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For Advanced Beginners
Knitting Colorwork
Beautiful yokes, colorful Nordic sweaters, and Fair Isle mittens. Stranded colorwork opens the door to the most iconic knitwear traditions!
Once you're comfortable with knit and purl stitches, and perhaps have knitted your first monochromatic hat, it's high time to learn knitting colorwork. Knitting with two (or more) colors simultaneously is often perceived as mysterious and challenging until you crack the code—but once you do, there's no turning back!
What is Stranded Colorwork?
Internationally, this technique is known as Stranded Colorwork (and often colloquially referred to as Fair Isle, though strictly speaking Fair Isle is a specific Scottish tradition). It simply means that you knit a round using two different balls of yarn. While you knit a stitch with one color, you let the yarn from the other color trail along the backside of the work (creating a "float" or "strand").
How to read a colorwork chart
The pattern is illustrated as a grid (chart). One square equals one stitch. One horizontal line in the chart is one knitted round.
Since we knit in the round, from right to left, the chart must be read in exactly the same way: Start at the bottom right corner of the grid, read towards the left until the end of the line. Then you jump up one line, and start all over again from the far right.
How to hold the yarns?
There are many methods for managing two yarns at once:
- Two yarns over the index finger: Very common in the Nordic regions. You tension both strands over your left index finger and "pick" the color you need (Continental).
- 1 strand index finger, 1 strand middle finger: Provides good distance between the colors and prevents the yarns from twisting in the balls.
- Two-handed knitting: You hold the main color in your left hand (Continental style) and the pattern/contrast color in your right hand (English throwing style). Highly recommended by many experienced colorwork knitters.
Tip: Color Dominance! Did you know that the yarn held lowest (closest to the bottom of your work) in your left hand will emerge as slightly larger, more prominent stitches than the upper yarn? Always ensure the contrast color (e.g., the bright stars in your pattern) is held under the main color! This is called color dominance.
Avoid the "puckered" tight fabric
The absolute biggest problem beginners face is that the colorwork "puckers" together, making the garment stiff and far too small. This happens because the floats on the wrong side are pulled tight like bowstrings. Here is the solution: Before changing colors and knitting a new stitch, make sure that the stitches already on the right needle are stretched completely apart. The float stretching across the back must have slack to run across the fabric without pulling the neighboring stitches together. Also, don't be afraid to go up a needle size specifically for the colorwork section!
Which yarn is best for colorwork?
Non-superwash 'sticky' wool is undoubtedly the best. The woolen fibers 'grab' onto each other, which evens out the tension (preventing holes between colors) and makes the fabric warmer. Superwash or slick yarns like cotton can cause the stitches to slide apart and lose definition.
Why is my colorwork so tight and puckered?
This is the most common beginner issue! It happens because the yarn floating on the backside of the work (the float) is pulled too tight when changing colors. Always spread the stitches on your right needle widely apart before knitting the next stitch with a new color.