I’m sure this is addressed in another thread, but I’ve been looking and am not sure what will apply to my situation and what won’t so I figured I would just ask, and any help will be greatly appreciated. I have only been knitting for about a month, and I am trying to knit a blanket. It is pretty simple. It is a brown blanket with the words BGSU alumni written on it in orange. I’ve knitted plenty of rows of brown stitches and now I need to start knitting with the orange. The first row to involve the orange says "knit (certain number of stitches) with brown, then knit (certain number of stitches) with the orange yard, and I am really confused on how to just start knitting with a different color. I would like to just be able to have the tails hanging there since I will have to change colors quite often, so I don’t want to really cut the ends unless it is absolutely necessary. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks
Picking up a new color
Unless the letters are less than 5 stitches across, you’re going to want to have more than one ball/tail dangling at a time. There’s a video here (click the intarsia link under knitting with 2 colours at the same time) that should help.
What I’m thinking is you’ll end up with something like this…
[COLOR=“Sienna”]XXXXXXX[/COLOR][COLOR=“Orange”]XXXXX[/COLOR][COLOR=“Sienna”]XXXXX[/COLOR]…etc…
So, for each section of brown, you’ll have a seperate strand/ball/tail going, same as for the orange. It’s going to get messy there 
I’m just wondering how to get the orange thread on the needle. I’ve done about 37 rows of just brown thread, so I am wondering how to introduce the orange thread on the needle. I thought about just casting on in the middle of the brown thread, but I am afraid that will create two separate colors and they won’t be joined. Any help? Thanks in advance.
:happydance: Welcome to KH!! You would just pick up the orange and start knitting with it…have you checked out Amy’s videoson working with color? The blanket sounds like a lot of fun and can’t wait to see it :happydance:
Basically when you get to the point where you want to join the orange, you’re going to twist the orange thred together with the brown to “join” them, and continue knitting with orange, dropping the brown, then picking up a new thread of brown when you get to that colour again. Here’s a picture of the back of the colourwork I’m doing currently. I’m sure everyone who’s seen me answer a question on intarsia is sick of seeing it by now
You can see where the yellow and white meet that I’ve twisted the yarn threads. I believe you twist the new yarnover the old one to prevent a hole. However, should you get a small hole, you can close it when you’re weaving in your ends. I have a hole or two and will need to do this when I am all done.
Okay I know I keep posting with questions, but I am really getting frustrated. With all of the help I have been getting, I was able to start knitting with the orange, but I’ve come to a problem. Whenever I switch the color, there is a strand of the opposite color that travels alongside of the color I am actually threading. The opposite color isn’t actually on the needle, but whenever I finish with the color I am knitting, I have to take it over the color I want to switch to. And it is not a big deal on the wrong side of the pattern, but when I get to the right side, I don’t want to be able to see all of the color changes, and I am obviously doing it wrong. So I am just wondering why I can see the two different colors. To make it clear it looks like XXX with the brown stitches but then right alongside the needle with be the orange thread. Any help would again be appreciated.
Okay, this is where the different balls of thread come into play.
You need a seperate ball of colour for each change. At one point in the work I have above, I had 7 balls of yarn attached to my work. It was a nightmare. You can probably get away with making yarn bobbins for most of it though.
If you don’t have seperate balls of colour for each change, you’re going to be stranding the other colours across the back of your work.
Okay I’m really not trying to be a pain. I am getting closer and closer to understanding with each post so thanks again for your help. I thought the whole idea of sewing with two colors as in the intarsia video was so that the strands of yarn could be kept in one piece. So if you have to have separate balls of yarn for each doesn’t that defeat the purpose. I’m really not trying to seem negative, I just am really getting frustrated. I really do appreciate any help.
If you’re doing a stranded technique, then you’ll carry the yarn across the back of your work. This is perfectly fine…but if the “floats” (lengths of thread carried across) are too long, then they can get caught and pulled. I try to stick to the rule that if I have to carry over more than 5 or 6 stitches, I use more than one ball of colour per switch.
For intarsia, you’re doing large blocks of colour and you really want to use more than one ball of colour. I have the Big Book of Knitting and use it as my bible. While the book itself is fairly old, it has some good information regarding colour work. I referred to it on a daily basis.