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How to Hold Yarn When Stranded Knitting

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how to hold yarn for stranded knittingStranded knitting, or Fair Isle knitting, is a fun way to get more color into your knitting projects. But I know it can be a little intimidating to figure out how to deal with the yarn.

Because you have to work with two different colors on each row or round, yarn management is different from when you only have one strand of yarn to deal with.

You might be tempted just to knit with the first color, drop it, pick up the next color yarn, work with it until you need to change colors, drop it, pick up the other yarn and so on.

But as long as it took me to describe that, it takes even longer to do.

There are other options:

  • hold both yarns at the same time in your right hand
  • hold both yarns at the same time in your left hand
  • hold one yarn in your right hand and one in your left hand

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV7ksRfUoek&w=600&h=480]

This video gives you a run down of all the options. I hope you’ll try them and figure out which one works best for you.

How do you hold the yarn when you do stranded knitting? I’d love to hear about it!

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Comments

  1. I am self taught, and I do it the clunky put-it-down-pick-it-up way. I will give the video a view and see if I can wrap my head around another way to manage the yarn. Perhaps I could get over my dread of multi color work that way!

  2. Oh I hope you do try! It’s really awkward in the beginning but with a little practice you can probably find a method that works better for you.

  3. I’m the same way as Amy, above — I was self-taught when it comes to Fair-Isle, and I still drop one yarn and pick up another. I’ve tried holding both yarns in my right hand, which doesn’t seem to stick. But I’m taking a look through the video right now, and maybe I’ll see something that does stick!

    Thank you for posting this! It’s very timely for me, since I’m working on a huge colourwork project. 🙂

  5. It seems to be, actually. I’ve found that provided I’m paying attention, I can tension both yarns in my Right Hand, one around the index finger and one around the middle finger, and the video gives me a good idea of how to work with the yarns that way, which was my previous stumbling block.

    The problem, is, then I start knitting with muscle memory, stop paying attention, and end up dropping the yarns again!

    I’ve seen knitting thimbles to hold yarns for colourwork. I might give one of those a try. 🙂

Have you read?

Knit a Glasses Holder for Your Bedside Table

knit glasses holder

Not too long ago I was seeing a crochet pattern for a glasses holder shaped like a bear all over the Internet. It was super cute, and also useful as a place to put your glasses on your bedside table instead of just throwing them somewhere random.

This project stewed in my brain for a little while and I decided I needed to make a knit version, but I didn’t want to make a bear. If you know anything about me you might know that I’m a cat person, so of course my version had to be a cat.

The base is just a basic little basic worked from the center out to the desired size, then up the sides as long as you want them. Knit some ears and add embellishments to make it whatever kind of animal you want.

The way I figured out to work the base from the center out was to use a crochet cast on, which gives you an easier way to pick up stitches from the back of the cast on than if you worked a more traditional cast on for a knitting project. It’s kind of fun to do things in a different way from time to time.

This little project is adorable if I do say so myself, and even as a plain little basket not made into an animal it’s a cute way to keep your glasses or other little things in one place. I’m tempted to make one for my desk to hold pens or even little little scissors and sewing needles that are always on my desk but somehow always seem to get lost on my desk.

If you need a little holder for your glasses on your table, check out the pattern at Our Daily Craft.

[Photo: Our Daily Craft]