. Shipping calculated at checkout. If you're new to stranded color knitting, I recommend not worrying about yarn dominance for a while. Ive been designing knitting patterns for years and Ive found that I cant be tied down to one technique or project type in my design life. When knitting with two colors, the two yarns can't be in exactly the same place. The garter stitch rib pattern is a textured stitch pattern that is perfect for creating items such as a knitted hat or scarf. You can even carry both in the same hand, as long as you orient one to be left and one to be right. Inspect your fabric for particularly loose or tight stitches. Stranded Colorwork Workshop. After working a few stitches in one colour, simply spread out the stitches of that colour on the right needle so that they arent bunched anymore before working the next stitch in the other colour. When working with two colors of yarn in stranded knitting, there is a subtle difference in how the colors show up in Oct 14, 2021 - Since I have a tendency to use stranded colorwork in my designs, I thought I'd write about an element of stranded colorwork that often gets overlooked: color dominance. Dominance is just whichever color is held looser, essentially. One of most commonly-cited examples is fair isle knitting. Find out the latestnews from the studio such as sales, pattern releases, and new workshops or KALsour learning community, The Knitwork. Enter swatching. Holding the dominant color so that the floats are below your non-dominant color is how you do it. Michele points out that every knitter should work a little colorwork swatch to determine how the yarn should be arranged for the way that they knit. Two-handed colourwork is a blend of both throwing (with the right hand) and picking (with the left hand). Looking for inspiration for your next project? Keep in mind that everyone knits differently and you might find that youre comfortable somewhere in between! . Even if you cant remember which is dominant, always have the colors in the same position so your colorwork looks crisp. cardigan, halyard, collar, cowl, video, knitting, knitting pattern. Please join us on Sunday, September 5 from 11am-12pm for a complimentary workshop to learn two-handed, stranded knitting. I think you should be able to adapt those to one hand stranded knitting. The yarn on your right rides closest to your needle, and the yarn on your left travels from underneath to make a taller stitch. I just love this Reddit channel, I learn so much. In this sample piece, I held the orange yarn dominant on the right side and the green yarn dominant on the left. Jean How does ease affect inclusive size ranges? You always want your pattern color to be held dominant so that the pattern stands out from the background. Hold the pattern color in your left hand and the background color in your right. Below is a swatch with a color work motif. We will send you an email to reset your password. Break the rules. Shipping calculated at checkout. The dominant or foreground colour is held with the left hand, and the background colour is held with the right hand. The visual is better for comprehendsion. That makes the stitch just a little bit taller, and that stitch will be dominant. The yarn traveling above and moving a hair farther will produce tighter stitches making them appear slightly smaller on the right side. Notice that the opposite is true. Sign up for a membership now! For me however, it is really evident. In the past I always put the dominant color (for any given row) on my dominant yarn holding hand (my left for continental knitting). 31K views 1 year ago How To Knit Take your colorwork knitting to the next level with our Color Dominance tutorial! The strands can easily become twisted around each other if you always bring the next colour up in the same direction, which can also cause the pattern to recede and look little murkier than it would otherwise. Looking at the back side of my knitting, the darker color is riding near the needle, and the lighter green rides below the dark green. Although I quickly swapped the colours to the correct hand I started wondering just how big a difference colour dominance really meant. A lot of knitters work more tightly in stranded colorwork than in Stockinette. Stranded knitting is when you work with multiple colors throughout the project. The Dominant Color is held in the left hand and strands below the Background Color on the wrong side of the fabric. This is due to how the yarn is arranged while the swatch was being worked. Then consistently hold the pattern color in your left hand (and use the picking/European method to work stitches in the pattern color) and hold the background color in your right hand (and use the throwing/British method to work stitches in the background color). This email address is already registered. At this interesting & informative session you will learn the basics of stranded colorwork, color theory & dominance. How you carry your colors affects how they appear in your knitting. One yarn will be carried below the other, and that makes it travel further to get to the needle. Let us know if any other questions come up. 5. Identifying and fixing mistakes in lace knitting, Working stranded colourwork over small circumferences, Ladderback Jacquard (a neat way to deal with long floats), Cabling without a cable needle on the wrong side, How to knit cabled decreasesClosed ring cable increases and decreases, How to begin your first large cross stitch project, How to finish a cross stitch project with an embroidery hoop frame, How to darn with Arounna Khounnorag of Bookhou. If you were considering starting a Yell sweater by Marie Wallin (we shared this pattern last week), or if youve ever done colorwork previously, no doubt you want the extra effort to stand out and be as beautiful as possible. In this case it also allows two very different palettes to be given for the same pattern. Thank you for this explanation. She notes that for most people, the background color should stay to the right and the prominent color should stay to the left. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. If you are working a sweater, for example, and there is a pattern around the yoke, it is likely that you want the contrast color of the pattern to stand out from the main body color of the sweater. Derived from graphic design elements, these fresh motifs include everything from geometric mountains, waves, and spirals to modern bikes . The light grey (103) is the background colour, and the purple (142) is the foreground colour. The two colours can be held on the same finger or two different fingers (say, index and middle), and the right needle to used to grab the correct colour for the next stitch. This is called color dominance and weve shared the basics on understanding and implementing this concept below! . How does ease affect inclusive size ranges? This is the case no matter what method of stranded knitting you prefer, but typically the two working yarns are carried as follows: Two-handed stranded knitting: The dominant color is held in the left hand, while the background color is held in the right hand. As we knit, the completed stitches tend to bunch up on the right needle, making the width of the fabric seem narrower than it really is. Learn how to work the long tail cast on and how to estimate the length of yarn needed with our clear step by step tutorial and video. Mon/Thurs: 12PM - 8PM Each stitch is worked in its correct colour, bringing the yarn from the right or left hand. And dont let yarns get tangled at all. The 'dominant' colour is the one that pops more or is more prominent because the stitches are slightly larger, from the floats being slightly longer as they run beneath the other colours. What is it? I dont agree with this comment/ idea. I hope you take the plunge and give stranded colorwork a try. In the left hand image, the purple (darker) yarn is held above the white yarn as it travels into the next stitch. Stranded Knitting: Post 8 - Adding New Colors and Finishing Old Colors (Video Episode 9) Brandon Knitting Designs. Color could have a major impact on the look and feel of your finished piece, whether you choose one color or many. These types of decreases are typically used for shaping projects and are also commonly used in lace knitting. That said, for a repetitive or all-over motif such as those found in the Yell sweater, youll want to be consistent with how youre positioning the yarns or the difference will draw the eye and look out of place. It is on You Tube. 7. For the prominent color, the strand is lower, meaning that a little more yarn goes into the stitch, making it slightly taller and more prominent. There is more than one way to work stranded colorwork with two colors held in one hand (left or right) the important thing to be aware of is that the Dominant Color consistently floats below the Background Color throughout a project regardless of your individual method for carrying the yarns. Generally it is best to determine a "background" color and a "contrast" color, and make sure that the contrast color is made dominant by stranding it beneath the background color. Learn how to work the long tail cast on and how to estimate the length of yarn needed with our clear step by step tutorial and video. Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. On the bottom half of the piece, the white stitches look bigger. Share your wins and frustrations with your projects. Find out the latestnews from the studio such as sales, pattern releases, and new workshops or KALsour learning community, The Knitwork. #fringeandfriendskal2015 #tutorial #howto #knittingtechniques #Tokul, A post shared by Andrea Rangel (@andrearknits) on Oct 5, 2015 at 9:27am PDT. Advertisement Coins. the lower yarn will be to the left of the upper yarn. This is a wonderful pattern to learn stranded colorwork. Session 1: Sunday October, 2: 11am-12pm . The lightly looser strand coming from the bottom does not recede; its larger stitches stand out, loud and proud in the foreground. There really arent any rules. I found a tutorial for that on YouTube, which you may find helpful: https://youtu.be/vEzWdMlKj_Q. One yarn will be carried below the other, and that makes it travel further to get to the needle. I just knit a sweater English style using color dominance method - having learned about it for the first time after 40 years of knitting! How and in which hands the yarns are held is not that crucial although some positions may remind you to be consistent and remember which color is which. With one yarn held in each hand: It's worth trying all three methods and seeing which suits you. Sometimes in a stranded knitting project there are stretches of stitches in one colour of yarn that span a length of more than 3cm (1.5). Regardless of how a knitter holds their yarns when working stranded colorwork, the Dominant Color should always float below the Background Color. In this example my dominant color is red, and the second . Do yourself a favor though and read all about color dominance.