Ask the Experts: What is Ladderback Jacquard?

Editor’s note: Every once in a while a technique or trick comes along in knitting that makes us ask, “Why didn’t someone tell me about that sooner?” Ladderback Jacquard is one of those techniques. We asked Maker Festivals instructor and knitting expert Amy Snell to tell us more about this technique. Read on to find out why she loves it!

Challenges with Traditional Stranded Colorwork

Everything that makes stranded (or Fair Isle) knitting challenging for me as a fabric, Ladderback Jacquard makes better. I don’t like that stranded sections of fabric have so much less stretch than non-stranded sections. I am frustrated with the way that caught or locked floats, no matter how carefully worked, show somewhat on the front side of my knitting, especially in highly contrasting colors. Even when the colors don’t obviously show, there’s often a slight pucker or unevenness in the knitting where the float was caught.

Because of these issues, I used to float across long sections of stitches—as many as nine or ten—rather than catch floats. That had its own drawbacks, of course, necessitating very even tension and a commitment to spreading my stitches “just so” in order to keep such long floats rigorously consistent. And no matter how carefully worked, such a long float can result in a loose first stitch when the floated strand is worked again.

Finally, of course, there is an absolute upper limit to how far an unworked strand can be carried, even if that does vary from knitter to knitter. This means that stranded colorwork patterns need to make concessions to function. Spare stitches in the contrast color are generally included in the patterning in order to limit the number of non-worked stitches in any given row. This is often done quite masterfully but sometimes creates patterning with “white noise” of scattered contrast color stitches in what might look more attractive as a plain background.

What Ladderback Jacquard Can Fix

It seems like almost too much to hope that one technique would solve all of stranded knitting’s problems, but Ladderback Jacquard comes very, very close to being a universal solution to all of these issues. Introducing extra stretch to the fabric? Check. Eliminating the visible evidence of caught floats? Check. Fixing issues with tensioning? For most knitters, yes. Allowing a knitter to carry a contrasting color behind an unlimited number of stitches? Yep, that too. Using Ladderback Jacquard, one could, if desired, place a single motif in one place in a piece of knitted fabric—for instance a design on the front of a sweater—and bring the unused color all the rest of the way around the work on the inside without it showing. In effect, one could knit something resembling intarsia without the need for bobbins or extra balls of yarn.

How Ladderback Jacquard Works

The secret to the process involves creating small ladders of stitches on the back of the work every so often in the unworked color, allowing the contrasting yarn to “come along for the ride” without getting involved in the stitches that show on the right side of the work. It’s a clever little trick that comes to us by way of machine knitters, although it’s worked in a slightly different way there. The ladders can be worked as often as necessary to keep the work even and stretchy and the stitches uniform, and because they are worked at the back of the fabric they don’t show to the front of the work.

Where Ladderback Jacquard really shines is in bringing those just-a-bit-too-many-stitch motifs back within reach of the average colorwork knitter. Its extreme versatility—it can be used for short or long stretches of the work, appearing and disappearing as desired—makes it such a helpful addition to stranded colorwork that most knitters, when they learn it, tend to ask, “Why did no one tell me about this before?!?”

I know, knitters, I know. I had the same reaction once I realized how much flexibility this one tiny little tool added to my color knitting. It remains a lesser-known technique but one I am passionate about teaching to as many knitters as I can, and one I encourage all colorwork knitters to pursue. Maybe I’ll meet up with you in one of my classes soon. If so, I bet you, too, will wonder, “Why didn’t I know about this sooner?”

Have you ever tried Ladderback Jacquard? Share your experience in the comments below!

Amy Snell is a knitting instructor and designer with an eye for the unusual or unusually captivating. She enjoys teaching unique techniques and stitch patterns that bring color, contrast, and texture into knitting in new or interesting ways. She frequently shares tips and tricks on her website, www.DeviousKnitter.com, and can be found as @DeviousKnitter on social media.