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?

Classic Dishcloth Knitting Patterns

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.