Comfort in Plaid: How to Knit Plaid Patterning

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From Scottish tartans to a well-worn flannel shirt, a favorite pair of pajamas or grandma’s tablecloth, plaids evoke traditional, down-home comfort. Plaid has several definitions but has come to generally describe a pattern of colorwork consisting of intersecting vertical and horizontal stripes. Typically found in woven fabrics, plaid also works up beautifully in knits. 

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Featured above: Sempiturnal Wrap by Fiona Munro from Interweave Knits Fall 2021.

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A woven plaid usually consists of a simple structure of strands of yarn running lengthwise, called warp, interlaced (over and under) with strands running crosswise, called weft. Vertical stripes are made by varying the color of the warp. Varying the color of the weft creates horizontal stripes.

Where weft and warp yarns of the same color intersect, solid-color blocks form in the cloth; where yarns of a different color intersect, the colors blend. For a plaid in two colors (A and B), there are three color effects (solid A, solid B, and a blend of A and B). With the addition of more colors, every blended block still contains only two colors—the colors of the horizontal and vertical stripes that intersect there. 

In weaving, the blocks of blended color are inherent to the structure of the weave and are unavoidable. In knitting, the placement of color is unrestricted. We can try to emulate woven plaids or come up with our own unique variations. Stripes can be uninterrupted lines of a single color. Blended areas can be eliminated altogether so that solid blocks of color alternate over the piece like a checkerboard. There are several construction techniques to choose from when knitting the stripes that make a plaid. 

Horizontal Stripes for Plaid Knits

Creating horizontal stripes when knitting is simply a matter of changing yarn at the beginning of a row or round. Simply work as many rows or rounds as needed for the width of the stripe. 

Usually, when working back and forth, stripes will consist of an even number of rows. This means the yarn moves from the right edge of the work to the left edge and back again. The result is that the working yarn will always be available at the beginning of a right-side row when it is needed again. In plaid patterns, however, one-row stripes are very common. This means that the yarn will end up on the opposite edge of the work and won’t be available if it is needed at the beginning of a right-side row. In that case, you will have to break the yarn and rejoin it.

A better option is to work back and forth on a circular needle so that you can slide the stitches to the other end of the needle, pick up the yarn for the next stripe, and continue in the pattern. This will mean occasionally working two consecutive wrong-side or right-side rows, but this is much easier than weaving in a lot of extra yarn ends later. 

Vertical Stripes for Plaid Knits

Working solid horizontal stripes when knitting is easy, but adding vertical stripes to a horizontal pattern will require one or more of these color-knitting techniques: slipped-stitch knitting, stranded knitting, and intarsia. Each technique has strengths and weaknesses, depending on personal preferences and the attributes of the desired plaid pattern. Vertical stripes can also be added after the fact using an embellishment method such as duplicate stitch or crocheted slip-stitch.

Slipped-Stitch Knitting

Slipped stitches can be used to create vertical stripes that intersect with narrow horizontal stripes (Photo 1).

To create a vertical stripe in color A (dark blue in the swatch), work one or more rows in color A, then change to color B (light blue). While working the row in color B, slip a color-A stitch purlwise (with B held on the wrong side) to pull the A stitch up from the row below. The B yarn floats behind the A stitch on the wrong side of the work, and color A from the row below stretches into the current row, creating the vertical stripe. The same stitch can be slipped for only one or two rows before causing the fabric to buckle or pucker, so slipped-stitch plaids usually alternate color every one or two rows. By simply changing row colors and varying which stitches are slipped, many plaid patterns are possible. However, the limits on how often a stitch can be slipped constrains the options. 

Slipped-stitch colorwork is appealing because each row uses one yarn color. But for more design freedom, it is necessary to work with two or more strands of yarn in one row. Stranded knitting and intarsia are the two most common techniques for this. 

Stranded Knitting

In stranded knitting, at least two strands of yarn are carried together in one row—one color is worked and the other color floats across the wrong side of the piece. Stranded knitting is great for patterns where stitches change color frequently across the row. However, if a float has to span more than approximately one inch, it should be caught with the working yarn at least once to secure it to the back of the work and to prevent it from snagging during use. To maintain an even tension when working stranded knitting, don’t pull the floats too tightly. 

The stranded-knitting swatch (Photo 2) is a good example of how a knitted fabric can emulate a woven plaid.

The plaid pattern consists of blocks of dark blue, light blue, and blended blocks of dark and light blue. In the blended-color blocks, the two colors alternate every other stitch. Because the colors alternate frequently, stranded knitting is an excellent technique for this plaid pattern. In this swatch, the blocks are about one inch wide so the floats are short and manageable (Photo 3). 

Stranded knitting can also be used for solid-color plaid patterns (with no blended blocks), particularly if the vertical stripes are close together and repeated often. Some plaids, however, do not work well with stranded knitting. If the plaid pattern requires too many long floats, or there are too many strands in one row—increasing the thickness of the fabric and the amount of yarn consumed—it may be better to use intarsia. 

Intarsia

In intarsia, each area of color uses its own independent supply of yarn and the other colors do not float across the back of the work. The yarn for each color block can be cut to length and wound onto a bobbin, or into a butterfly or a small center-pull ball, or left to dangle unwound at the back of the work. Intarsia is perfect for multicolor plaids because every bobbin can be a different color. 

Because the yarn bobbins move back and forth from one side of a color block to the other side on every row, intarsia is typically worked flat so the color can be returned to the starting point on the following wrong-side row. To prevent holes where two colors abut, the colors are interlocked at each color change by picking up the new strand from under the old strand. 

The intarsia swatch (Photo 4) is another emulation of a woven plaid. Instead of using two alternating colors for the blended block, a third color approximates the blended color; medium blue stands in for a blend of dark and light blue.  

In this case, intarsia works best because the blocks of the same color are spaced pretty far apart (Photo 5). 

In contrast, catching and securing the long floats of stranded knitting will produce a much thicker fabric.

Plaid Intarsia Tips

With intarsia, the sky is the limit for color and patterning. Often the goal becomes reducing the number of bobbins. Even simple plaid patterns worked in intarsia can require a lot of bobbins, which can be a bit cumbersome. For example, the plaid pattern in the swatch used five bobbins. As the pattern expands, two more bobbins will be needed for every additional vertical stripe. Also, two yarn tails are introduced every time a color is added or removed. Yarn tails can get in the way when you’re trying to pick up the next bobbin. To eliminate the tails, weave them in as you go, or start them so they hang to the front while working, then return them to the back when weaving in the ends. 

Some bobbins can be eliminated by stranding a color behind a neighboring color. Instead of joining a new bobbin of a background color after working a vertical stripe, pick up and continue with the previous bobbin. This is like a hybrid of intarsia and stranded knitting, with floats in some areas and not in others. Keep in mind, however, that the stranded areas will be thicker and less pliable. When alternated with areas of intarsia, the overall piece can look and feel uneven. To minimize that disparity, use the hybrid method sparingly, over short stretches of one to three stitches. 

Embellishment

One of the easiest ways to add vertical stripes is to apply them to the fabric using an embellishment technique after knitting the pattern with just the horizontal stripes. Applying vertical stripes after the knitting is complete using duplicate stitch or a crocheted slip stitch can dramatically simplify the knitting process. 

To use duplicate stitch, thread the yarn onto a tapestry needle and follow the path of the stitch being duplicated. Duplicate stitch covers an existing knit stitch. It can extend over any number of stitches, be they side by side or one atop the other. The underlying stitch serves as a template to follow, but it takes practice to control the tension and consistency of the stitches. It can feel a little thick or can rise above the surface of the fabric. 

Crocheted slip stitch works well for a vertical stripe that is only one stitch wide. Though similar in name to slipped-stitch knitting, it is a totally different technique. This technique uses a crochet hook to apply a crocheted chain to the knitted piece. If worked in a purl ditch, the chain will be even with the surface of the knitting, instead of sitting above the surface. The crochet hook helps maintain a consistent tension. 

In the embellished swatch (Photo 6), you can take a look at two techniques side by side.

Duplicate stitch is on the left, worked over a column of knit stitches. Crocheted slip stitch is on the right, worked over a column of purl stitches. See how they compare! Note how they look crossing over both a one-row horizontal stripe and a two-row horizontal stripe.

Combine to Create Plaid

There are endless variations to the plaids you can create using some combination of these knitting techniques. For example, the swatch in Photo 7 begins with a section of horizontal stripes only. That’s followed by a section of two-bobbin intarsia, all overlaid with crocheted slip stitch vertical stripes.

Here’s another example of a combination of techniques. The swatch in Photo 8 was made using five-bobbin intarsia for the green squares, alternated with horizontal stripes in blue, yellow, and red. The vertical stripes were applied with duplicate stitch.

I encourage you to take a fresh look at plaids you see and consider how to make them as knits. Use these techniques, explore others, invent new ones, play with stripes and color, and, most importantly, find your own comfort in plaid.

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Larissa Gibson is fascinated by knitting, weaving, and textiles in general. She hopes to be forever learning and discovering the intricacies and interactions of various production techniques and materials. Larissa holds a master’s degree in textiles and apparel and has taught undergraduate courses in textile. She has written and edited knitting instructions for several books and magazines.

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This article originally appeared in Interweave Knits Fall 2021.

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