Catching Floats in Colorwork

Closeup of Andrea holding out a pink gradient knitted flower on the edge of a cabled blue shawl.

Closeup of Andrea holding out a pink gradient knitted flower on the edge of a cabled blue shawl.

My favourite method for working stranded colourwork is to hold one color yarn in the left hand and the other colour in the right hand. It's easy and rhythmic to catch floats this way once you get the hang of it. It does take some time to learn to use the hand you’re not used to working with, so be patient with yourself when you’re learning, but in my opinion, it’s very well worth it.

Most of the time you'll be working only on the RS, but some patterns, like my Garden Wedding shawl, call for colourwork on the WS, so the video below shows you how to catch floats on the WS too. Here’s how I worked my stranded colourwork for A Garden Wedding. (See below for more videos showing how I catch floats every other stitch for some projects.)

Video: Purling and Knitting with Yarn in Two Hands

Closeup view of Andrea’s hands purling and knitting in colourwork with one strand in her left hand and one in her right.

The videos below show me catching floats every other stitch, which is a method I used in my Knitter's Dude patterns. It's handy for motifs that have a bunch of sections with very long floats.

Wrapping the Background Color on the RS

Here's how I wrap my background color when I'm working with the dominant color. (I always hold my dominant color in my left hand.)

Wrapping the Dominant Color on the RS

Here's how I wrap my dominant color when I'm working with the background color. (Dominant color is in the left hand, background color is in the right hand.)

Wrapping the Background Color on the WS

Here's how I wrap my background color when I'm working with the dominant color on the WS. (Dominant color is in the left hand, background color is in the right hand.)

Wrapping the Dominant Color on the WS

Here's how I wrap my dominant color when I'm working with the background color on the WS. (Dominant color is in the left hand, background color is in the right hand.)

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tutorialsAndrea Rangelcatching floats, color, colorwork, video