Best Yarn Guides for Colorwork

Stranded and intarsia are different problems

Both are called colorwork and they fail in different ways, so the tools do not transfer.

Using bobbins for stranded work means constantly untangling six inches of dangling yarn. Using a ring for intarsia means threading and unthreading it every time a color starts. Match the tool to the technique.

What a yarn guide ring does

• Keeps the strands in a fixed order. Color A always above color B, which means the floats always cross the same way and the fabric looks consistent.
• Stops them twisting. Two strands running free will wrap around each other every few rounds; separated in a guide, they cannot.
• Holds them slightly apart so you can pick up the right one without looking.
• Frees a finger, because you are not pinching two strands against your palm.

The float tension problem, which is the real one

A float is the strand of the unused color running across the back between stitches. If it is too short, the fabric puckers and the garment ends up narrower than the gauge says. If it is too long, it snags on fingers when the garment is pulled on.

1. Spread the stitches on the right needle before carrying the float across them. This is the single most effective habit - it sets the float length from the fabric rather than from your judgment.
2. Knit colorwork in the round wherever the pattern allows. The right side always faces you and the floats are easier to see.
3. Catch floats longer than five stitches by twisting the carried strand around the working one mid-run.
4. Check by stretching the fabric widthwise. If it will not open to its gauge width, the floats are too tight.
5. Block it. Colorwork responds to blocking more than plain fabric does - see how to block your knitting.

One hand or two

There are three ways to hold two colors, and the ring suits one of them best.

Two-handed is the fastest method if you already knit comfortably both ways, and it solves the twisting problem by construction. One-handed with a guide is the more accessible route for most people, because it does not require learning a second knitting style.

Bobbins, and when they are the answer

Bobbins hold a small wind of each color close to the work. For intarsia - a picture knitted in blocks, with each color staying in its own area - they are what stops four or five balls turning into a single knot.

• Wind only what that block needs. A bobbin holding a whole ball defeats the point.
• Notch the loose end so it does not unwind in your lap.
• Let them hang, and untwist the whole set every few rows before it becomes a problem.
• Twist the two colors around each other at every join, or you get a vertical slit where the blocks meet.

What no tool fixes

1. A chart you cannot read. Enlarge it, or mark the current row. Crochet symbol charts explained is the crochet-side equivalent.
2. Yarn that is too similar in value. Two colors the same darkness will not read as a pattern however neat the knitting is - squint at them, or photograph them in grayscale.
3. Not counting. Colorwork mistakes are found rows later. Mark the repeats.
4. Gauge. Stranded fabric knits tighter than plain fabric in the same yarn. Swatch in pattern, not in stocking stitch.

That last one catches almost everybody. The full method is in knitting gauge and swatching.

The rest of the colorwork kit

• Needles with a defined tip. Picking up one strand of two wants a point - see best needles for colorwork.
• Locking markers at every pattern repeat.
• A blunt bent-tip needle, because colorwork produces a lot of ends.
• Yarn that shows the pattern - see best yarn for colorwork.