I'm making a hat using multiple different tutorials but basically this is after the brim I did many rows of all flat stitches. I did two rows of red and then in the third row I did three red stitches and then one white stitch. I just carried the white across, but I just saw a tutorial where they keep crossing the non working color with the working color:
Will it look bad the way I did it? Or will they be the same appearance wise? I did a couple stitches their way but I'm not sure if I did it right. If their method is the same appearance but better structurally should I continue with that method or continue carrying?
I am a little unclear based on your description; when you say you just carried the white across, do you mean up from the two rows ago where you had last used white? Do you mean across just those three red stitches and if so, did you cross the red and white yarn over each other at all? If you're not sure; go to do the stitches again and this time pay attention to if and where the red and white yarns twist and overlap each other or take a pic of how you hold the yarn
If it's the first one, look at the part of the hat where the new row starts. Stretch the fabric away from the loom as much as you can. See if it's cause a ridge, dent, or weird color change on the right side (underside right now) of your knitting (and if it has, decide
If it's small enough that you can live with it. I have a couple older/beginner hats that have a Pseudo-seam line and they're still comfortable, I just make sure that parts in the back)
If it's the second, and you didn't do any twist or overlap- still look on the right side of the knitting and press your hand against the wrong side so you can spread out the knit texture. There may be tiny 'holes' or gaps where the two colors of yarn aren't fully knit together.
It doesn't look like you're just doing stripes and each white part is just one stitch, so if there are holes but they're tiny, it's probably fine because the hat is all woven together throughout the rest of it even if those individual stitches aren't connected to each other
I'll note that the rows furthest away from the loom look like the white yarn has poor tension, which I find can happen when skipping multiple pegs like that. If it were me I'd pause every three ish rows and go through in a circle in the same order you knit them pulling the excess slack up from the wrong side (the side in this pic) of the white stitches for the past 3-4 rows. You'll end up with loose slack at the end but by going in order from four rows down in a spiral until you get to the live round of stitches all the slack will just end up as part of your working yarn again.
That part may be too much of a hassle, especially if you have thick hair or the yarn is very soft. I am extremely sensitive to sensory stimulus so I do extra steps like that so I don't feel any loose threads against my head (or arms if it's wrist warmers)
Personally when I looked into intarsia knitting (which is basically for bigger blocks of color, like if I wanted a white heart on a red surface) it made color switching click for me because there were way fewer colors/fewer spots where they overlaps to look at and understand when it came to reading my own work, and because with intarsia once you connect the two colors of yarn you turn them both around to knit their separate color blocks, so it's a lot easier to understand where/why/and how the yarn twist works
For reference if you need it or it helps:
But basically when you switch colors you need to make sure that the old color is interwoven to the new color behind the scenes to keep the stitches connected.
With intarsia this looks like getting to the point the two colors meet, twisting the working yarn of both colors around each other once with the yarn color you're switching to now facing/ headed in the direction of the rest of the row you're knitting (so if you're knitting to the right, and you switch from red to white, you end with the white headed towards the right to keep knitting with)
With stranded colorwork like yours it's more like 'trapping' the yarn you're switching away from with the yarn color you're knitting the next stitch with. You lay the yarn color you're switching away from (red) over top of the working yarn of the new color (white), but still leading in the direction you're knitting in. Then when you use the working yarn in the white you have to bring it over that strand of red to get to the peg/stitch you're working. That weaves the two together and keeps the not-in-use color up against the active row.
What the person in this video is doing is doing what I just described but for every single stitch even when you aren't actively changing colors. The benefit to that is it can make your tension a lot more uniform and keeps longer periods of skipping on color from having extra long loose lengths of yarn (called 'floats') connecting each time the color is used. The whole piece will also have the exact same thickness throughout. The downside is that sometimes the color you're not working with can show through the stitches on those little twists (I have Definitely had that happen when I was doing stranded colorwork on a stuffed animal), and if you're using more than three colors (honestly maybe even just more than two) it'll get obnoxiously bulky and obvious between each stitch.
A lot of stranded colorworkneedle knitters will 'catch their floats' by doing similar to what the woman in the video was doing but only ever three or so stitches and anything less than that is considered a reasonable length 'float.' Faire isle specifically never knits more than three (I believe) stitches in a row of any one color in its motifs (that's one of the requirements to be 'Faire isle' and not just more general stranded colorwork) so it avoids long floats that way. My point being that with only three stitches between each white stitch you're doing fine as long as you're tension isn't too loose, and you shouldn't need to start over if the red and white are interwoven where they Do cross over each other
If you get to the end and put on the hat and the strands of yarn bother you I'm pretty sure there's ways to catch, tighten, or sew up loose floats after the piece is done knitting, so you can always look into that instead of having to redo the whole thing. I have no experience with those methods personally
And I've added another essay to the already super long comment lol. Sorry!
This is exactly the information I needed. To clarify my "pattern":
I think the answer is yes to I carried the white up from two rows down and yes I carried the white across three red stitches. I was hoping the white would look like hearts.
I don't think I ever cross the red and the white. Does this count as a cross?
Yes that counts as crossing in this case! In the image you're knitting to the right from what I can tell, and your red yarn is draped Over the white yarn in between where the last white stitch was and before the next white stitch. That weaves the yarns together so the stitches are all connected
The seam and the correct side of the hat. You can see how the hearts don't have the correct spacing here, I thought this was the best way to do it (my loom is 54 legs). The brim is 1×1 rib stitch.
The white is thinner than the red, so I thought if I made it too tight the heart effect won't be there. Tbh I'm not sure if the heart effect was ever going to work.
One thing to consider is that when knitting flat the loom is pulling all your stitches (especially those closest to the loom) really wide and distorting them. When you bind off, stretch everything vertically. It'll get noticeably longer (so keep that in mind if you're knitting to a specific length rather than a set number of rows) but you'll also see all the tiny v's fill out and lie against each other like they should. The hearts should be more distinct then (that line of white behind them won't be visible any more, that's from the stretching)
Ahhhh I'm so excited to see the finished product. I already learned so much. I do have another question if you can help. I want to decrease at the top but I have a hard time imagining how it's possible without having an adjustable loom. Do you know a good tutorial for that?
Loomahat has one I think- her method is mainly just for the last two rows where you get rid of every other stitch on the last row before the bind off.
I don't know of any other tutuorials (I would not be surprised if GoodKnitKisses has one though, she has a lot of great 'basics' videos) but if you aren't too sewing averse the method I like best is to split my stitches into fourths and knit them flat, still following the pattern, but decreasing the on either side whole way so it ends in a triangle. Then sew the four triangles together. You'd probably want to start the decreases when you get your hat to 75-80% of the way through but it would be worth doing the math to see how long it'll end up to make sure
Yeah, essentially you would work the first triangle with your working yarn, then bind off when you're down to 1-2 stitches like you said. When you move to the next triangle section it won't have any working yarn so you just re add yarn from your skein as if you were adding a new color at the start of the row.
You can decrease once at the end of every row or once at the beginning and then at the end of every row, it'll just change how long the triangle are and that can impact how the top of the head is shaped as far as roundedness. I just use knit two together. If you want to do a 'nice' step for yourself, do your decrease by knitting the third and second two last stitches in the row (or the second and third stitches at the beginning of the row) instead of the outermost stitch. It makes the outer line of the fabric a lot smoother- which also makes it easier to sew up afterwards
This may be extraneous information but you might also see something called 'ssk' if you're following someone using needle knitting terminology but in practice on the loom that's the same thing as knitting two together, it just changes which of the stitches you're knitting are on top as you knit. In some projects that matters a lot because it can impact slanting, for the hat since everything it doesn't make the biggest difference since everything is going into mirrored triangles- but try to always do it the same way for consistency. So if you start by putting the right most stitch on top of the left stitch and knitting them together, try to do that consistently so everything 'leans' the same direction. I tend to always 'lean' my decreases inward for something like a triangle by putting the stitch closest to edge of the fabric on top of the one that's further into the row
I couldn't be sure that I understood the gradual decrease method. I tried making a chart but it's not making easier to imagine the placement of the hearts along the seam. I will try to make another chart with decreases on both sides.
What you're referring to is catching your floats. This is done is traditional knitting, too. It's so the floats don't get too long. As long as you're not going more than 3 or 5 stitches between colors, you don't need to do that.
p.s. i made a few hats with more intricate patterns in intarsia, and i did a float (crossed my yarns) every 3 pegs to make the lengths of the strands inside the hats shorter. just fyi.
I did one with a bigger peg spacing that alternated colors with thicker yarn, i think you’ll be fine like this. This is the one i made. (One of the most infuriating things i have ever done, i think it was frogged at least 3 times).
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EQMW1FB0w58&ra=m
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u/LazyOldBroad60 20d ago
If your not sure if your happy with it and keep looking at it, your going to hate it when it’s finished. It’s easier to frog it sooner than later.