Another way of adding color to our work is through a technique called Intarsia. Intarsia is defined as a decorative inlaid pattern in a surface – especially a mosaic worked in wood. In knitting, the term mosaic is very descriptive of Intarsia. It is created by having a mosaic of colors put together (usually in a stocking stitch texture) in a piece. The effects for Intarsia are stunning and may look daunting, but the actual technique is not as complicated as you may think. As a matter of fact, with a little patience and practice, you’ll be making Intarsia patterns in no time. Mosaic images like this one can provide all the inspiration you need to delve into Intarsia knitting.
You probably won’t start with something as complicated as the picture above for your first Intarsia project, but in truth it only requires a little more patience (okay, a lot more) than a simpler one. Intarsia knitting requires at least 3 balls of yarn if you are doing a pattern with two colors. You will need 2 balls of your main color, and one of your secondary color. Let’s say we are doing a red square on a blue background. You would knit with the blue (main color) until you get to where you want the square to start. At that point, you would take the red ball of yarn, and start knitting with it as if you were joining a new ball of yarn. I know you’ve been told never to join a new ball of yarn in the middle of the row, but this is one of the exceptions.In order to prevent a hole in your work and also allow you to have the blue yarn when you need it (we’re going to come back for it on the next row), you need to wrap the blue yarn over the top of the red yarn so it gets supported by the red. Don’t worry, it won’t show as it’s on the back and we’ll tighten it up a little later. Knit with the red for the width of the square. Now take the other blue ball and repeat the join you did before when you started with the red.
Don’t worry about your yarn tangling right now as it will untangle when you go back on the wrong side. Speaking of which, when you go back, the red ball will be sitting there waiting for you right where you left it. So will the blue. Now you see why you need to balls of the blue. Because you are only working with two colors, you can just use balls of yarn. If you wanted to though, or if you were using a lot of colors (3 or more), or if you’re repeating the red again, you could and would wind of smaller balls of the colors being used. You could wind them off into small center pull balls on your hands, or wind them onto bobbins. Once you start getting onto a lot of colors though, it’s a good idea to put each small ball or bobbin into a small zip lock plastic bag. This will save you endless confusion and frustration later when you’re trying keep your work tangle free. Famous knitwear designer Kaffe Fasset brought his love of quilting to knitting and is famous for his Intarsia patters requiring dozens of colors.
Here is a video by Daemon Beyer with some tips on Intarsia knitting. He mentions NOT using bobbins, but it’s one of those things that i think you should try first, then decide about later. He does have a nifty little alternative technique that I plan on trying though.
As with everything in knitting, there is more than one way to do this. There are lots of videos on YouTube and lots of instructional sites all over the web. You might want to explore a few more to get a more detailed idea of this technique, but I think the best way to learn it is to just try it. Have fun!
Hugzzz 😎