NEATER COLOURWORK

QI’ve started my first intarsia project – a superhero jumper for my grandson – but it looks really messy despite my best e orts, and I’m getting holes at the colour changes too. I’m knitting it in a DK-weight cotton yarn.

Sara Banks, via email

When you’re working intarsia, the key to getting a neat finish is to twist your yarns together when you change colours, to avoid holes. If you don’t twist the yarns, you’ll get a gappy, messy edge as shown left (top). To avoid this, knit with the old colour up to the change, hold this strand in front of the new colour (but still at the back of the work), catch the new colour and knit the first stitch of the new colour area, thus trapping the old colour between the new colour and the knitted fabric at the back of the work. After completing a few rows, the knitting should look like the pictures here (middle and bottom) when viewed from the right and wrong sides. Weaving in your ends will make a huge di erence to how the finished knit looks too, so take the opportunity to neaten the tension at the start and end of colours. It’s also important to read the current pattern row as well as the return row. When working on the current row always check where the colours are required on the return row. If the yarns are required further along the row, weave in at the back of the work to the correct position. Finally, you may find it easier in a di erent fibre – cotton is very smooth so the fibres can slide past each other and stitches will “wiggle around” a bit more. Wool is “stickier” and the fibres will grip each other more and stay in place, giving a neater finish.

Jen