Best resources for colorwork knitting?

November 19, 2019 1:12 PM

I am usually a pretty adventurous knitter, and my next project will be a round yoke sweater with colorwork. I have never done any stranded knitting before, and there are several rounds with three colors.

Do you have any favorite resources for colorwork, particularly three-stranded colorwork? There are a ton of Youtube videos about colorwork, but many fewer resources for knitting with three colors. Resources for things like catching floats, etc., are welcome.

If you have any general tips, I am also happy to hear them, too. Oh, and the pattern is Birkin by Caitlin Hunter. On mobile and it won’t let me hyperlink.

posted by baptismal to Media & Arts (13 answers total)

So pretty! I don't think you need to worry about catching floats with that pattern, it doesn't look like anything is going to be left hanging for too many stitches. Just watch your tension and have fun!

Oh, and one more thing! If you want an interesting thing to read up on before you start, I've done a bunch of stranded colorwork projects but it was only recently that I heard of the concept of color dominance, and it has definitely improved my colorwork!
posted by cakelite at 1:17 PM on November 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

I am an experienced knitter and have done stranded colorwork for many years but I recently knit with three strands (either for the first time in a long time or the first time ever) and it came out WAY too tight, so be careful and very aware of your tension when you are knitting with three colors - it can end up significantly tighter than two.

I don't worry too much about catching floats on a pattern like that, especially if the yarn is at all feltable - they will tend to stick where they need to be once you give the garment a wash/block.
posted by mskyle at 1:25 PM on November 19, 2019

From Fox and Geese and Fences I learned to carry one color on each hand. I had to practice knitting "American" for a while as my grandmother taught me continental but using both is as fast as single color knitting. I just recently learned about color dominance so once you decide which hand has the pattern color you should stick to that.
posted by Botanizer at 1:43 PM on November 19, 2019

I just heard about the Ladderback Jacquard technique, and intend to use it next time I do stranded colorwork. It creates columns of knit stitches in your floats on the wrong side, making your piece much stretchier. :)
posted by homodachi at 1:50 PM on November 19, 2019 [3 favorites]

You can generally count on felting to handle the floats, as mskyle says, if the yarn will felt even a little. Practice the three color technique on a smaller item on a circular needle. I would go with a three color cowl. consider getting a finger guide (available on amazon, knit picks, and probably your local yarn store) they're not expensive and might bump a purchase into free shipping territory.

I'm sure you've explored the possibility of just doing a two color sweater and are so in love with the multi that you can't bear to use fewer colors. So I won't suggest that route.

Here are two links with pictures of this sweater. On the Mason Dixon Blog has bigger pictures and here it is on ravelry where you can click to embiggen, find buying details for the pattern and, if you are a member of ravelry, you can click projects and see many color variations. This pattern writer is currently running a sale where if you buy three of their self published patterns you will get a fourth, less expensive pattern, for free. Just put all four in your cart, no code needed.
posted by bilabial at 1:52 PM on November 19, 2019

General tip is to keep the floats a little looser than you think they should be. I ruined the first big piece of stranding I did by having the floats so tight they puckered the fabric.
posted by LizardBreath at 2:09 PM on November 19, 2019

My general tip would be to try making a hat-sized swatch. You can play with techniques in a low-risk way to figure out what you’ll want to do consistently on the sweater, and you’ll get a hat out of it in the end.
posted by tchemgrrl at 4:05 PM on November 19, 2019

If you can knit continental and English style, you can hold two strands with your left and one with your right, which results in less tangles.

I would do a swatch/practise with a few repeats of the chart (make a tube). I've had some luck getting better tension by flipping it inside out, so you're knitting on the far side of the circle. This means that the floats get stretched around the outside of the tube.
posted by kjs4 at 4:23 PM on November 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

I used to teach colourwork knitting. I second all of the advice above, and would add: block your swatch! Tension wonkiness in stranded knitting can even out a lot more than on single-colour knits.

And since the pattern seems to indicate a different needle size for the colourwork portion, you’ll need to also swatch the plain part, and adjust the two needle sizes independently.

Have fun, this is a really pretty pattern!
posted by third word on a random page at 5:46 PM on November 19, 2019

Response by poster: Thanks everyone! Lots of good answers so won't mark one as best. I bought the pattern and yarn today, following the colors in this project I found. The yarn is Loft from Brooklyn Tweed, which I think is woolen spun and kind of felt-y? I notice that there two rounds with three colors in the 12 stitch repeat that have one of the colors for only one stitch. Will I have to catch the floats for that color?
posted by baptismal at 6:05 PM on November 19, 2019

Another trick is to knit with the floats to the outside of your project - working inside out gives you a natural extra bit of length in your floats. It feels a bit awkward at first with the bulk of your project between you and your needles, but you get used to it.
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 8:08 PM on November 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

I notice that there two rounds with three colors in the 12 stitch repeat that have one of the colors for only one stitch.

I looked at some of the projects on Ravelry for this, and some suggested Swiss darning for the spots where there’s minimal use of the third color (if you haven’t done it, it just means embroidering by following the path of the wool with your needle. So for one stitch you’d come out at the base of the v, behind the legs of the stitch above, and then back in where the needle came out. It’s very easy, and you end with a stitch that looks as though it had been knitted in the color you’re embroidering with.)

That might be easier than carrying a third color all the way around for just a few stitches.
posted by LizardBreath at 4:22 AM on November 20, 2019

Another word for Swiss Darning is "Duplicate Stitch"; a prolific colorwork knitter suggested it to me on the 3-color sections of a pattern to improve stretchability.
posted by homodachi at 2:10 PM on November 20, 2019