I am trying to knit a pair of pants with butterflies on them. my problem is the pants are with mc (main color) and the butterflies are with A (contrast color). a typical row can read like this. "with mc knit 5, with A knit next 2, with mc knit 1, with A knit 3, with mc knit 1 etc. my question is how do I keep switching yarns? I tried just attaching the yarns at the first join and then leaving the unused color dangling. But after a few rows I noticed that I had pulled it to tight so the pant leg didn’t lay correcting, It was pulling. so then I tried to tie the yarn together at each join. This was extremely annoying and time consuming because I could have to do this after 1 or 2 stitches. the first way i tried besides for pulling, which maybe I can cure if i try again; the back of it lookes like a tapestry. What should I do?
There’s a wonderful video under the Free Video tab at the top of the page, knitting with 2 colors. Notice the way the knitter drops the white yarn and picks up the blue yarn so that the yarns are crossed over each other and don’t leave a hole where you switch colors. You also get to see a view of the back of the work and the kind of loops you should see on the wrong side. You don’t have to tie anything off.
As far as pulling goes, it’s just a matter of knitting loosely so that the yarn carried over the back isn’t tightening up or puckering the entire work. I got over doing this by exaggeratedly leaving a loop of the carried yarn in the back. It turned out to be just right! Experiment with a looser tension on that carried yarn.
I love the idea of pants with butterflies!