Stitches

How can I switch colors effectively while knitting?

I am knitting a blanket and I plan to have words and a picture on it. How can I switch colors? Also, I made up the pattern on my own using graph paper. I know when you knit, that the first stitch on the needle, becomes the last stitch when you finish that whole row. I don't want colors mixed up. How can I tweak my pattern? Thank you for reading.

Public Comments

1. There are three ways to knit with more than one color: Fair Isle, also known as stranding; intarsia; and double knitting. You can see instructional videos for all three at KnittingHelp.com (http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/advanced-techniques and scroll down to 2-color knitting). Basically, if you knit a few stitches at a time in color and change colors often, Fair Isle is probably the method of choice. You knit a few stitches in one color, drop that color, and pick up the new color from under the dropped color. Then carry the dropped color along the back side of your knitting. If you carry the yarn for more than four or five stitches before using it again, you'll need to twist the two yarns every three or four stitches. If you knit large sections of a color, intarsia is the preferred method. With intarsia, you'll drop the old color and leave it without carrying it along. You'll need to be sure that the yarns are twisted to avoid holes in your work. If you don't want the blanket to have a right side and a wrong side, you might seriously consider double knitting. It makes a double-thick blanket with two right sides and the color changes do not show because they are between the two thicknesses. Good luck with your project.
2. Hmm -- that is an interesting way of looking at it. "when you knit, that the first stitch on the needle, becomes the last stitch when you finish that whole row." Not quite the way I would state it, but I guess it's alright if that is how you can understand it. There are several different ways to produce patterns using colour in your blanket. One of them is "intarsia". That means that you would work in blocks of colour, and when you come to a spot that requires another colour, you would drop the one you have, and then pickup and knit with the new one, and so forth throughout the whole row. You knit the whole blanket row by row as always, only changing colour when required. This is very similar to the way your printer prints colour -- row by row, and changes colour as required. Hmm.. wonder which came first?! That means that you will need to have a separate ball of yarn for each colour change along the row. They don't have to be a full ball -- if you can estimate the amount you need, you can wind off a smaller ball for that area. You need to work carefully, to avoid making a tangled mess, and it is possible to keep it neat if you are organized. So, basically, this is what you do: knit with colour A until you come the stitches requiring a new colour. You just let Colour A hang off the back, and start up with colour B. You want to twist A and B together so they interlock (clearer on the next row) and just knit as many stitches as required. When starting a new colour, leave a short tail which will be woven into the back later on. When you come to a spot where the colour needs to change again, do the same thing. Drop colour B and start colour C. You may have to use colour A, but you will need a new ball of yarn than you used in the first section. It may mean you have 14 or more balls across the row! There is one ball of yarn for each colour change. When you come to the end of the row, you turn and knit back. Again, when it's time to change colours, drop the old colour, and pick up the new one. I like to drop the old towards the left, and pick up the new one from under it on the right, so that these colours link arms (twist around each other), and you won't have a hole showing later. You would continue row by row, following your graph pattern to know when to change colours. If you have only one stitch of a colour in the middle of a larger coloured section, you can sometimes carry yarn over a few stitches, or you can do a duplicate stitch when you are finished (like embroidery), for example, eyes or noses. It's not difficult to do (just regular knitting), but you need to be quite organized, and work carefully and neatly. Stop quite often to untangle any yarns before they get too much of a mess to clear up later. It's really fun to do. You do need to have a clear graph written so you know what colour to use when, and be really organized. Search on the net for some pictures of people doing this (now that you know what it is called).