Advanced Knitting Techniques

Advanced knitting techniques can be broken down into four different categories: colorwork, lace, cables, and structural techniques. All of these will help you produce delightful knitted creations for years to come! Here's a little about each technique, suggested projects, and further reading.

Colorwork allows the knitter to make a multicolored garment by knitting with two or more different colors of yarn in the same row. There are three main styles of colorwork: fair isle, intarsia, and mosaic knitting. In fair isle knitting (which has an extensive Scandinavian heritage), two different colors of yarn (no more) are carried throughout the row, with one color "floated" behind the other while not in use. Fair isle items are usually knit in the round; cardigans are generally "steeked," or cut up the front after knitting. Intarsia knitting, on the other hand, is usually knit flat: while fair isle is usually used for motifs which are repeated in the round, intarsia is good for solid blocks of color independent of a motif, such as circles or squares. The third kind of colorwork, mosaic or slip-stitch knitting, differs from fair islea and intarsia in that only one color of yarn is knit at a time - the stitches which will be knit in the alternate color or colors are slipped, then knit on a second round while the stitches in the main color are slipped. The effect is lovely, but time consuming, as knitting a mosaic sweater can take twice or three times as much time as a fair isle garment, depending on how many different colors you are using.

Projects to try: Wendy Johnson's Fearless Fair Isle, Sweaterscapes Intarsia Tutorial (with free pillow pattern), hello yarn's Mini Skull and Crossbones Tote (intarsia)