I’m making a sweater with a central fish motif. I think I’ve worked out that I should use Intarsia for the motif but can find little help on how to start. When you introduce the first new colour, do you knot it first to the old colour? If so, what type of knot should I use? The second thing that is unclear from all my books is when you start a new colour (using a bobbin) and then drop it to go back to my original colour, what happens on the next row? Do I just pick up my second colour from where I left it? If so, I suppose this would leave a small line of yarn at the back of the sweater. And what happens when I don’t need the colour anymore at that particular point but need it 4 or 5 stitches further along the row? Do I weave it along (thereby combining a second method of colour knitting) or just attach a new bobbin? Please anyone - I’m getting desperate!!!
Intarsia Help!
The most important thing in intarsia is to twist your yarns on the back correctly. Hold the one you’re stopping over to the left and bring the new one up from under it. This will twist them automatically without a lot of hassle.
To start a new strand, you can knot if you want, or if I can explain it, I’ll tell you what I do.
I knit the first stitch with the new color, leaving a tail to weave in later. Then I bring the old color strand across to the left on top of the new yarn and knit the second stitch with the new color. This twists them as you would as you were working along. That wasn’t so hard to explain as I thought.
You do get a small vertical line along the back edges of a motif from bringing the new color up. It’s really unavoidable. Inside a sweater, nobody will every know.
For small gaps in the pattern, if it’s a one-time thing, you can strand and catch the yarn. If it’s going to last for a few rows, your best bet is to start yet another new strand. It’s a bit of a pain to have so many strands on the back, but if you carry the yarn across a small gap for several rows, that line of stitches will be thicker than the rest and tend to look puckered, even if your tension is loose.
Hope all this helps!
Many thanks for that. I am now halfway through my fish motif although the tangling up of the yarns is a pain.
And what happens when I don’t need the colour anymore at that particular point but need it 4 or 5 stitches further along the row? Do I weave it along (thereby combining a second method of colour knitting) or just attach a new bobbin?
It sounds like you are forging ahead and getting the job done.
I’ve always wondered about this (if I understand your question) too. I’ve never found anything that really addresses the issue. What I’m thinking of is the situation where you leave the motif color at the edge of the motif and then on the next row you need it again, but any number of stitches before where you left it. Is that what you meant, or something else? I have developed a cheat that seems to work, but would be happy to learn a better way.
I try to notice on the row before if I am going to need the motif color beyond where the motif ends on a row. If so, I “carry” the yarn along by catching it in every few stitches until it is slightly to the left (on this row) of where I will need it on the next row and leave it there. Is that what you meant Ingrid?
I haven’t considered starting another bobbin. Too lazy for that. LOL That would probably be the smoothest thing too do.
I do the same thing if I think to plan ahead, otherwise I just bring it over if it’s only for the first row.
I found that stranding across when you have several rows of
[COLOR=Red]XXXX[/COLOR][COLOR=DarkGreen]OOO[/COLOR][COLOR=Red]XXXXX
[COLOR=Black]seems like the easy way to go, but it does make the[COLOR=DarkOliveGreen] [COLOR=Green]OOO[/COLOR][/COLOR] thicker and even though your tension is loose, it looks poofier than the rest.[/COLOR]
[/COLOR]
Where are the absolute experts at this intarsia stuff, who have the [U]right[/U] way to deal with this problem. LOL I see everyone shying away from the question. Maybe no one has a really great answer.
Hehe, I’ve answered so many intarsia questions, I wonder if people were getting sick of my example 
When I did mine, I had 6 different balls going at once. If the difference between colours was more than 4 stitches, I used a new ball of yarn. Except for 3 tiny stitches in the middle area, and only because I didn’t have any new balls to attach by that time. If it helps, here’s a picture of the back of my work…
Hehe, I’ve answered so many intarsia questions, I wonder if people were getting sick of my example
Your example and explaination made it all come together for me and my duckie blanket!! So thank you very much!