Intarsia is a visually striking knitted fabric, with large blocks of colour or complex patterns not possible using stranded methods. Intarsia pattern instructions usually tell the knitter to twist the colours together, but don’t really specify how to do this to achieve a neat effect. I have found that just holding the two yarns in a particular way allows them to naturally lock together forming a line on the reverse of the fabric, without bumps or exaggerated twists. This is intuitive and quickly becomes a natural way of working.
The join between two colours shown on the reverse
The join when viewed from the front
This is how I do it.
Stocking Stitch Colour Joining
Work to the point at which the colours are to be joined, in this case, the join is a straight line
Hold the yarn you have been working with out of the way, and bring the new colour under the old. Here, the old colour is green (on the left) and the new colour is orange (on the right).
The view at the back of the work, old colour above, new colour coming from the right and below.
Start working with the new colour (orange).
The back view at this stage
Having purled back to the point of the join, this is what it looks like
After a few rows, the back of the piece shows the neat pattern of the join
The join front view
Garter Colour Join
The method here is the same as for stocking stitch at the front of the work, but for the back of the piece it is a little more complicated.
The back of the piece, the orange has been kit to the join, the orange yarn is still at the front of the piece
Bring the “old” working yarn through the gap to the back of the piece; “new” working yarn is the green below the orange
Holding the old orange to the left, bring the new green under and up
Pass the new green to the front of the piece over the old orange and adjust tension
Knitting with the new green yarn
The view of the back, showing the pattern for both stocking stitch joins and garter stitch joins are the same
Knots and bobbles add texture and interest to knitted garments and accessories, but there is no denying the fact that making them interrupts the flow of knitting. Bobbles, with their multi-row construction, can be such a distraction that people avoid adding them, which is a shame as they do look fabulous particularly tucked in amidst cables and other textured stitches. I find knots, however, are much easier to knit and look just as effective as bobbles, whilst taking less time to make and cause less disruption to the flow of knitting.
Knots can be made in any size, just use an odd number of stitches – 3 for small, 5 for medium, 7 for enormous (depending upon your yarn weight). They can be placed in the body of a garment or used as a type of picot along a cast off edge to add stretch and interest. Here I describe how I make the small cast off variety, followed by the larger surface detail knots. The basic principal is the same for any size of knot, edge or body.
Small Knots on a Cast Off Edge
Cast off up to the point where the small knot will be made, marked with a calabash pin. The cast off stitch on the RH needle, here, waits its turn.
Purl, knit, purl into the marked stitch (you could used k, p, k depending on the pattern, but purl first and last helps the knot to “sit” on the RS surface)
Reading from the left, pass the 2nd stitch on the RH needle over the 1st
Pass the 3rd stitch over the 1st
Pass the cast off stitch over the remaining knot stitch
The completed small edge knot, with the cast off stitches tucked behind it to enhance its prominence
The completed edge showing a small 3-stitch knot in the centre of the curved edge, flanked by two 5-stitch knots
Close-up of the small 3-stitch knot, an unobtrusive but neat detail on the edge of a cape
Large Knots as Surface Detail
Large knots add texture and interest on the surface of a garment, and I find they are easier to make than bobbles.
At the point where the knot is to be made, (purl, knit, purl, knit, purl) into the stitch designated (you could used (k, p, k, p, k) depending on the pattern, but purl first and last helps the knot to “sit” on the RS surface). Here I am working into a slipped knit stitch.
A clearer view of the five stitches in one
Reading from the left, pass the 2nd stitch on the RH needle over the 1st
Pass the 3rd stitch over the 1st
Pass the 4th stitch over the 1st
Pass the 5th and last stitch over the 1st
The completed large knot
The completed knot after working a few more rows/rounds of the fabric
The samples shown here are of the Yule cape, second in the Wheel of the Year collection of shawls and accessories. The pattern will be published in December 2024.
In the Samhain shawl/cowl pattern, two variations of the lifted increase are used to achieve invisible shaping. Normally, lifted increases are designated either left- or right-leaning; but in Samhain I have chosen a slightly different approach, and this is fully described in the pattern itself. The photo tutorial here is in support of the pattern and is not a substitute for the detailed description given in the pattern. I have named the two increases as m1k and m1p; both are shown here.
M1K
I have reached the increase marker for the i-cord edge, the last stitch I worked was a slip stitch
Lift the purl bump of the i-cord edge stitch with RH needle
Place the stitch untwisted onto the LH needle
Knit into the purl bump through the back loop
M1P
I have reached my increase marker, this time, the last stitch worked was a knit stitch
Lift the purl bump of the i-cord edge stitch with RH needle
Place the stitch onto the LH needle without twisting
I-cord makes a stretchy and effective edging to a shawl, especially when it carries on from an i-cord edge along one side of said shawl. I use this bind off in my Samhain shawl/cowl, and I like the way it curves around to blunt and shape the corner of the shawl. Samhain is a double-layered accessory and for the cast off, in order to avoid flaring, the two layers are treated as one.
This is how it is worked
Knit the first two i-cord edge stitches, slip the third i-cord edge stitch knitwise
The three i-cord edge stitches are now on the RH needle. The next stitch is a knit, so I will slip that also knitwise.
The third i-cord edge stitch and the first (knit) stitch have been knitted together through the back loop – a standard ssk
Pass the three stitches from RH to LH needle without twisting them
Knit the first two i-cord edge stitches again, slip the third knitwise, then treating the next two stitches as one unit, slip them also knitwise
Knit the three slipped stitches together through the back loop
The three stitches on the RH needle are now the i-cord cast off, and the curve of the corner is already evident
Pass the three i-cord stitches back to the LH needle
A few more stitches cast off and the corner has taken shape with a smooth curve
The end of the i-cord, the yarn has been broken and threaded through the last stitches
At the end of the i-cord, break the yarn, secure the last stitch, and thread a darning needle. Work a mock knit stitch over the corner and weave the end in to the i-cord and between the layers of the fabric.
A knitted on lace edging is a neat and beautiful way of finishing a shawl or blanket of any size or shape. It involves provisionally casting on for the edge, and, as you knit the lacy edge, gradually incorporating the live edge stitches from the shawl. The incorporation usually takes the form of using ssk (slip, slip, knit) to slip one edging stitch and one shawl stitch, then knitting them together through the back loop. The join is performed on every right side row, so one shawl stitch is bound off for every two edging rows knitted.
I shall illustrate this with a sample using the edging of the Wild Geese Hap (pattern available from the Granary Knits store), a square blanket with a pretty garter lace edging.
The setup up
The pattern for the edging will tell you how many stitches to provisionally cast on; using a length of waste yarn, cast on the required number of stitches. There are lots of tutorials on Youtube for provisional cast ons, some use crochet chains, some knit a few garter rows in waste yarn; experiment to find the one that is best for you.
Identify the point on the edge of shawl where you will be starting, right side facing unless otherwise specified. The pattern should tell you where this is but will probably be the point where your live stitches start. In the example below, on the Wild Geese Hap, I start 1 stitch in from the corner and work one side first before I come to a corner.
the ‘blanket’ (left) and the provisional stitches (right) positioned to begin joining
Using the working yarn for your shawl/blanket, work the first row of the edging until you reach the last stitch; the chart will probably show this as a ssk. Slip the last stitch of the edging knitwise, then slip the first live stitch you will be working on the shawl, also knitwise. Place the tip of the left-hand needle through the front of the two stitches on the right-hand needle, so that the needles are positioned as though you were about to knit them together through the back loop; knit them together through the back loop. You have made your first join stitch.
the slipped stitches ready to be knit through back loop
Turn the work and continue with the second row of the edging; this will almost certainly start with slipping the first stitch with yarn in front, which helps the edging to sit neatly and twists the stitch creating a decorative join.
First 2 rows of the edging completed
You will find, as you work, that you are knitting the edge on in an anti-clockwise direction around the shawl; it is possible to work clockwise, but most patterns for this type of edging will work anti-clockwise, because it is simpler.
1 edging repeat completed1 side of the ‘blanket’ edging completed
Turning a corner
If the shawl or blanket you are working is circular, you will just carry on working the edging until you reach your starting point then graft the two edges together. If your shawl is triangular or square, however, you will have to turn the corner, and this will involve working extra edging repeat(s) in order to make a smooth turn. In the case of the Wild Geese Hap, the pattern has an obvious spine stitch marking the corner; I use this and the stitches either side of it for 1 repeat of the edging, i.e. I bind off 3 blanket stitches instead of 7. This is done by working multiple edging joins into 1 blanket stitch; here I work 2 into the first of the 3 corner stitches, 3 into the spine stitch, and 2 into the third blanket stitch.
Begin by working the first 2 rows of the edging as normal, joining into the first of the 3 corner stitches;Â on row 3, when you reach the point of joining, slip the first stitch, then put the needle into the previously worked blanket corner stitch and lift it up so that you can knit into the back of the two loops.
working into the 1st corner stitch for a second time
Continue with edging rows 4 and 5, joining into the corner spine stitch; continue with rows 6 and 7, until you reach the join stitch; slip the first stitch as usual, then put the needle into the previously worked corner spine stitch and lift it up so that you can knit into the back of the two loops.
1st working into the corner spine stitch2nd working into the corner spine stitch
Repeat, so that you have 3 edge joining stitches into the one corner spine stitch.
Continue with the edging rows, and repeat the joining of two edge join stitches into the third corner stitch on the blanket.
joining into the third corner stitch
You should now have completed one repeat of the edging pattern turning the corner, binding off three corner stitches.
the complete turned corner
The hap corner on the blocking frame
Joining the end to the beginning
Once you have completed all the edging repeats and all the shawl/blanket stitches have been bound off, it is time to complete the edging by joining the live stitches to the provisional cast on.
For an invisible join, use Kitchener stitch/grafting; alternatively you could perform a three-needle bind off but this will leave a ridge on the underside of the shawl/blanket edge.
If you enjoy working Kitchener stitch, then this will hold no fears for you. If you don’t enjoy Kitchener stitch, well there is some good news – garter Kitchener is much much easier than stocking stitch Kitchener! Just to be on the safe side, I put a lifeline through the live stitches and through the cast on stitches (I didn’t need it but it was worth doing for peace of mind!). Also, I practised on a couple of samples, shown below in green yarn. It may seem like a lot of trouble to go to, but it ensured I did not make a mess of my edging when I came to do it for real.
The trick, with garter Kitchener, is to ensure that your two rows of stitches are aligned properly. You are going to be creating one additional row, therefore, when knitting your final edging repeat, you omit the very last row of the repeat as this is the row you will be creating with Kitchener stitch. You work on the right side of the knitting throughout.
The first step is to undo the provisional cast on, and place the stitches from the first row of the edge onto a needle. The needle should be facing the same way as the needle holding your live end stitches. I began, as you can see, from the blanket end and worked out to the pointed edge. The calabash pins are there purely to mark the right sides for me.
Top piece is the end of the edging, lower piece is the start of the edging, right sides facing you
Cut your working yarn leaving a very long tail, at least 3 times the length of the seams to be grafted, to ensure you do not run out. Thread the tail onto a blunt-ended needle (mine is purple as you can see).
First the set up: Put the sewing needle tip through the first stitch on the lower needle, purlwise, and pull the yarn tail through. Leave the stitch on the needle.
Â
Put the sewing needle tip through the first stitch on the upper needle, purlwise, and pull the yarn tail through. Leave the stitch on the needle.
Â
Now the repeated stitches start: Put the sewing needle tip through the first stitch on the lower needle, knitwise, and pull the yarn tail through. Take the stitch off the lower needle.
Â
Put the sewing needle tip through the first stitch on the lower needle, purlwise, and pull the yarn tail through. Leave the stitch on the lower needle.
Put the sewing needle tip through the first stitch on the upper needle, knitwise, and pull the yarn tail through. Take the stitch off the upper needle. Then purlwise through the next stitch on the upper needle and leave the stitch on the needle.
Continue in this way, until all stitches have been joined. The mantra for garter Kitchener stitch is:
Lower Needle: Knit and slip off, Purl and leave on. Upper Needle: Knit and slip off, Purl and leave on.
The completed graft on the hap blanket, in between the two pale blue lifelines, is invisible and lies flat.
I hope that you found this tutorial helpful and will be encouraged to try knitted on lace edges.
There are, of course, several ways to knit a mitten, and I have tried most of them. My favourite technique, at the moment, is to knit the thumb first, place it on waste yarn, and then begin the mitten at the fingertip end, knitting down the hand until you reach the point when you incorporate the thumb. You can try the mitten on at every stage, to get the most comfortable width for you and the best length before you add in the thumb. It also has the advantage that the technique for casting on for full mittens is identical to that for toe-up socks, so if you are a sock knitter, the method is entirely familiar.
This technique is used in several of my mitten patterns: Fingerless Feather Mittens, Full Feather Mittens, and my free pattern for sock yarn mittens; this photo tutorial is an aid to those patterns. The thumb is incorporated into the mitten and a gusset is then knit to taper the mitten.
Thumb
First, knit your thumb, according to the pattern you are using. This can be a half-thumb (for fingerless mittens) or a full thumb.
Thread the first 2 stitches and the last 2 stitches of the round onto a small piece of waste yarn, and thread the remaining stitches of the thumb onto a longer piece of waste yarn.
Mitten
Work the first part of the mitten, from fingertip/fingerless mitt ribbing, to the point where the thumb joins the palm. The mittens are identical for the purposes of attaching the thumbs. Ensure you have worked the mitten to 2 stitches before the end of the round where you will attach the thumb. Using a piece of waste yarn, thread the two stitches from the beginning of the mitten round and the 2 unworked stitches from the end of the round onto the waste yarn, as you did for the thumbs.
Take one of the pre-prepared thumbs and remove the longer piece of waste yarn as you place half the remaining thumb stitches onto one of the mitten needles and the other half onto the other needle; the 4 stitches still on the waste yarn should be sitting adjacent to the mitten stitches also on waste yarn.
Round 1: Knit around the mitten and thumb once, the start of round now being the last mitten stitch of the round, adjacent to the first thumb stitch.
Round 2: ssk the first mitten stitch with the first thumb stitch, knit across the thumb to the last thumb stitch, k2tog the last thumb stitch with the next mitten stitch. Knit around the mitten to the end of round. [2 stitches decreased]
Round 3: knit
Repeat rounds 2 and 3 until all thumb stitches have been decreased.
Knit straight until mitten reaches your wrist bone, then add the cuff of your choice.
Once the gusseted thumb has been incorporated into the mitten, you can close the gap by grafting/Kitchener stitching the 4 stitches of the mitten with the 4 stitches of the thumb. See YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJFRI-_EQeA for a great tutorial on Kitchener Stitch.
90% of all knitters have never swatched before they launch into making a garment. I just made that statistic up, but I imagine you have either said yourself, or heard a knitting friend say, “I can’t be bothered to knit a swatch, I’ll just knit the sweater/cardigan/hat and I’m sure it will be OK”. Perhaps it will be OK, perhaps it won’t. You may have the knack of matching, exactly, the gauge of the test knit garment, but it is highly unlikely.
What is Gauge?
Gauge is the tension used by the designer when knitting the test garment, using the yarn and needle sizes specified. It is the tension you need to match in order to obtain the correct size/fit for your garment from the instructions given in the pattern.
Gauge is usually measured over a square of knitted fabric just over 10cm (4inches) square. The pattern will tell you if this is measured over stocking stitch (stockinette) or garter stitch, or over a portion of the pattern such as a lace repeat. Ideally the swatch should be washed in the way recommended by the yarn manufacturer and blocked to size so that the number of stitches across and the number of rows down can be measured accurately for a 10cm square.
If, having knitted your swatch, washed it, blocked it and measured it, you find that you have too many stitches/rows in your sample you need to use a larger needle; go up half a millimetre and re-swatch. If you find you have too few stitches/rows in your first sample, then you need to go down a needle size and re-swatch.
Some Sums
The photograph above shows the difference a tiny 0.25mm needle change can have on a finished article. The top stocking stitch swatch was knitted on 3.75mm needles (the size recommended for the yarn) and the gauge I obtained was 20.5 stitches and 28 rows in a 10cm (4 inch) square, marked by the coloured threads. With the same yarn I went down a size to 3.5mm needles and my gauge was 22 stitches and 30 rows.
This may seem a fiddling small problem, but supposing you were knitting a sweater sized to be 50 inches around, using that yarn and 3.75mm needles, and the tension of the pattern says 22stsx30rows, but you are knitting at a tension of 20.5stsx28rows. For every 4 inches widthways you are knitting 1.5 stitches too many; that is 19 stitches too many in total on every row, or an additional 4 inches/10cm of fabric. For a loose garment you may be able to live with that, but for something that was meant to fit to the form, it would not work.
The length matters, too. This imaginary sweater may have a specific pattern that has been carefully constructed to require 300 rows, that is ten lots of 10cm/4inches/30rows. But your tension gives 28 rows to the 10cm, and so your garment, knitted to the pattern, will actually be the same number of rows but three inches longer than the pattern specifies.
And that is just with a difference in needle size of 0.25mm!
So overall, your lovely imaginary sweater is too large by a piece of fabric measuring 4 inches by 40 inches plus a piece of fabric measuring 54 inches by 3 inches; that is a lot of fabric and a lot of yarn to waste on a sweater that will not fit well when it is finished.
Two swatches of the same pattern in Aran weight yarn, to determine tension for a tunic
Alternatives to Swatching
Swatching and re-swatching takes time and yarn, and most knitters, having decided to knit something, want to get started. You may not have enough of a precious skein to knit a swatch as well as the garment; you may be constrained by time. Sometimes, knitting the first part (say, the welt and first part of the back of a sweater) is enough to give you an idea that you are on the right track with tension; it is not too much to have to unpick if the tension is out.
If you are knitting an item, such as a shawl, you can usually dispense with a swatch, as long as you are confident you have enough yarn to cover the eventuality that the finished item is larger than the pattern specifies. With items such as socks and hats, having an idea of your own tension using typical sock yarn or 4ply/fingering would be invaluable in ensuring a good fit. After all, you would not want to go to the trouble of knitting a Fair Isle Tam only to find that it is too tight to fit your head! Nor would you want to knit socks that bag at the ankles because your tension is not accurate.
Other reasons to Swatch
A swatch of a portion of edging, to test a pattern
When designing a garment or item, swatching is essential to the process. Unless you are a very skilled and experienced designer, it is very difficult to picture a pattern written on paper as the finished article/edging/cuff/etc. A swatch immediately shows up any flaws or inconsistencies in the design.
Designing is a process of refining until the desired effect is reached. This involves a lot of drawing, experimenting and swatching, and is rarely achieved by simply picking up needles and yarn and casting on. The next time you buy a pattern for a beautiful shawl, with a complex and challenging pattern, you can be sure that the designer spent months and months drawing and swatching, charting and reswatching, until s/he was heartily sick of the pattern!
So my advice to knitters is, bite the bullet and swatch. It may take you a couple of hours and an extra ball of yarn, but the finished results will be worth it.
The vast majority of knitters and crocheters go through life never having used a stitch marker. Even if they do need a marker for a project – to indicate a placeholder in a pattern repeat for instance, or to show where a round begins when knitting something in the round or crocheting in a spiral – they are quite likely to grab the nearest scrap of spare yarn, knot it into a little ring and slide it onto their needle or loop it through a crochet stitch. Â It doesn’t matter that it is cumbersome to use, won’t slip easily from one needle to the next, or gets inexplicably knitted into the fabric! It is only needed the once and can be discarded at the end of the project.
Old cheap earrings dismantled and about to be turned into stitch markers
If, however, you are like me, Â and you love knitting complicated lace patterns, or intricate Fair Isle designs, then you find you need a constant supply of markers, and the little yarn rings are no longer adequate, indeed they are shown up as the irritating awkward things that they are, actually impacting your creativity and slowing your productivity.
Bracelet charms, old earrings and pendants – all get used to create unique markers
I took up lace knitting about eight years ago and immediately found that I had to buy some markers, as the pattern repeats were difficult to follow and the yarn loop markers were inadequate. I bought a set of five markers from my local yarn store, which had imported them from a women’s collective in India. They were fabulous, colourful paper beads made from recycled material, and they worked very well, but there was one small problem; the large ring that slips onto the knitting needle was a jump ring, and with use began to open slightly. It only took a very small gap to occur and my yarn kept getting caught in the ring, and I had to keep stopping and disentangling the yarn before I could continue knitting. I bought a second set, this time online, and since they were specially modelled polymer clay, they were quite expensive – but they were in the shape of chickens so well worth it! I experienced the same problem – the gap in the jump ring eased slightly open and the yarn snagged. So the price didn’t matter, the construction was the issue.
My husband, whose hobby is electronics, came up with a solution; solder the jump ring shut. He did this for the first set I had bought, and when I saw how effective the result was, I asked him to teach me soldering so that I could make some more markers.
Knitting the Nightsongs shawl using dozens of markers to keep track of the leaf pattern
I riffled through my jewellery box and came up with a couple of pairs of fancy, cheap earrings, the kind you buy to wear on holiday and then push to the back of a drawer when you get home. They were easy to take apart, and each pair yielded six or eight charms or beads. Once attached to 8mm jump rings – and soldered of course – these provided me with a tidy number of stitch markers.
Since then, I have made hundreds of stitch markers, from old bracelet charms and earrings, to new charms and beads found in the stash of shiny things left over from my early attempts at jewellery-making. Most I kept for myself, but some I gave to knitting friends and they encouraged me to try to sell them. Since opening the Etsy store in February 2016 I have supplied stitch markers to USA, Canada, Hong Kong, France, Spain, Denmark, and lots to the UK.
Not content with making markers from charms alone, I now design and make themed sets of markers, around ideas such as Deep in the Forest and Dreaming of the Sea – two of my most popular designs. My customers appreciate looking at and handling beautiful things and these marker sets are beautiful! I have lots of ideas for more themes this year.
Dreaming of the Sea
If you have never used stitch markers before, then take a look at my article on How to use Stitch Markers to see just how easy they are to use and what the benefits are in using them.
You may think that an article explaining how to use something as simple as a stitch marker is superfluous to requirements but I have been asked how and why I use them, even by experienced knitters, and I have found that a short demonstration is usually enough to convert someone to using (or at the very least trying) these extremely useful knitting tools.
This short video shows me knitting a fair isle tam in the round. The pattern has eight repeats, and so I am using eight markers, seven are the same design marker; the eighth is larger and is used to indicate the end of the round. The pattern I am knitting is the lovely Winter Forest Tam available free on Ravelry.
The finished tam looks like this, knitted in Debbie Bliss Fine Donegal, a lovely soft nubbly yarn perfect for fair isle projects:
I hope that, having seen the video you, will try using stitch markers. I’m sure you will find they help you in knitting both simple and complex patterns.
