A Super Clever Way to Deal with Long Floats in Colorwork Knitting

November 16, 2016 by Sarah White

I love doing colorwork — especially stranded knitting — on cold-weather items because the floats on the back of the work add an extra layer of insulation, which I always seem to need.

But one problem with stranded colorwork is the fact that your floats on the back need to be kept relatively short (the rule that is usually quoted is no longer than five stitches between color changes, but there is some wiggle room) so as not to distort the fabric or provide lots of opportunities for catching fingers on floats as you try to put a garment on.

I typically deal with longer than normal floats by twisting the working yarn and the floating yarn together, which does tack it in but also makes a twist in the yarns, which get tangled and messy pretty quickly.

I haven’t tried it yet but I’m really intrigued by this method for dealing with long floats described by TECHKnitting, what she calls the STUART method.

STUART stands for slip, then unhook and rehook twice, which doesn’t sound like anything logical, but I promise it is. 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.

It sounds like a simple and really effective way to deal with long floats, and I will definitely be trying it out the next time I have some to deal with. What do you think?

[Photo via TECHKnitting.]

Comments

Dot says
November 16, 2016 at 10:22 pm
TECHKnitting’s method sounds interesting. (All her blog posts are interesting!)
It’s a bit different from “invisible stranding”, also called “ladderback jacquard”. Invisible stranding is a variation of double knitting. I’m currently learning invisible stranding while knitting Christmas stockings for my daughter’s kittens. I like it better than twisting the strands together, but it takes planning ahead.

Have you read?

Knit a Classic Aran Cardigan with this Free Knitting Pattern

Not too long ago I did a test knit for another designer that was for a cabled cardigan. It’s really cozy and nice but it just about broke me in a ton of different ways. I couldn’t get gauge, which I suppose is my own problem, but mainly I was somehow both bored and forced to pay attention at the same time.

Because it used the same cable all over, I always had to know what row I was on, but nine out of ten of those rows, nothing in particular was going on. So I couldn’t stop paying attention, but what I needed to attend to was boring.

It may have ruined me for knitting cabled sweaters, but maybe I just need something that’s more engaging. Like this Modern Aran Cardigan pattern from Lion Brand Yarn.

This is a reworking of an old pattern from their archives, and you can tell that form the classic look of the cables and the oversized feel (nothing cropped about this one!). It has allover cables, but like a classic Aran sweater it’s not the same cable, so you’ll have to pay attention to what row you’re on and what cable turns happen for which cables on that row.

Because of this, it’s considered an intermediate knitting pattern, but if you’re comfortable working from multiple charts at once it shouldn’t be a problem for you. There are three different charts and seven different cable moves.

Also because the pattern is so big and boxy there are only two sizes available, with a finished chest measurement of either 49 or 63 inches (that’s 124.5 or 160 cm). It’s up to you to decide how much ease you would like and whether that will work for your body.

The pattern uses worsted weight yarn (and calls for another classic, Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool). It calls for six buttons and includes pockets to make it extra cozy.

This one looks like a great winter project to make and to wear if you’re up for a bit of a challenge. You can grab the free pattern or buy a kit with the yarn needed direct from Lion Brand Yarn.

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]