One of those things that knitting books never seem to cover is the issue of decreasing gracefully in pattern when you’re knitting ribbing. What I’ve worked out for myself is a method I call “merge left.”

Allow me to throw down some ASCII on you:

===K K P P K K P P ==>

That’s a representation of the left-hand needle, as you face it. Say we want to decrease four stitches, starting with the first one on the needle (that purl stitch furthest to the right).

To merge left, knit or purl the stitches together, based on the stitch on the left. Pretend like the left-hand stitch is eating the one to its right. In this case, we would purl the first two stitches together, and end up with:

===K K P P K K P ==>

Next time I come around, I’ll knit the first two stitches together (since the one to the left is a knit stitch).

===K K P P K K ==>

I’m sure there are a lot of ways to handle this sort of decrease, this is just the one I’ve found on my own. Suggestions in the comments will be gratefully received as always!

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For those of us who are easily distracted whilst knitting.

This is not a decrease round.

This is a decrease round.

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Intarsia is a tricky beast. I finally mastered the technique after many, many hours of sweat and tears. I thought I would give you a quick run-down of what I’ve learned, in the hopes that it will spare you some of the torment.

I am kind of a dolt with things like this, so the first thing I do is line up the yarns in the correct order, with the right side of the work facing me. I find this to be a really, really helpful way to start.

The first challenge with intarsia is the question of how to wrap the color changes. If you don’t wrap the yarns correctly, you will have holes in your work. (Not good!)

What you want to do is wrap the old color back against itself (which is to say, back against the part you’ve just knit with it) and bring the new color up from the inside of that loop.

This means that when you’re working on the right side, you’ll wrap the old color away from you and to the right.

When you’re working on the wrong side, you’ll wrap the old color towards you and to the right.

Just remember to wrap it against itself, and bring the new color up from inside the loop.

2. To maintain even tension, I wrap the old color back, then hold it in place with my right middle and ring finger for a few stitches. Don’t worry too much about the tension, though - you can totally correct tension issues in blocking, and afterwards by picking at the stitches with a needle.

3. The next big issue is the tangling of the yarn. You may have heard this business about how “it will tangle itself one way, then untangle when you work the other direction.” You may have tried intarsia, and dismissed this bit as an urban legend. I am here to tell you - it is true!

BUT.

Two things:

A. When you get to the end of the row and turn the work, be sure to turn it one way and then the other. Turns out that I habitually keep turning it in the same direction - around and around in a spiral. What you want to do is turn it one way at the end of a right side row, then turn it the other way at the end of a wrong side row.

Whether you turn it counter-clockwise and then clockwise, or clockwise and then counter-clockwise, does not (I think) matter. Just be sure that you turn it back and then forth.

B. When you turn it to work a wrong-side row, before you start knitting, flip the yarn ends up over the top, so that they dangle over the back.

I don’t know why, but when I don’t do this, the ends get all tangled up. I think that keeping them on the “correct” (i.e. the reverse) side helps me when I’m trying to pick one strand up out from the tangle of the others. Or it could just be superstition.

4. Remember that as you continue to work with intarsia, it will get easier. You will get better. It’s kind of a skull-buster at first, but before you know it, you’ll be switching colors without even pausing to think about it. I promise.

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