Switch Your Grip: Taking on a Stranded Colorwork Challenge

If you’ve spent any time knitting in a group, you know that we all approach wrapping yarn around the needle a little differently. For the most part, knitters can be divided into throwers (English-style or flicking with yarn in their right hand) or pickers (continental-style or picking with yarn in their left hand). I always tell people that I’m a bit of both—I throw yarn with my left hand. Yes, really. No, I’m not left handed. I don’t “pick” stitches while holding the yarn in my left hand, I lift it and wrap it around the needle as if it’s being thrown.

When it comes to colorwork knitting, there are even more ways to hold the yarn! Which way is best? Well, that depends on who you ask. If you asked me, I would tell you about a recent experiment I conducted and the surprising results. If you are making assumptions about your preferred stranded colorwork method, consider yourself challenged! 

Related: Holding Yarns for Stranded Colorwork: Three Methods

The Colorwork Challenge/Experiment

After some recent colorwork fails, I decided I needed to get to the bottom of what is going on with my knitting. The main issues I kept running into were puckering and inconsistent stitches. In one project with 1 x 1 colorwork, one stitch would be nearly 1.5 times as long as the stitch next to it!

I had a suspicion that something about the way I throw with my left hand is leading to puckering and inconsistent stitches. Following Amy Gunderson’s lead, I outlined a proper experiment.

My Analysis

When looking at the results of my stranded colorwork swatch, it was easy to make observations on tension and the fabric each method produced. Before my swatches hit the blocking water it was very clear (and surprising to me!) that knitting right-handed produced a very even-tension fabric. I’ve never been “good” at English-style knitting—I’m slow at it, impatient, and can’t work a purl to save my life. However, I found I could more easily spread my stitches as I made color changes to avoid puckering, which really helped with the tension of my floats. 

Locking floats with my left hand produced the least desirable fabric. It is lumpy and inconsistent, and you could see the strand of yarn being locked peeking through to the front. For both combination knitting and left-handed knitting, the fabric puckered quite a bit despite my efforts to spread stitches and not tug floats. Another surprise to me, my hands wanted to have one yarn in each. Combination knitting felt the most natural and it was the quickest method, but it produced a tighter tension and puckered fabric. Not ideal.

Related: Interweave’s Top 7 Stranded Knitting Patterns

As I suspected, blocking did resolve a lot of differences but not all. The puckering seen in Sections 2 and 3 flattened out. Section 4 did not improve though. It was just as lumpy and uneven as before it was blocked. It was interesting to learn how each swatch changed in size when blocking, too.

Gauge Matters

While I could see that some swatches were larger than others, it took pulling out my tape measure to see just how much they differed. Measuring across the chart’s 22 sts and 28 rows I had significantly different sizes. Note: I wasn’t attempting to get the pattern’s gauge. I just wanted to see how different my gauge was across methods.

I’ve shared the gauge of each swatch before and after blocking in the captions of the images above. A quarter-inch to half-inch difference may not seem like a lot but imagine that across the bust of a sweater. If knitting a sweater with a 40” bust circumference and gauge varies by .25” over 4”, that sweater will be 42.5” around.

You’ll also notice that Section 3 grew the most when blocking. This gave me a laugh. My knitting friends have said I have magical blocking powers. I’m able to get things to grow when blocking when they cannot. Now we have proof. My go-to method of knitting grows more when blocked. Although, when locking floats, there was very little change.

Information in Action

All of this reinforces the importance of swatching. And doing so while holding yarns the way you intend to hold them while making the project. Plus, I need to let go of the assumption that I am or am not good at something without trying it.

I have a sweater’s quantity of yarn waiting to become an all-over colorwork sweater. I’m going to commit to knitting this sweater with my right hand, English style. I’m eager to see if I’m happier with the results.

Now it’s your turn! I’m challenging you to let go of your assumptions about your colorwork knitting. Grab some yarn from your stash and cast on this experiment.

I can’t wait to hear your results! Share what you learned in the comments below.

Serial yarn sniffer Kerry Bogert loves to spend her time knitting when she’s not collaborating with the team at Interweave or editing Interweave Knits magazine. Her passion for making things with her hands is only matched by her love for her children and a well-attenuated stout. Kerry endeavors to never stop learning, buying yarn, or collecting beads. Read her latest articles at Interweave.com.