I've been designing some stranded colourwork recently. It's a technique I enjoy both knitting in and designing in and I often think I ought to use more. One thing that can be tricky is drawing up the design itself to minimise too many long floats of yarn on the back of the work. If I'm only using two colours in a design that's not too hard, but with three or more I need to take care to avoid odd stitches of one colour that needs carrying for the rest of the row.
I am working on a mitten design using three colours to form a geometric pattern and part of it really looks best with the corners of some diamonds in a contrast colour but that would result in an entire round with just two stitches in that contrast colour. I decided I had three choices. First was to carry the third colour right round, work those two stitches, and twist the yarn periodically on the back of the work. Possible but awkward. Second was to ignore that third colour and instead work those two stitches in one of the other two colours. Simpler but less aesthetically pleasing and not the look I wanted for that part of the design. Third was the option I chose - duplicate stitch or Swiss darning, which involves using a darning needle and a length of yarn in the colour you want to sew a stitch over the knitted one and make it appear that the stitch is knotted in a different colour.
Here is the mitten with the "offending" stitches - the blue ones at the top and bottom of the central diamond.
I am working on a mitten design using three colours to form a geometric pattern and part of it really looks best with the corners of some diamonds in a contrast colour but that would result in an entire round with just two stitches in that contrast colour. I decided I had three choices. First was to carry the third colour right round, work those two stitches, and twist the yarn periodically on the back of the work. Possible but awkward. Second was to ignore that third colour and instead work those two stitches in one of the other two colours. Simpler but less aesthetically pleasing and not the look I wanted for that part of the design. Third was the option I chose - duplicate stitch or Swiss darning, which involves using a darning needle and a length of yarn in the colour you want to sew a stitch over the knitted one and make it appear that the stitch is knotted in a different colour.
Here is the mitten with the "offending" stitches - the blue ones at the top and bottom of the central diamond.
Think of each knitted stitch as a little V. Using the colour you want the stitch to appear, embroider two small stitches, one over each leg of the V. To begin, secure the yarn on the wrong side of the work as you would with any sort of sewing. I worked by coming through to the right side of the fabric at the top left of the left-hand stitch and going back again at the point of the V.
Here you can see the yarn coming forward again at the top of the second leg of the left-hand stitch and the needle entering at the point of the V again to complete the second leg of that stitch.
Here you can see the yarn coming forward again at the top of the second leg of the left-hand stitch and the needle entering at the point of the V again to complete the second leg of that stitch.
The right-hand blue stitch is duplicate stitched in the same way.
After that, weave the yarn through the back of the knitted work to re-emerge at the top of the lower pair of blue stitches. Duplicate stitch over them in the same way. In this picture, the right-hand leg of the right-hand stitch has been stitched over (still following?!) and the yarn and needle are in position to stitch over the left-hand leg of that V.
After that, weave the yarn through the back of the knitted work to re-emerge at the top of the lower pair of blue stitches. Duplicate stitch over them in the same way. In this picture, the right-hand leg of the right-hand stitch has been stitched over (still following?!) and the yarn and needle are in position to stitch over the left-hand leg of that V.
Just one more V to duplicate stitch over and then the yarn can be woven in on the wrong side of the work and the job is done.
With careful sewing, the colourwork pattern is complete. Here is the final result (and compare the duplicate stitched centre diamond with the two fully-knitted ones on either side). If you didn't know, you'd have to look very closely to spot the difference!
With careful sewing, the colourwork pattern is complete. Here is the final result (and compare the duplicate stitched centre diamond with the two fully-knitted ones on either side). If you didn't know, you'd have to look very closely to spot the difference!
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