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?

Beyond Basic Pumpkin Knitting Patterns

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork.

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn.

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look.

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me.

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round.

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.