Intarsia

This page is currently still being written. For help with intarsia, the manual for the Silver Reed AG24 carriage is here

To learn how to use the intarsia carriage, you can attend one of the Advanced Knitting Workshops - bookable here. You must have already completed the Knitting Machine Induction to attend.

Intarsia is a knitting colour work technique. It differs from fairisle in two main way - number of colours per row and floats. In fairisle, we are only able to knit with two colours per row as both yarns are threaded into the carriage and when a colour is not being knit it is carried across the back of the work. this creates floats. With intarsia. there is only one "active" colour on any given stitch, and yarn is not carried across the back of the work meaning that we can knit with as many colours per row as we like and there will be no floats.

used to create patterns with multiple colours and . This means that we can create swatches with more than two colour per row, unlike in fairisle. Another difference to fairisle, is that there is only one "active" colour on any given stitch, and yarn is not carried across the back of the work; eliminating any floats.

This swatch is knitted with fairisle, leaving many floats across the back.

Intarsia eliminates these floats, giving a neater reverse side

Knitting Intarsia

In order to knit intarsia, we have to use an alternate carriage, pictured below.

When knitting with this carriage, the yarn is not threading into the auto tension. Instead, the cones are placed on the ground beneath the machine.

Knitting Intarsia

1. To cast on, use the main carriage and knit at least one row of stockinet.
2. Remove the yarn from the auto tension and place the yarn cone on the floor. Remove the main carriage from the bed.
3. Place the intarsia carriage on the bed from the side without the yarn

4. Move the intarsia carriage across the needles in B position, without knitting, and the needles will be aligned into C position (see below).

5. Lay the yarns inside the needle hooks starting from the carriage side as illustrated.
6. Holding the yarns down to take up slack yarn, move the carriage slowly across the needles, to knit the first row.

7. Repeat this again for each row, laying the yarns inside the needle hooks starting from the carriage side, holding the yarns down to take up slack yarn, and moving the carriage slowly across the needles to knit.