Hello all,
I am back again. I recently solved my gauge swatch issue by using proper measuring tools (I started getting consistent measurements when I stopped using measuring tape and started using a gauge check/straight edge- I never realized how important something like this could be). Anyhow, I have put my tank top project on the back burner and am now knitting my very first sweater out of the same type yarn I had planned to use for the tank. I am making a three color striped turtle neck. It is in stockinette stitch, mostly. Each color is for rows (knit, purl, knit, purl). I am in a project knitting class and was told by my instructor that I can actually carry up the yarn instead of cutting it all the time. I have been trying this recently, and I don’t think I’m doing it right. My understanding is that the carry-up of the yarn should be taking place at the edge of the knitting. Mine is taking place along the pathway of the last stitch- close to the edge, but not close enough to look correct, in my opinion (at least, that is my impression- I don’t know if I’m wrong or not). I have attached a picture of the wrong side of the sweater I’ve been knitting so far with some the yarn carried up. The carried up yarn is white. It’s on the left side of the pic. Please ignore the rainbow colored yarn in the background- that’s a separate project that my sweater happened to be resting on. If the carry up looks correct, please let me know. If it looks incorrect, please let me know as well, and please advise me on what I may have done wrong. Also, as a side topic, can someone tell me how to use a plastic yarn bobbin? I bought some, but don’t know how to use them. I am sick and tired of tangled ends.
Please and thank you so much. You guys are all so great. I wish I had enough experience to offer advice to others.
Sapphire
Why are you doing it one stitch in? If you’re doing it flat and seaming it seems like you’d want the carried yarn within the seam. I also would twist the yarn son each row so that you don’t get that long float. :think:
You know, my knitting instructor was helping my with this and she has a habit of tying a bunch of temporary knots in her work. She did that with mine- said it would make the carry-up flow easier. I think I need to undo the knots she made- that seems to be part of the problem I’m encountering. I wish she had not done that- I don’t find tying knots in my knitting to be helpful. The question now remains, which ones should I undo (she made quite a few)? And should I undo all my rows and start again to get rid of all the knots? It’s looking like I may have to do just that. But keeping them in there, I think, is causing problems for me.
Hello.
I had a multicolored sweater that called for carrying up the yarns in the pattern. I am assuming that your pattern will be 3 colors of stripes going in repeating order of white, purple, and blue. What your picture shows is that you only carried up one color, but you really need to carry up two (since your sweater is 3 colors). So, complete your last stitch of the row for that colored yarn, then turn your work. When you pick up the new color, you use the new color yarn strand to twist around the other two yarns (just one time) before knitting your first stitch of the new row and that carries the yarn up from the previous two strands. Knitting the first stitch of the new row “locks” them into place and should keep the carried strands at the edge of the work. (This only works when you are knitting even numbers of rows in the sweater before color-changes.) Do this loosely so that the carried strands aren’t too short, or it will pucker or shorten that side of the work. Since you are just doing 4 rows per color, each time you start a new colored row, you will use the new color strand to twist around the other two. If you have one color that is a large block of color (maybe 8 rows of knit and purl in one color), then you may want to carry up this way in the middle of the colored block (after the first 4 rows have been completed). Since you just started your sweater, you might want to TINK (un-knit or pull out) the new white row you just did, then use the white strand to wrap around the blue and the purple strand and then proceed with knitting the white rows.
Regarding the plastic yarn bobbins, you use them when you only need to knit a small area of a color such as in intarsia work or when you only need one row of color. (I think there is a video on this website that may show you how to use it) I have also used bobbins (or pieces of cardboard) to split a small skein when I needed to have the same color coming in and out of the work at different times (like the Jester Harlequin Beanie from knitwhits.com).
Hope this was helpful.
V.
I recommend ignoring the first few knots you may have made and then just keep going with carrying up the yarn each time and you won’t have any more knots to deal with until you do the final row for each color. Once you finish the piece, and before you block and sew up the garment, you can always undo the knots and tuck everything in.
Good luck!
V.
noejusti, I followed your advice, and I think I may have gotten it right this time. I’ve uploaded another pic, and the white yarn looks way better up up the side than it did before. Also, I managed to carry up the blue and the purple yarns to the top. I think it’ll look better once I’ve completed some more rows, but I think (I hope) that I’ve gotten this right finally so thanks for the advice.
Sapphire.
PS I’ve uploaded another pic of my second attempt at this.
I think you’ve got it!
:yay:
V.
2 things about carrying your yarn up:
-
you have to be careful of tension: you want the string on the side to be “JUST RIGHT” for the length of the knitted section. You do not want that strand to pull your knitting too tight and you do not want extrem amounts of slack in there, either (but that would be the lesser problem)
-
When carrying the yarn up, you do not really want those long floats. You want them wrapped up.
so: every time you come to the edge of the lose ends, wrap your working color around the strands that get carried up and therefore keep them “cought” up in your edge. That makes it a lot nicer looking and easier to seam in the end. Also you have less tension problems, in my eyes.
When you drop one color and start the next, make sure, that your new working yarn is coming from underneat the old one, so that the old yarn gets cought right away
The wrapping in on the side is less important than the tension. You just don’t want your sweater to pull up on the sides.
The state of your work in the picture: the white yarn is pulled too tight, in my eyes. But since there are no white stitches, yet (in the pic) you can just stretch your work down on that edge to make more white yarn pull in and then you have it there with tension. It just takes knowing that the issue exists. I don’t want you to have to learn the hard way when you are done.