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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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Thanks for the lesson! I love that scarf — my imagination runs wild when I think of possible color combinations.
Comment by kmkat —
11/26/2006 @ 9:37 am
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Great tutorial. I love the colors you’re using.
Comment by Norah —
11/26/2006 @ 10:01 am
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Thanks, Norah and kmkat! I think of myself as an intarsia advocate. For too long, it has been the provenance of sweaters with reindeer and other hideous creations. It can do so much more!
I am convinced that if intarsia can shake of its bad name (and reputation for difficulty), knitters could use it to make some really fantastic things.
Comment by Erika —
11/26/2006 @ 11:01 am
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My only attempt at this produced a piece with open sections wherever the color changed. Grrrrrrrrrr
Comment by Holly Burnham —
11/26/2006 @ 12:48 pm
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Your explanations and photos are very good. one other thing I found very helpful with my intarsia tartan jacket (with 10 separate balls of yarn) was to keep the RS facing and knit back backwards.
something I haven’t done yet is non rectangular intarsia. I don’t quite see how to wrap correctly when doing so on diagonals. You succeeded with this with Tux. maybe I just need to try it.
Comment by Dorothy —
11/26/2006 @ 1:41 pm
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