Stranded colourwork is a knitting technique that means you can use two or more colours. You do this by carrying the colour you’re not using across the back of the work. It’s a lot easier than it looks/sounds so don’t be afraid of a colour work pattern because they can be SUPER FUN!
Essentially all you’re doing is swapping which colours you use (according to your pattern/grid.)
Main Points (all shown in the video):
-Your yarn may get twisted which is a bit annoying but simply untwist it as you go and you shouldn’t get in a mess.
-Bring your second colour in UNDERNEATH the first colour so that when you switch yarn colours it always comes underneath and kind of twists round.
-Keep your tension ‘normal’, you want your floats (the strands of yarn at the back) to sit at the right tension. So don’t pull too tight (which will pucker your knitting) or leave it too loose (which will leave gaps) my top tip for this is to keep spreading your stitched evenly and naturally across the needles, you don’t want to stretch or cram them on you just want them to sit at their natural gauge. This will help you carry the floats over at the right length (This sounds more complicated than it is…I’ve shown it in the video where it’s way more simple than it sounds.)
-On the grid, each square represents a stitch and which colour it should be in. you read a grid from bottom up so row 1 is at the bottom. Then you read Knit (right side) rows from right to left and snake back so Purl (wrong side) rows are read left to right.
-I recommend carrying your yarn over if you have more that 3 stitches in one colour. So, if you’re knitting 6 stitches in Col A, on the 3rd/4th stitch, twist Col A yarn around Col B yarn then carry on knitting in Col A so it picks up B and holds it close to the back of your work. This will help to avoid having long loopy strand as well as keep your tension more precise. (again, shown in the vid)
As you may have gathered – It’s all shown on the video which should make it easier. On the right is the ‘HUN’ grind in case you want to practice – you could even add it to a project. Happy Colourwork Hun! x
