Jumper with letters 3 yarns help please

Hi I’ve not attempted anything like this before and have obviously done something wrong as the top logo is pulled too tight and is “puffy” for want of a better word. I am using the same length circular needles recommended in the pattern and knitting the smallest chest size but there doesn’t seem to be enough room on the needles to stretch things out. Don’t even know what you would call this type of knitting to look it up. There is obviously a knack to this that I’m completely unaware of! Please help. This is the pattern

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/penguin-classics-1984-triband-sweater![image|900x1200]
(upload://jD0EMTbUi7dAFYqwnvZRmFLG2tm.jpeg) image image


It looks like it’s going to be very nice once the stranded knitting is sorted. When you carry the yarns across the back they need to be loose enough not to pucker.

It’ll help if the stitches aren’t too scrunched up on the needle so maybe a longer needle is needed (despite the pattern not asking for it).
If you’re carrying the yarn across 5 or more sts, it’s best to catch the floats.

Since the orange yarn is hardly used in the middle panel and it’s worked flat, you might try working it with 2 balls of orange yarn, one on either side of the middle panel. It’s called intarsia and the only trick is to twist the yarns at the color join. It’ll avoid having to carry the orange yarn all the way back and forth across the middle panel.

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Like @salmonmac says, you definitely need to catch the floats. Floats that long will catch on everything.

All that writing honestly I’d do it with duplicate stitching.

Very cool jumper :slight_smile:

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Hmm, I think I would use intarsia for the white areas and then embroider the black details in later with duplicate stitch (also known as Swiss darning). (I’m presuming the white behind the title is simply a stripe.)

Stranding works best for small repeating motifs in which you don’t need to carry the yarn over more than say five or six stitches. You can carry colours over longer distances by catching the floats, but the carried colour can show through from the back, and other problems can arise.

Intarsia works best for creating a “blob” of a particular colour, either in a sea of other blobs (think Kaffe Fassett), or isolated against a plain background. So like the penguin’s white chest.

Neither intarsia nor stranding are much good for thin, oddly shaped, widely spaced sections of colour, like the penguin’s black outline details. That’s where Swiss darning works well.

You could do a quick swatch to see how Swiss darning might look with your yarn. Good luck!

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Hi everyone thank you very much for taking the time to reply to me. @kushami @salmonmac I’m going to look up Swiss darning. Kaffe Fassett I’m aware of from doing tapestry/needlework.

I was thinking of sewing the loose threads back in to stop them from catching as that did occur to me it could easily get caught on things . Jumper is for my daughter it’s one if her favourite books :books:

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I’d be inclined to cut the longer floats in the middle, then sew the ends in. That might help ease the tension, but only do it if you think you’ll get long enough ends! The jumper is pretty cool looking, though, good luck finishing it (if you haven’t already!)

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This thread might help with the duplicate stitching. There’s a youtube which will show you how to do it. Duplicate Stitch

I agree with @Shintoga I’d be tempted to cut the long floats in the middle and darn them in, making sure they twist around adjacent strands so that there are no spaces/ holes at the colour junction.
It looks nice knitting! You might want to block it first to see how puffy it is in reality. If your floats are long enough, you can tack them down at the back with a thin stand of, say mohair. This is so light and not noticeable, but very good for melding into the fabric!!

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