Yarn Color Dominance in Stranded Knitting, Working Single Decreases with Knit Stitches, Continental Knitting Techniques for Mosaic Patterns. Michele points out that every knitter should work a little colorwork swatch to determine how the yarn should be arranged for the way that they knit. If you can look at a piece of colourwork you have done, with the knowledge you have now, and you can't see which colour is dominant or any difference between different sections then you're not making a mistake, you're just most likely always bringing the new colour in the same way which is a perfectly fine thing to do. I just knit a sweater English style using color dominance method - having learned about it for the first time after 40 years of knitting! Jean Keep the blue in your left every time you knit. IMHO stranded work should be done in the round. 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. Because Ive been going back-and-forth I really have no idea. 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. 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. If you're using a technique that has a dominant yarn then all you need to do to avoid switching them unintentionally is ensure you are stranding them in the same order - background colour under or background colour over. When you have several stitches worked in one colour, the unused strand floats across the back of the work. In this video, Michele Lee Bernstein demonstrates how yarn color dominance in stranded knitting works. 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. In such areas it is advisable to trap the other yarn (the 'floating' yarn) into the main fabric. There's a lot to be said about color dominance, but for these tips we'll just say - pick either the top or the bottom for one color and stick with it. And dont let yarns get tangled at all. How you carry your colors affects how they appear in your knitting. Carrying Two Yarns in Your Right Hand for Stranded Colorwork, https://pdxknitterati.com/2019/08/01/yarn-color-dominance-tutorial-and-soldotna-update/, 24/7 Access to Premium Knitting Videos, Projects, and Tips, Step-by-Step Instructional Demos, Patterns, and Tutorials, 50% Off Video Downloads Purchased in The Knitting Cirlce Shop, 2 Full-Length Video Downloads to Watch Offline, 3 Full-Length Video Downloads to Watch Offline, 5 Full-Length Knitting Classes to Keep for Life, Discounts on Purchase-to-Own Content in The Knitting Circle Shop. . Color Theory and Color Dominance Chapter 5. This is called color dominance and weve shared the basics on understanding and implementing this concept below! 9+ Colorful Patterns to Brighten Winter Knitting Favorite Brown Sheep Patterns of 2022 EVEN MORE Last-Minute Holiday Gifts 9 Felted Holiday Projects! Playing around with yarn dominance can make a big visual impact in your stranded color work. In any stranded colourwork you hold one colour so that its always coming from under the other colour when you switch yarns. Regardless of how you hold or tension your yarn (one hand, two hands, English, Continental, etc.) This allows you to carry the yarn you aren't knitting with across the back of the work as you go. The yarn held lower is dipping down a little before stranding across and then back up again to reach the stitch. Which you should use is simply personal preference. Talk about knitting and your creations. These types of decreases are typically used for shaping projects and are also commonly used in lace knitting. This particular stitch pattern gives you a visual ribbed look, but doesnt quite have the same elasticity as a traditional ribbed pattern, such as knit two, purl two (K2, P2) ribbing. I couldnt visualize this until I watched a couple of shortYouTube videos. Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. Here you can see the light grey floats are above (closer to the needle) and the purple floats are below (further from the needle). The two strands can also be held on the same finger, although they'll want to snug up right next to each other. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Unlock exclusive member content from our industry experts. Stranded Knitting: Post 8 - Adding New Colors and Finishing Old Colors (Video Episode 9) Brandon Knitting Designs. Here it is in action: Regardless of how a knitter holds their yarns when working stranded colorwork, the Dominant Color should always float below the Background Color. I agree with the general sentiment that you shouldn't be stressed over it, but I also wanted to be helpful, since it can help your color work pop more to think about dominance. Generally it is best to determine a "background" color and a "contrast" color, and make sure that the contrast color is made dominant by stranding it beneath the background color. It is on You Tube. it is hard to see it in your mind., For me a vidio . Livonia MI 48150 Stick the right needle tip into the next stitch to be worked. This is usually done by tensioning the yarn around the pinkie and ring fingers and holding the one strand over the index finger and one over the middle, as in this video. Hi Carol. When working color work, one color will always be the dominate color which will "pop" out of the fabric, while the other color will seem to recede. Ill try again soon. And I do like how the one color dominates the other. Yardage used: Approximately 115 yds per color I hope that helps! Here is what our expert had to say: We dont currently have a video for that on our website, but Ive added it to our list for the future. I just love this Reddit channel, I learn so much. If you willy-nilly switch which one is where, your stranding will show differences. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Pick a knitting method There are three main ways to knit in the stranded style. I find the way I do colorwork (continental holding both yarns on the same finger with a special ring) that the yarn on the left makes larger stitches than the yarn on the right. I know this has happened several times when I loom knit. It is perfectly 100% okay to not have a dominant colour and not all stranded colourwork has a dominant colour - there are some methods and techniques where genuinely, colour dominance is not a thing. 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. 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. An age-old craft, weaving has recently experienced a comeback in popularity. Here are a few colorwork techniques that you can use to take your crocheting to the next level: Stripes: Stripes Crochet is more than just a hobby; it is a form of relaxation and stress relief. For the prominent color, the strand is lower, meaning that a little more yarn goes into the stitch, making it slightly taller and more prominent. In this example my dominant color is red, and the second . When working stranded colorwork with two or more colors, one color will always be more prominent on the right side of your work (the Dominant Color) while the other recedes to the background (the Background Color). There isnt yarn dominance unless your tension is different. On this piece, Ive chosen pink to be my dominant color in the lower section of vertical stripes, and gray to be my dominant color in the upper section of vertical stripes. the now-stranded investigators are unsure whether they can trust their own eyes, their instincts, one anotheror even themselves." . All blog comments are checked prior to publishing. Keep in mind that everyone knits differently and you might find that youre comfortable somewhere in between! She once again discusses color dominance, as each section of the vertical columns was worked with a different color as the dominant, or prominent, color. 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. I would like to see a video on how to work with 3 or more strands of yarn for Stranded Colorwork (Fair Isle). The Knitting Circle Video Membership, Hi Carol, Save BIG on yarns while supplies last! The workshop will include visuals, a demonstration & opportunities for questions. I was shocked by how different the two swatches were. The one on the right is a bit distorted at the edges because the swatch was so tiny. 6. How does ease affect inclusive size ranges? I always set my dominant/pattern color yarn down on my left side and the non-dominant/background color one on my right. KnittingHelp: Stranded color knitting - this video shows holding both strands in your left hand, both in your right, and one strand in each hand; . This email address is already registered. In this case it also allows two very different palettes to be given for the same pattern. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Unlock exclusive member content from our industry experts. The coloured columns then show which colour is to be used for the pattern and which for the background on each row sometimes the same colour will be a background colour on one row and a pattern colour on a later row. . Once youve learned cable knitting basics, youll be ready to knit all sorts of. Three (or More) Colors Per Round Almost always, stranded knitting is worked with two colors per round, but sometimes you'll encounter a pattern with three or even four colors in a round. Hence dominant colour it makes the pattern pop more against the background. One you understand, its a very simple method. Here's how I wrap my background color when I'm working with the dominant color. But I encourage you to embrace the challenge and give it a try! AtomicAthena 8 yr. ago The biggest challenge with two-handed colourwork is getting even tension between the two hands. Codi Get special offers and store updates tailored just for you based on your favorites! Learn brioche with the free Daniel's Hat pattern, Working the brioche neck detail on the Polwarth sweater, 3 Easy Stretchy Bind-offs(p2tog bind-off; k2togtbl, k1 bind-off; Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind-off), How to Knit in the round using Magic Loop, Tighter purl stitches for neater cables and ribbing, Joining the body and sleeves on a seamless bottom up sweater, How to pick a garment without a model for you(specifically addresses finding garment patternswhen your gender identity isn't represented and the styles you want to knit might not be sized to fit your body). If Crochet is an art, colorwork is the masterpiece! What do you mean? I have to try out a couple of methods of handling the third colour - knitting all three at once, or doing two colours and slipping stitches then making a . Yarn bowls and project bags can be handy for this - just use two instead of one! EG you don't want to switch the two colors back and forth in your left/right hands when you put down and pick up your work. Trad Fair Isle uses only two colors in any given row. Color dominance is kind of devisive--some people believe that color dominance is a requirement for stranded colorwork, some people think going for color dominance is wrong, so you can kind of do whatever you want. bottom of page . Youve probably heard about keeping your tension even so the stitches dont pucker, but did you realize that the way you position the yarn along the wrong side of your fabric can affect the look of your stitches? To go along with our new Colourwork Club accessory patterns, weve put together a series of blog posts to walk you through your first stranded colourwork project, along with tips and tricks perfect for all levels of experience.