Best intarsia-in-the-round technique

#1

I’m firm in knitting intarsia in the round. What I intend to knit has no other way out (that I wish to do).

I want to knit a friend a purse with DPNs. The purse consists in alternating squares (purple-white-purple-white), and a peace sign knitted with fair isle on top of them. So, the only thing I can do is use the intarsia method with the squares. (I will [I]not[/I] knit two flat pieces and sew them together)

I’ve read some techniques, and liked two of them:

  • One consists on knitting until the end of the round, yarn over, turn the work, knit to the end again, and k2tog the last stitch with the previous yarn over. I don’t know why I think this will leave little holes lying around.
  • The other one is knitting until the last stitch, wrapping the first stitch, turning the work, and going back on the knitting. I believe this would be neater?

Could anyone tell me which method is nicer-looking? And if anyone knows a better one, please tell me.

#2

How large are the squares? You can do that with the stranded method and catch the yarn every so often so the floats aren’t too long.

#3

You could knit squares and graft them together so it looks continuous.

#4

The squares are pretty big (there are only 4 squares on each side of the purse). I really want to try intarsia in the round, since I’m terrible at sewing. Please help…

#5

You probably haven’t gotten responses because most people wouldn’t do it that way. If there are only 4 squares on each side it seems like you could use intarsia flat for the 4 squares and then just seam at the sides. If you use mattress stitch it would barely show. It’s really pretty easy.

#6

Ok, I’ll then just go ahead and knit two flat pieces (using intarsia) and sew them together. I’ll google mattress stitch and practice it on a piece of cloth. Thanks for the advice!

#7

There is a mattress stitch video here… I think it’s under tips (?) and this is also very helpful.
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring04/mattress.html

#8

I’m interested in the idea of knitting intarsia in the round the way you described at the top! I’m a beginner when it comes to color work - I’ve only done a couple of projects using it. But I’d like to knit a baby hat for my friend, and the first time I tried using long floats and it was all puckered. I wonder if I’d have better luck with the knit and turn and purl back method…

Here’s the hat… I emailed the designer and she said that she expects people to just use long floats and control their tension. I guess I’m not very good at that!

#9

I’ve read somewhere that knitting fair isle inside out makes the tension better. I’ve yet to try it though.

#10

I’m not sure what you mean by inside out. Like, purling everything?

I think the pattern I am looking at (the sheep hat) is technically intarsia, not Fair Isle. ???

But I still have to churn out a few more fingerless gloves before I start that hat again.

#11

My mother taught me that if you have a long float to twist the working yarn and and the floating yarn evenly (every 4 or 5 stitches maybe, I haven’t done it in a while) to help control the tension. That seemed to help control the puckering for me.

#12

No, working on the inside of the hat…technically the ‘wrong’ way to work in the round. Because the floats are on the outside they are the side of the circle that is slightly larger so they wouldn’t pull as tight.

That hat is adorable! :inlove: I would do it in fair isle and I think the pattern is written that way because the sheep go all the way around. Intarsia is for big blocks of color.

#13

I googled intarsia in the round and found a great explanation on “let me explaiKnit”. I tried the third method she describes: scroll down to the paragraph that begins “The other method makes the joins where two of the color blocks meet…”

This technique worked beautifully. I had to re-read the instructions with every row, but it came out truly seamless with no holes or malformed stitches where I changed colors or reversed directions. It took some patience, but I’m glad I stuck with it.

good luck!