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Dealing with Color Dominance in Colorwork Knitting

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I will admit than when I am working with more than one color in a row or round, I don’t always pay a lot of attention to which yarn is dominant. I work colorwork holding one yarn in each hand, and while I know enough to keep holding the same color in each hand throughout a project, I can never remember which one is supposed to “pop” based on which hand you are working it with.

This great blog post on color dominance in knitting from Jessica McDonald Designs reassures me that I was probably doing it “right” (bearing in mind there’s not really a right or wrong in knitting, just what you like and what you don’t like) all along without paying much attention.

As she explains in much more details in the post, the yarn that’s to the left will be more dominant in the knit fabric, because the floats from the yarn on the right will push it forward as you knit.

Because I tend to be an English knitter (holding the yarn in my right hand) I naturally put the contrast yarn in my right hand when I knit.

If you don’t know how to knit holding one strand in each hand (or you’re working with more than two colors) Jessica explains how to work with yarns in different ways to ensure the contrasting color of your choice is more dominant.

It’s certainly not the end of the world if you knit a different way, but you might be surprised by how different a project can look just by working with the yarns configured a different way as in the swatch above. You can clearly see a difference between the top and bottom of the swatch, and all she did differently was a switch on which yarn she was holding in which hand.

Head to the blog post to learn more about color dominance, and have fun learning more about easy ways to change the look of your project.

[Photo: Jessica McDonald Designs.]

 

Comments

  2. Whichever one is farthest to the left will be most dominant, which would be the one at the bottom of the ring if the loops are on the same side, or the one on the left side of the finger if they are on both sides.

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Patchwork Blanket Knitting Patterns

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns. 

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn. 

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options. 

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners. 

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set. 

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn. 

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers. 

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.