Knit Stranding Method

Type of Stitch to Use

• Patterns that use two colors of yarn in each row are usually worked in stockinette stitch, which can be knit on one side and purled in the other if using straight needles, or use all knit stitches when working in the round on circular needles. Fair Isle, Scandinavian and Norwegian style sweaters are usually knit on circular needles. All stranding is done on the wrong, or purl, side of the pattern, invisible on the right side.
  
  

How to Strand the Yarn

• Both colors of yarn are carried all the way across a row or round of knitting. No more than five stitches should be knit in one color before the other color is picked up. If more than five stitches are used, the strands of the second color will be easy to snag. If more than five stitches are necessary, weave the second color of yarn into a stitch by capturing it as you knit. Keep the strands loose, not tight, or the work will pucker.
  
  

How to Manage Two Colors of Yarn

• The American-English style of knitting teaches you to hold the yarn with your right hand. If using two different colors, that means dropping one color and picking up the other each time the color changes. That can be awkward and time-consuming. Some people knit using the Continental style, holding the yarn in the left hand. Advanced knitters find the most efficient method for handling two colors of yarn is to combine both knitting styles, holding one color of yarn in the right hand and the other color in the left hand.
  
  

How to Knit a Block of a Different Color

• When you will be knitting a large block of one color, such as when knitting an emblem or picture in the center of the knit piece of a different color, use separate bobbins of colored yarn rather than stranding. This type of knitting is called intarsia. Instead of stranding or stretching each color of yarn across the entire row of knitting, drop one color and pick up the new color, twisting yarn at the joining stitches together on the back side of the work so that the join mark doesn’t show. This type of knitting cannot be done on circular needles.