[B]Ok I have had a few friends ask me this and I would LOVE to know. I JUST in the recent 2 weeks have learned to knit a BASIC Motif pattern with two colors. My friend and I want to know… do you work more than one color the same way you do just 2 colors? What we mean is A B C a knit all the A sl the other two colors[/B]
[B]B knit all the B slip the other 2 colors[/B]
[B]C knit the C and slip the other Colors?[/B]
[B]Then we would love to know what is the Diffrent between[/B]
[B]Mosaic, Insatsia* SP* Fair Isle… and this that has to do with color changes we would LOVE to know what are the diffrences.[/B]
[B]Hugs[/B]
[B]Ness:flirt:[/B]
I want to know what is the diffrence
I think it depends on the type of multi-color knitting you’re doing. There are some videos here that show with more than two colors, and several around the web, depending on whether you’re using Fair Isle, Intarsia or stranded.
Intarsia is when you insert a design or picture or shape into the background, or main color, and only use the picture color yarn at that point. It requires twisting the main color and picture color around each other to hold it all together. Here is an example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24902823@N00/517006683
Stranded is where you carry all the colors of yarn the entire width of the fabric and constantly twist the colors, again, so that you don’t get holes. Those carried colors are called “floats”. Example: http://www.creativefibersonline.com/images/Class_Projects/10Winter/CF_10_Winter_Lopi_Cardigan.jpg
Mosaic is when you lift from another row, slip stitch, or “knit one below”. Some examples: http://thewalkertreasury.wordpress.com/category/mosaic-knitting/01-mosaic-knitting-from-charts/
Fair Isle is a term which is often misused. It’s a traditional form of color knitting with certain rules, such as you can only use 2 colors per row, you can only change one color at a time per row, and the floats can only go for 3 stitches. True Fair Isle knitting comes from Fair Isle, near Shetland in the North Sea. Example: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QjLqcP52EC4/SwFFrhPwPcI/AAAAAAAAAwY/bXZYyb-3V9U/s1600/jumpers.jpg
Technically Sandy is correct, but the terms fair isle and stranded are often used interchangeably on the internet. Stranded knitting is usually (not always) done in the round and the colors are carried across/around the entire work.
Intarsia is done flat and is for large blocks of color like bear on the front of a sweater. There have been attempts to do this in the round, but it’s not always successful. It involved carrying the unused color all the way around the work catching the floats here and there. They sometimes show through the main color.
Slip stitch or mosaic knitting involve slipping of colors to create different colors on each row.
There are videos in the advanced techniques section here in KH. Also more here at the bottom of the page:
http://www.community.knitpicks.com/notes
Here’s a few books on Slip Stitch and Mosaic knitting. There are others, too. The library often has them.
The wonderful thing about Fair Isle is that you can use a zillion different colors but generally only two colors are carried in a row so it’s really quite simple!
Stranded knitting is usually (not always) done in the round.
My experience has been different-- most of the stranded knitting I’ve done has been flat. But it doesn’t matter-- it’s still the same principle.
There have been attempts to do this in the round, but it’s not always successful. It involved carrying the unused color all the way around the work catching the floats here and there.
Actually, there are a couple of ways to do this which work quite well. It involves leaving some stitches and then catching them again on the return, or knitting back for that small sections, or slipping sts, etc. They’re not used a lot, I think because most patterns with intarsia are written as flat, so it doesn’t come up very often.
[B]WOW… ok… lol… I watched the video’s on here… just wanted to know the diffrence… I don’t think I am ready for Fair Isle Knitting lol… I can not get the twisting of my yarn right for some reason I end up with holes all over the place. I LOVE the Mosaic knitting … it is so easy~! … my friend wanted to know if they were al lthe same I am going to copy and paste these comments into an email for her… thank you so so much …[/B]
[B]hugs:cheering: 
:flirt: [/B]
I just got The Essential Guide to Color Knitting Techniques from the library and it has all kinds of methods for adding color from stripes to mosaic. It even has a technique for knitting intarsia in the round that involves short rows. It’s really interesting and worth checking out!
The links provided so graciously by Sandy57th and Jan in Ca are really great! Thanks guys!!! 