Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Adding Color in the Round (Continental)

Sachi had mentioned a while back that adding color in the round was something that was a little intimidating and then asked if I would do a tutorial on adding color. I am happy to oblige and hope that you find this information useful.

Adding color in the round can be just as simple as adding color to flat work. The only difference is that I like to twist my yarn when adding the new color as to avoid a hole in the work. Here I show you how to twist the yarn when your working yarn is in your left hand and the yarn that you are changing colors from (or the old yarn) is in your right hand.


Step 1: Get your yarn ready. Have your working yarn ready to work in your left hand and your non-working (yarn you are changing from) in your right hand.


Step 2: Just as you normally would do to knit a stitch, stick your right-hand needle into the next stitch on the left needle.

Step 3: Wrap the yarn being held by your right hand around the right-hand needle as if to knit.

Step 4: While the yarn from your right hand is wrapped around the needle, wrap the working yarn around the right-hand needle as if to knit.

Step 5: Now that you have both of the yarns wrapped as if to knit, you need to unwind the yarn from your right-hand counter clockwise back around the working yarn.

Step 6: Draw the working yarn through the stitch.



Step 7: Slide the stitch off of the left hand needle as you would normally do when knitting

You now have your first stitch complete. You can continue to work in the round as you normally would.

Once you are comfortable and familiar with twisting the yarns, it will eventually become almost second nature. Twisting the yarn in this manner is the same way that I do it for working the right side of intarsia.

I will do two additional posts regarding color in the round. Tomorrows post will be for adding color for the English or Thrower and then how I avoid the "jog" when working color in the round.

6 comments:

Sachi said...

You know, this is definately something that I needed. Thanks!

Melissa said...

Thanks! I can't wait to see how to avoid the jog

Anonymous said...

I'm so grateful for your tutorials, especially as you're showing/explaining both versions, the english style one as well as the continental one - I'm knitting the latter way, but am very curious to one day try the english version as well, so this will come in very handy! I've been pretty reluctant so far to work with different colors in my knitting, but with your explanations now nothing should go wrong anymore. Thanks so much!

Bailey said...

This is something I have been searching for FOR EVER. You are a life-saver. I have attempted to change colour like I do whilst flat knitting only to be left with annoying holes in my knitting, with which I was disgusted basically. Thanks again for posting this

JMac said...

Michelle,
My new color remains unstable or loose at the initial connection/twist. What am i doing wrong? I guess my pitfall is that i dont know intarsia. I was able to get the twist to work well enough to then complete the whole first row of the new color. When I got back to that stitch to begin round 2, it just loosened up like a "lost cast on stitch".

By the way, your tutorials are some of the BEST on the web for circular needles! This is the first one I struggled with at all...light years beyond most knitting documentation. :)

Thanks!

Michelle said...

Thanks, JMac! I am sorry you are having trouble with loosening stitches. Without seeing what has happened, I would suggest tightening the loose stitch after a few stitches or on the next round when you get to the loose stitch, tightening the loose stitch. If you are still having problems feel free to email me. My email address is michellecanknit@sbcglobal.net