So far I’ve been working with one color yarn only. I rarely even do stripes. But there are so many beautiful stranded projects I’ve been seeing on Ravelry lately, and I finally felt ready to tackle it.
I knit Continental style, and I found a stranded video tutorial on YouTube by Garnstudio Drops Design that was helpful.
I started with the DRIPS pattern by Bethany Hill, using some leftover gray yarn for the main color on a sort of salmon color for the contrast. Even though the labels said they were worsted weight, the salmon colored yarn felt lighter and seemed thinner. This, plus the fact that I didn’t carry the long floats properly and had some tension issues didn’t quite work. Plus the hat was a little too long and slouchy for my taste. I think I may frog it and redo the hat eventually.
I forged on ahead with another colorwork project because I can’t just give up on a technique. Practice makes perfect, after all! Using some leftover Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice yarn, I knitted up a Love the Winter Hat by Emily Dormier. The pattern is so adorable, and I happened to have white and purple yarn as in her featured images. The hat went a little better since I carried the longer floats, but I still had some tension issues, and I was still trying to figure out how to hold the yarn.
I had plenty of leftover yarn from the first Love the Winter Hat so I made another. Practice, practice, practice! I found another video on how to carry floats so that helped a bit more. For some reason though, my tension got very tight during the Fair Isle pattern so the hat’s a bit smaller than expected.
I wish I had seen Eunny Jang’s method for managing yarns and carrying floats much earlier. That, plus this other video for catching back yarn; would have improved my earlier projects. I ended up holding the main color on the left hand and the contrast color on the right hand. I still have some tension issues so I’m curious about getting a yarn guide and holding both yarns on the left hand since I use the Continental method.
I think my latest project is greatly improved though. The pattern is Smalt by Cailliau Berangere; it is absolutely gorgeous, and I’d love to make more Smalt hats. Of course my gauge was somehow messed up so I didn’t do the increase as noted in her pattern, but it fits my husband perfectly. For this one, I picked with my left hand and threw with my right which seemed to go a little better.
