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In December '06, this blog told you that there were only two stitches in all of knittingdom --
knitting and purling. In March '07 this blog explained that alternating these two stitches
creates different textured fabrics, such as stockinette fabric, reverse stockinette fabric and garter stitch.
Now, we're going in a different direction. Using only plain, smooth stockinette, we're going after 2-color knitting (or even, knitting in more than two colors).
Color knitting makes possible the children holding hands, the contrasting bands on hats, the beautiful Scandinavian designs, the spirals, the squares, the diamonds. All of these designs can be made in texture patterns too, but a one-color texture pattern is no substitute for the cheerfulness of color.
Layout of this series.
This post is the first in a series about color knitting, and lays out background considerations. The next post will cover the classic "one color in each hand" method popularized by Elizabeth Zimmerman. Following will come the tricks of two color knitting with two-colors-in-one hand, then three-color knitting (two colors in one hand, one in the other). The series will also cover two tricks which involve using only one color at a time for multi-color effects. The final post will also serve as part 2 of the "Mysteries of knitting" series, and will cover the interplay of color and texture knitting.
Today's intro-to-the-series post focuses on...
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
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First project--For beginning color knitters, the best project involves no purling (other than as a texture decoration) because two-color knitting is FAR easier than two-color purling. Also good to avoid would be a lot of shaping. Some good sorts of garments to start on might be a circular-knit muffler scarf or a
Norwegian- style steeked sweater. Another good choice would be a raglan-sleeve sweater made with the yoke all-in-one-piece, either top-down, or bottom-up. Raglans with all-in-one-piece yokes are shown in the illustrations of color placement, below.
In any event, for purposes of this series on color knitting, I assume you have a garment pattern at hand, and are looking for details on how to accomplish the fabric itself--how to knit in two or more colors, around and around on a tube.
Needles--For the purpose of learning two-color knitting, best would be a pair of circular needles with a proportionate cable--not too long, not too short. Going around and around on the face of a tube means you can create stockinette fabric without ever purling, and creating such a fabric on circular needles is going to be easiest for intro color knitting.
(If it puzzles you as to why all-knit can make stockinette fabric on circular needles, follow this link.)Pattern placement--"all-over" OR on the chest and shoulders--Color knitting is heavier than many kinds of one-color knitting. The yarn not on the face of the fabric is generally carried behind, resulting in a thicker, doubled fabric. A garment with all-over color-knit patterns is going to feel balanced to wear--there will be the same weight of fabric throughout the sweater. A sweater pattern which has the color pattern only on the chest and shoulders will be OK to wear too--the sweater won't be balanced, BUT the heavier fabric will be centered on the body parts best able to benefit--the chest and shoulders will be kept warmer by the doubled fabric. In addition, the idealized image of body type for men and women emphasizes a heavier bust or chest, and a thinner waist and hips, so doubled fabric over the chest or bust and the shoulders help with appearances, also.
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Patterns to avoid are those which feature color knitting over the hips and wrists, and nowhere else. These sweaters feel unbalanced. A "bracelet" of doubled fabric around the wrist can come to feel like weight-training as the day goes on. These sweaters are also not very attractive--other than the painfully thin, there are few body types which will be flattered by a thick roll of doubled fabric around the hips. A subset of these hip-and-wrist decorated sweaters are made for babies and are particularly deceptive. The body is made with stripes, which look colorful, but are really only single-thickness fabric. The trim, primarily around wrist and hip is in a checkerboard pattern, or bunnies, or lollipops, or zebras--a true color pattern, and these sweaters, although undeniably CUTE, also suffer from unbalanced fabric. If you've simply GOT to have bunnies around the bottom, or patterns around the cuffs, re-write the pattern so the rest of the garment comes out in a small, unobtrusive all-over two color fabric pattern--then the fabric will be equally thick everywhere, and the problem evaporates.
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A short note about hats--hats with color bands and single color tops have a satisfying thickness around the ears, which need to stay warm, but are thinner in the single color fabric over the crown. If these are knit in thin yarn, the crown will be thin enough to let sweat rise and escape. Bottom line: a color-band hat with a single color crown knit in thin yarn works especially well for activewear--ski hats and sports caps.
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Floats--choose a color pattern which features short "floats." Carrying a yarn behind the fabric face for more than 5 or 6 stitches is asking for tension trouble. Look at any collection of traditional color patterns, and you will see that hardly any patterns in any color-knitting tradition (
Scandinavian,
Latvian,
Turkish,
Shetland Islands, what-have-you) feature a float any longer than 5-6 stitches, most floats are shorter, and some traditions call for constructing multi-colored knitting with no floats at all (Scottish argyle).
Color knitting's original practitioners were goatherds knitting socks on desert hillsides, fishwives waiting for the boats to come in, young girls watching the geese, sailors asea, mothers dreaming geometrics while keeping children from the open fire. If all these industrious, clever knitters from different pasts have established that floats should be kept short--there must be a good reason. Avoid that trendy designer pattern featuring cute bunnies and L-O-N-G floats. Be guided by experience, instead.
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The very best sort of geometric for a first pattern would have the following characteristics:
* one dominant color, also called "main color" (typically abbreviated "mc"), and one contrast color ("cc"). Starting off color knitting with more than two colors is biting off more than you can chew, IMHO.
(There will be more about this in the other posts in this series, so if you have strong feelings on this subject, or further questions, stay tuned...)*the proportion of main color to contrast color should be such that there the main color unquestionably predominates
(again, more details in the next post). Despite the predominance of the main color, however, the pattern should avoid isolated single stitches of the contrast color. This is because isolated single stitches of contrast color on the fabric surface don't have a lot of "oomph"--they lack the grabbing power necessary to stabilize all that yarn floating behind.
*a short float--for the reasons above
*rows of plain knitting in each pattern repeat, as well as between each pattern repeat. This allows the fabric an area where the tension is less likely to be off-kilter--a "rest break" if you will. It also makes for a fabric less dense (easier to knit) than having every single row in two-color pattern.
Type of yarn--For your first project, choose wool--old fashioned sheep's wool, preferably as coarse as you can stand to work with.
Sheep's wool magnified is disgustingly organic--all
scales and hooks and wooly hairs. But in color knitting, these organic properties are to your advantage--the projections entangle the floats and help control the fabric. Non-sheep wools, like alpaca and cashmere have some scales, but not nearly as many
(which is why they're so soft...) and "slippery" yarns (acrylics, cottons, silks, bamboo, superwash wools, linen) utterly lack the scales, hooks and hairs to hold the different colored yarns together--the result for a beginning project will be disappointment.
(So REALLY avoid bunnies around the bottom on a sweater made in cotton yarn...)
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Float tension: Getting the tension correct in color work is one of the toughest tricks in all of knitting, no joke. You are going to start off making messes. Resolve, therefore, to make a mess in the direction of TOO LOOSE, rather than too tight.
One of the saddest knitting sights I ever saw was a new knitter making a red-and-white baby cap destined to never to fit any human born--it would have been too tight for a baby monkey. The floats puckered the fabric so the pattern could hardly be seen. A too loose cap could always have been tightened up, float by float, but that too-tight tragedy on the needles was destined to break everyone's heart--the recipient of all that misspent hopeful energy, the most of all.
Work towards correct float tension with this precept: the floats should be long enough so that the fabric does not pucker when stretched. Therefore, spread your stitches out along the needle BEFORE you draw the float yarn over them to knit the next colored stitch. Don't keep your stitches all scrunched up, because then your float will be shorter than the width of the fabric. In other words, once the scrunched-up stitches are restored to their natural spread, or stretched out when wearing, floats created over scrunched-up stitches will be too short.
If you find that stretching out along the needle still isn't creating a long-enough float, the next trick is to put a finger or two in the way, and draw the float yarn over the stretch AND the finger(s). HOWEVER--floats SO loose that they never come under tension even when the garment is worn will be floats that have a hard time glomming on to the back of the fabric, even if you are knitting in the hairiest sheeps-wool going. Too-loose floats will catch in buttons and fingers and toes. But, don't be discouraged. Like everything else in knitting
(and life!) if you keep at it--eventually you WILL get it right.
Next post: 2 color knitting with one color in each hand.
--TECHknitter
You have been reading TECHknitting on: the basics of color knitting--how to knit with two or more colors.
"Most of the men sang or whistled as they dug or hoed. There was a good deal of outdoor singing in those days. Workmen sang at their jobs: men with horses and carts sang on the road; the baker, the miller's man, and the fish-hawker sang as they went from door to door; even the doctor and parson on their rounds hummed a tune between their teeth. People were poorer and had not the comforts, amusements, or knowledge we have today; but they were happier. Which seems to suggest that happiness depends more upon the state of mind - and body, perhaps - than upon circumstances and events"
