first before subbing a triple-stranded yarn in a pattern, to check your gauge and make sure you like the fabric youre getting, but you can just hold a yarn triple stranded and twist it a bit to get an approximation of your new yarn weight. See more on hook sizes for multi-strand crochet below. Put the end of this strand on your left index finger, then use the rest of your left fingers to secure it in place. The technical reason for this is that the stitches in the yarn carried below are ever so slightly bigger not noticeable to the naked eye individually, but the cumulative effect can be quite striking! Betsy never had patience for knitting, until she found herself spending a lot of time at little league games and waiting for the last kid to emerge from the locker room after swim practice. Beginner Stranded Knitting Terms. When it comes time to change colors, switch to blue following the instructions above and knit your first row. Wrap the When working stranded knitting, always carry your main colour below and your contrast colour above. Thank you! This makes it easier to separate the two. The yarn held to the left will produce a slightly larger stitch than the yarn held to the right; this will ensure the stitches are consistent in size and make the non-dominant colour pop. 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. We may also discuss history, style, design and applications of this technique. Then, when youre ready to join in the round, slip this extra stitch to the left needle. ), pull the needle through the resulting loop, then pull it into a knot. Then lay the yarn being held with your left hand across the top of the right needle tip, so that it lays between the needles. Continental vs. English Knitting . Puckers and pulls occur when one of two things happen: 1. The color not being used is car ried behind the work until it is needed. This will ensure your knitted fabric remains stretchy, smooth and its intended width. 1 strand of fingering and one strand of sport weight makes 1 strand of worsted. Get your bearings before you go gung ho with a thin yarn and tiny needles. With her background in graphic design, stranded colorwork has a natural appeal. When you get to the second row with your new color, its time to carry the pink yarn up. Catching your floats, or trapping your floats, is another skill separate from managing four balls of yarn. Main color: 90 yds Contrasting Color: 70 yds Bring the yarn towards you under the pinky finger and across the top of the next three fingers. Knit an afghan or a baby blanket. Read a written knitting pattern. You can use 2 or 3 colors. Knitting ColorworkThere are several ways to knit colorwork and many special names they are known as. The term "stranded knitting" comes from the loose strand, or float, of unused yarn that is carried across the back of the work. Holding the Yarn and Needles English Style Holding the yarn in your right hand, pass it between the third finger and the pinky. Nothing wrong with that, but it would slow you down a bit. When knitting with a yarn in each hand, the left hand should hold the pattern color (carried under) and the right hand should hold the background color (carried over). The strands of yarn twist together as you work, which means you have to stop every so often and untangle them. In other words, youll knit every stitch you knit in the previous row and slip every yarn over (remembering to hold the yarn in the front.) Take your darning needle, thread it with the bit of yarn left over, pass the needle under the bar of a stitch close by (that's the same color and on the backside! 6 stitches or less. In general, from standard yarn sources (e.g., Quince and Co, Lion Brand or Cascade Yarns, in general I find the following is true: 2 strands of thread weight = Lace weight to fingering. 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. In this single 2 hour class you will learn how to change colors, hold the yarn and read a stranded knitting color chart. It can be a tricky and intimidating process, but Lori Ihnen walks you through, step-by-step, in First Time Stranded Knitting. Stick the right needle tip into the next stitch to be worked. How I hold my yarn for stranded knitting I knit continental, holding both strands of yarn in my left hand and pick the yarn with my right needle tip. Try to ensure that the previously worked stitches are stretched out nicely on the needle before you work the first stitch in the next color. Try holding one yarn in each hand. You can do that twice and it should hold perfectly fine. Arm warmers knit with 1 strand of wool and 1 strand of mohair together. Winding the yarn around your fingers creates the tension that is necessary for producing even knitting. Hold both yarns in one hand, or hold one yarn in one hand and the other yarn in the other hand. Im normally a Continental knitter, so I hold my yarns in the left hand. This will also affect your project when it comes to laundering. Knitting ColorworkThere are several ways to knit colorwork and many special names they are known as. Rip back and try again. There is a different way to catch each of these yarns. Color or yarn dominance is an effect of the structure of stranded colorwork fabric and not an uneven tension problem. Knit a sweater with long sleeves or a baby set of sweater, bonnet, and booties. 1) Hold both yarns in your dominant hand, placing one over the index finger and the other over the middle finger; Continental knitters (left) will simply pick the color they need as they work, whereas English/American knitters (right) will throw the required color for each stitch. Carry the yarn. With one yarn held in each hand: Its worth trying all three methods and seeing which suits you. If youre working 2-handed, the dominant color is held in the left hand. Knit and purl in the same row. 011 their own using different yarns, a different pillow size or a varia tion of the pattern. floats are the unused color that is held in the back of the work. Holding it in the right is called American (or English) knitting. 2. In this single 2 hour class you will learn how to change colors, hold the yarn and read a stranded knitting color chart. Use traditional Shetland island motifs to create delicate, shimmering patterns. See my two-handed stranding tutorial for the method I use. I found a great explanation in an Interweave article, Understanding Yarn Dominance. Get the free knitting pattern; Lapghan With Pockets. Use thinner yarns for these projects to compensate for the thickness of the "floating" yarn. If you prefer Continental Knitting, you can check out Voolenvine Yarns Tutorial: Continental Stranded Knitting; Be mindful of color dominance. These days, the term is loosely used for all types of stranded colorwork using two or more colors at the same time (you might also hear the terms nordic stranded colorwork or jacquard). Hold the Yarn the Same Way Throughout the Project. Cotton has no elasticity or memory. Learn how to add stranded color work to your knitting with this knitting tutorial. Work Fair Isle and Stranded knitting; Hold two yarn colors at once; Catch yarn "floats" Work in rows; What youll get: 1 HD video lesson you can access online anytime, anywhere; Detailed supply list; Step-by-step instruction by expert instructor Edie Eckman; The ability to leave comments, ask questions and interact with other students Here are seven quick tips that will immediately improve the look of your color work. Knitters usually hold the background color with the right hand and the additional color with the left hand. 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. Supplies: Yarn: Model is done in 3 colors of Ewe Ewe Wooly Worsted. Always strand yarns loosely at the back of your work. Don't get discouraged, these happen to almost everyone who is learning how to knit colourwork! Method 1. Wind the yarn over the third finger, under the second finger and over the index finger. Size Lap Blanket 35" x 44". If you only feel comfortable as either a picker (Continental knitter) or a thrower (English knitter), then you may want to hold both strands of yarn in the same hand. A cloth that is worked in only one color is typically more open in appearance than stranded colorwork. In stranded knitting, one yarn will appear slightly more dominant than the other. Three ways to hold yarn for stranded colourwork - Ysolda Ltd There is more than one way to hold yarn when you employ color stranding. What is most important is that you be consistent in yarn dominance throughout the project. 1. If you have uneven tension in your knitting, that would be a problem but its not the reason for the bigger dominant stitches. Yesterdays swatch with the 2-color tweed got me thinking, and I tried a variety of times to get a houndstooth look using the same easy slip stitch 2-color knitting technique I demonstrated yesterday. colorwork charts looks like cross stitch patterns with tiny rectangles to indicate which color is used. With left palm facing down, wrap the yarn coming from the knitting away from you across the back of the left hand. We may also discuss history, style, design and applications of this technique. One common method of holding your yarn while stranded knitting is to loop the strands over 2. You do not need to wrap your hand exactly the way I do, but it is important that however you wrap the yarn, it keeps a firm tension on the working yarn while allowing it to slide smoothly over the hand. Knit a pair of argyle or patterned socks, gloves, or some other article, using four needles and yarn bobbins. Quite simply, every time you flip your work, the balls of yarn need to move too, or they can tangle. Color dominance in stranded knitting. Date completed _____ One of the most useful tricks with Continental knitting is using it when working stranded colourwork. However, this can make it difficult to keep the stranding consistent. Prerequisites: You must be able to do all of these without assistance : Cast on. 4. Knitting, Advanced. You can use 2 or 3 colors. I hold the dominant color over my index finger, closest to my project, and the other color over both my index and middle finger. 3. Main color: 90 yds Contrasting Color: 70 yds See the photo tutorial below for how to hold your yarn in Continental-Style knitting. ravelry Knitting needles, sizes 4 / 3.5 mm and 6 / 4 mm or size to obtain gauge 2 stitch holders Waste yarn to hold stitches. Normally, when working this style of patterning, commonly known as fair isle, you hold both yarns in your right hand and switch between using them as the colour pattern dictates. One-handed yarn management makes it easier to keep the tension even, and picking the yarn makes it easier to keep the two yarns separate. *Seriously, stranded knitting will be much, much faster, and less angsty (the yarns wont twist and tangle together), if you learn to hold both yarns at once as described above. Holding the Yarn. Join us at The Loopy Ewe as local knitwear designer legend Debbie O'Neill teaches stranded colorwork and hat design! The dominant color will be closer to the knitting and will end up underneath the second color when I pick my yarn. This is how I hold my yarn for stranded knitting with two colors. In this example my dominant color is red, and the second color blue. This could affect your ability to maintain an even knitting tension or cause hand strain. 1) Holding the yarn. GAUGE 22 sts and 29 rows = 4 / 10 cm in St st on larger needles. About 25 x 38 in. right side the right side of the work, the part you see in the front. Super Bulky weight yarn. Not to mention the practicality of an extra layer of warmth. I like to knit stranded colourwork holding one yarn in each hand. It is a subtle difference, but can make a significant visual impact in larger projects. Repeat all the way across. Working stranded knitting in the round from the wrong side. This may sound a bit crazy, but it works! Working a garment inside out has a great impact on smaller items as mittens and socks. To do this, you may need to learn to knit (and maybe purl) in a new way. The yarn held to the left will produce a slightly larger stitch than the yarn held to the right; this will ensure the stitches are consistent in size and make the non-dominant color pop. The problem with working with two yarns together is that they can get really tangled up together because they twist as you knit. Designed by Kalliopi Aronis. See my two-handed stranding tutorial for the method I use. By catching so-called floats every 3-5 stitches, a color can be carried across a theoretically unlimited number of stitches. Continental knitting holds the yarn in the left hand. (63.5 x 96.5 cm) Designed by Lion Brand. You should use the cast on for double knitting technique of your choice, and begin by creating an even number of stitches.You will need to flip over your work, take up both strands of yarn, and place them behind the job you are now doing.Knit the first stitch as you would normally, but use color A exclusively. This helpful guide for how to hold yarn for stranded colorwork that Ashley Little from The Feisty Redhead shared on Craftsy has tips and techniques to fit your knitting style. If you set down your knitting, then later pick it up again, remember the correct positioning when setting up the strands around your fingers. This technique Easy Way to Knit Fair Isle and Other Lets learn how it works! 3. This is a demonstration of a variety of techniques for holding two yarns when working stranded knitting. I suggest a DK weight or thicker to start stranding. Quick trick: take a black and white snapshot of your yarns together to see how well they contrast. The term stranded knitting comes from the loose strand, or float, of unused yarn that is carried across the back of the work. Its important that the floats are just the right length. On the other hand, the floats shouldn't be so loose that you're likely to snag body parts on them when you try to wear the garment you're knitting (it's also just a waste of yarn). 2 strands of lace weight = fingering to sock to sport weight. Homework: You will need to cast on 90 sts in your main color and, in the round, work 6 Hold your left index finger close to the needle to reduce strain on your hands. It is also good to know how to combine yarn for an emergency (such as adding a stripe when youre running out of yarn) or something simple (such as a remnant striped scarf): 2 strands of fingering make one strand of DK. Despite ordinarily being a thrower, and preferring the two-handed method for stranded knitting, I have found that I produce best results in double knitting from holding the yarns in one hand for picking. Hat: US 6 & 8 - 16 inch circular needle, US 8 DPNs for the top of the hat. These are called floats. 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. If you arent sure how tightly you work your Fair Isle check your tension before you begin a new project, as this will The main difference between the two methods is that with English knitting you hold the yarn in your right hand and "throw" it over the needle. Where yarn traps are stacked in one stitch column or neighbouring stitch columns the yarn peeps are emphasised. Where yarn traps are stacked in one stitch column or neighbouring stitch columns the yarn peeps are emphasised. There are two main ways to hold your yarn while knitting, but with practice, both styles can be done quickly and produce the same results. Your floats (the yarn you hold behind the work that you aren't currently knitting with) are too tight. Stranding is a technique that involves knitting with two or more colors of yarn within a single row. This is known as color dominance. 3 Hold #3. SHARE Categories Basics Tags The color that is the drawing is the dominant color and should always be held in the leftmost position. Bind off. To make this pattern you need a multiple of three stitches, plus 2 for symmetrical edges. But probably the most loved way to mix colours is stranded knitting, especially Fair Isle. For more information, please This is an historic book because it marks the very first time that instructions for stranded knitting with steeks appeared in print. The red/pink row I swap colours either every stitch or every 2 stitches (e.g 2 row red, row of pink/red alternating then 2 row of red). With both yarns in the right hand, British style: 2. Have the Knitting Honor. If youre used to holding your yarn in your right hand (a method known as English or throwing), you will learn to hold the yarn in your left hand (Continental or picking), and vice versa. The only trick here is that youll have to get used to purling with two strands, just like you had to When knitting with a yarn in each hand, the left hand should hold the pattern color (carried under) and the right hand should hold the background color (carried over). 2 strands of worsted make 1 strand of chunky. Stranded knitting uses two or more colors to create stitches. 2. 3. 16.05.2022 greenbich Patterns. Holding your working yarn in the left hand is called Continental (or European) knitting, and requires less hand movement. Holding the yarn in your left hand is called continental style, or "picking". This method is faster, and many beginner knitters who already know how to crochet and are used to holding the yarn in their left hands find this method easiest. If playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device. In continental knitting, you hold the yarn in your left hand and "pick" it as you form stitches. For example, if you have a lot of odds and ends in sock weight but want to knit a colourwork yoke sweater in worsted or aran weight, you can hold the sock-weight yarns doubled to get a similar weight. Switch colors. Make sure one of your colors is relatively light/bright and one is relatively dark so that the pattern will show up. 2. This method is fast and easy on the hand. You can hold yarns doubled in colourwork to get a suitable weight. Sometimes I do the row 1 stitch of each colour and sometimes 2 stitches of each colour. It is a subtle difference, but can make a significant visual impact in larger projects. Abbreviations often used in colorwork knitting patterns: MC: main color. 1. If you are new to stranded knitting, you can watch the following video where I demonstrate how I hold the yarn and switch colors: The bulkier the yarn, the heavier your project. There are different schools of thought in colorwork. What is most important is that you be consistent in yarn dominance throughout the project. It will help keep ball 1 and 2 or ball 3 and 4 from tangling, but not prevent tangling of ball 1 and 2 with 3 and 4 as you turn your work. There are three main ways to knit in the stranded style. ABOUT STRANDED KNITTING Stranded or jacquard knitting is a colorwork technique where rwo colors are used in one row.