Intarsia Tutorial
"Intarsia" is color knitting comprised of large areas of color. This Stars + Stripes Felted Hot Pad is a typical example of intarsia knitting:
The truck in this pattern from Roo Designs is another good example:
Some Basic Rules
Intarsia knitting isn't hard, but there are some basic rules to know.
Unlike fair isle knitting, the yarn is not stranded across the back of the work in intarsia knitting. Instead, you have a separate ball of yarn for each area of color. If you have a lot of color changes in one row, you may want to wind the separate colors onto bobbins to help you stay organized.
The other important rule to keep in mind is that when you switch from one color to the other you have to "twist" the yarns in order to avoid holes. I like to think of it as "trapping" the yarn, because you put the yarn you're finished using in front of the new yarn, trapping it between the new yarn and the knitting. This manoeuvre is always done on the wrong side of the work.
Here are all the scenarios you will encounter knitting intarsia:
Vertical Lines
The red lines in this picture show color changes that form vertical lines:
When the color change forms a vertical line, knit to the change, bring the old yarn in front of the new yarn (again, on the wrong side of the work), and knit the new color stitch.
Here is what that looks like when you're knitting a right side row:
And here it is purling a wrong side row:
Diagonal Color Changes
When the color design is at a diagonal, twisting depends on if the design is slanting to the right or to the left. If it is slanting to the RIGHT as you're looking at it, you need to twist the yarns, regardless of whether you're on the knit or the purl side of the piece.
The moments marked in red are right slants on the knit side:
The twist in that case would look like this:
On the purl side, the right slant color changes happen along this red line and also require a twist:
The twist on the purl side looks like this:
If the design is slanting to the LEFT, like this:
Or like this:
You don't need to twist the yarns at all. You can just drop the old yarn and start knitting or purling with the new yarn.
If you find this right versus left slant confusing (sometimes I do!), it's fine to just always twist the yarns. When in doubt, twist!
June 30, 2008
Reader Comments (15)
Since there is blue on both sides of the star, will there be a blue bobbin for both sides with blue yarn? ie: blue bobbin, white bobbin, blue bobbin?
Also, when at the end of the pattern, do you just drop one of the blue bobbins and the white bobbin and start knitting again with all blue?
Thanks in advance!
There is no such thing as a dumb question in knitting!
Yes, you will need two bobbins in white and three in blue at the bottom of the star.
At the end, just drop the bobbins and knit with all blue.
This was so useful,i forgot to check your tutorial before i started the baby hat pattern.Im following Amy Barht"s baby hat pattern which has this intartia technique.Im almot done with the hat and now im seeing there is a lot oF puckering on the right side of the wrk.Is there a way i can make it straight??I was thinking of cutting the yarn and tieing knots at the back.Please help!
The cabling might help, but the main thing to do, even though you are not carrying the yarn across the stitches, is to twist the new color up around the old color before you start knitting with it. This will secure the two colors together. Hope this helps!
I just have one question: how can you distinguish between the diagonal twist and the vertical twist? I have this patter I am doing, it's a phoenix bird, but I can't seem to find when the vertical twists are and when the diagonal twists are. Please respond when you get a chance. Thanks so much!
I've looked in books & on the web but can't find anything about this.
Thanks for any help you can give.
Let's say you're on the knit side, knitting along with the blue. You would stop where you want to change colors, twist the yarn following the tutorial's instructions for a right slanting twist (just leaving a little slack for the short distance the green has to travel), knit the green until 3 stitches past the blue, and continue to knit with the blue, again leaving a little slack, this time in the blue (no twist necessary because it's a left leaning color change!).
In this case, three stitches is not a very long way for your yarn to travel, but if the distance gets significant, you may need to start a new ball.
I hope this helps clarify! If not, please ask again and we'll work it out!
Whitney
Any advice for if you realize a few rows later that you didn't wrap for a row or two of color change? I have a big old nasty hole that I REALLY don't want to have to rip down to fix.
If there are is a tail nearby, you could use it to sew up the holes. Or you could use a new piece of yarn to sew them up, weaving in its ends when you're done.
I hope this helps! Thanks for asking!
Whitney