Stranded knitting

[annonymousnamechange]

I really want to make a fairisle style jumper but know I need to master stranded knitting first. I'm a fairly experienced and proficient knitter so happy to try it. Can any one recommend a youtube tutorial or some other watchable things where I can try to learn? Thanks!

It’s easier if you do two handed. That stops the different colours getting tangled.

I always look at Nimble Needles as he explains everything very clearly.

If you are already a confident knitter you probably won't find it too difficult and I'd just start a project, especially anything knit in the round as it's so much easier to do stranded if you aren't going back and forth.

You will find lots of info about knitting one strand English and one strand Continental, or trying to hold both strands on one finger and dipping between them. You absolutely do not need to do this! Just dropping and picking up whichever yarn you want is fine.

I was at a crochet workshop this morning and the tutor was a crochet and knit designer. She said she had never been comfortable holding the 2 yarns separately (even though she can knit both styles) and found it quicker to just drop the one you aren't using.

Very Pink has a great video tutorial on YouTube. I’d start with a hat knitted in the round to get the hang of it. I did Very Pink’s snowflake pattern, it was fun and straightforward once I’d got the hang of it. It’s addictive!

I struggle to hold multiple colours together so my intarsia is very slow. But I do love it!
top tip if you are wearing the intarsia don’t have long strands at the back as your fingers get caught. This is especially a problem if you are knitting baby cardigans (which is all I seem to knit)

If you're an experienced knitter it should be no problem. I tried doing it two-handed, but I found it was just as slow as dropping one yarn and picking up the other, as I'm not used to knitting continental style. I suppose I'd get quicker if I stuck at it! You have to watch your tension - so that the floats of the yarn you're not currently using lie flat across the back of your work and are neither loose nor tight. Loose would risk catching on things. Tight will make your work pucker.

@KatyN - I thought intarsia was the name for non-stranded colour work (i.e. cutting off the main yarn and doing a section of a different yarn, rather than keeping both yarns on the go)?

Intarsia is doing blocks of colour so you end up with separate bobbins of yarn for every area of colour which you twist in to join.

And then you end up with thousands of ends to weave in at the end.

Argh! I hate weaving in ends!