I’ve got a love-hate relationship with colour.
When it works, it really works!
BUT when it doesn’t work it can be very frustrating.
Finding the right colour combination will really enhance any project. Having several partial skeins of yarn left in your stash can be very helpful for colourwork. You can experiment and mix and match until you find the perfect combo. Plus it’s so much fun trying out different colour combinations and sometimes the colour you need will take you completely by surprise.
Tip: Not sure if your contrast yarns stand out enough? Try taking a photo of your chosen yarn in black and white and see how well they work together.
During an Instagram Live, I spent some time chatting about different colourwork types. This blog post will pull that all together for you, so you can find all the relevant tutorials and patterns in one spot.
And if you missed the live you can watch the replay below. I get to share my tips and answer some of your questions in the group and my DMs!
Knitting Inspiration for Colourwork Stripes
The easiest of all colourwork types but very effective. I’m a huge lover of stripes!
If you’re working them in the round you might check out the Helical Stripe method for working single row stripes in the round.
A few of my favourite stripe patterns:
Knitting Patterns for Slip Stitch Colourwork
This is a really fun way of working colourwork. And best of all it looks far more complicated than it is!
You are only ever working with a single colour per row as the stitches in the second colour are slipped.
A variant on this, that is worked usually in garter stitch, with complex repeating patterns is mosaic knitting.
This video on how you slip the stitches and strand the yarn is useful for all slip stitch colourwork.
A few of my favourite slip stitch patterns:
Knitting Pattern Inspiration for Stranded Colourwork
This colourwork technique often strikes fear into the heart of new knitters. Don’t let it intimidate you though, starting off with a small project that has just a little colourwork and you’ll learn the basics before you know it!
There are some tips and techniques that I shared this week that I think might be helpful when tackling stranded colourwork.
The two-handed colourwork method is one of the easiest ways to manage your yarn for stranded colourwork. Why not give it a try and let me know if it works for you.
Floats are something that causes knitters a lot of grief. Especially when they get snagged while you are working on your project. Learning how to trap your floats will really help keep your work need and tidy.
do you need to swatch for a colourwork project that is worked in the round?
I have this ‘cheat’ method that I use to work that swatch in an easy way.
A few of my favourite stranded colourwork patterns:
Learn Colourwork with our Project Workshops
If colourwork isn’t something that you want to take on alone, we have a number of project workshops available for colourwork projects. You can join our Yue Sock KAL for free or you can browse the patterns that have project workshops available here. This collection is always growing so do check back regularly!
The colourwork Project workshops are:
From working with two different yarn colours, charts and tassels, I walk you through each of these projects step-by-step with all the secret tips and techniques for modifications and more along the way.
For those eagle-eyed followers among you, you might also spy new yarn kit colour combinations over here too!
Phew!
That was quite a review blog post. Do you have any tips or tricks for working with colourwork? I think all the best tips are passed down between knitters aren’t they?
Now I think it’s time for a cuppa and some knitting.