Techniques
The Answer to Everything that Bugs You About Colorwork
At our local knit night, one of my friends showed the rest of us the stranded colorwork project she was knitting, expressing her frustration with the peek-throughs from the strands she was catching.
“Is there anything I could be doing differently to fix this?” she asked.
Nearly in unison, the rest of us replied, “Ladderback jacquard!”
It was a gratifying moment: while in the rest of the knitting world I often feel like a lone voice crying out in the desert about the benefits of ladderback jacquard, there, at least, my frequent exhortations had been believed.
As is the case for many things in knitting, it takes time for new techniques to spread and become popular. Even our esteemed Kay Gardiner didn’t discover it until she knitted one of Erin Guimond’s Collage sweaters last fall. In her article, she asked, “When were you going to clue me in about the ladderback jacquard technique?”
Kay (and everyone else), here I am to clue you in.
This technique has been my favorite way to approach colorwork knitting for a while now, and I’m eager for everyone to know about it. It’s my belief as a knitting instructor that we should be teaching everyone to do stranded knitting this way from the start. Why? Because it solves just about every problem that colorwork knitting presents.
Let’s talk about those pesky peek-throughs—those places where we can see the unused color of yarn between stitches of the opposite color.
They are the result of “catching” our unused strand when working across a long float. They have a tendency to show up every time we do that, especially when we’re working with high-contrasting colors.
When we catch the float, we are trapping the unused yarn between the working yarn and the back of the work. Because it’s trapped against the back of the work, it’s bound to show. It doesn’t matter how carefully you do this, the placement of the yarns around each other make it visible, either as a blip of color or as a slightly uneven spot in your knitting.
There are folks who will tell you to put your catches in the same place every time so the peek-throughs all line up, and others who will tell you to spread them out so they’re sporadic. Others swear by the method of locked floats, where you catch every single stitch, so that the peek-through is consistent and all over the fabric. Others swear off catching the yarn altogether, instead trying to keep their tension even across incredibly long floats.
It’s best to do none of those. Using ladderback jacquard instead of catching our floats means we have no peek-through because we don’t attach the unused yarn to the back of the work.
“Now Amy,” you say, “what about all those motifs with far-apart stitches? If I don’t attach the yarn, my floats are going to be way too long!” I’m not proposing that we do nothing, but rather that we handle the floats differently.
The crux of ladderback jacquard (or LBJ as it is sometimes known) involves a little trick with that unused yarn that forms a mesh ladder on the wrong side of the work. This mesh is almost completely unattached to the fabric, so there’s no opportunity for anything to show through.
Handling our unused color this way addresses most of the other issues I have with stranded colorwork; for instance, inhibited stretch.
When we catch floats in a traditional way, the fabric in that area can’t stretch as well because a caught float travels in a mostly-straight line. Leaving very long floats uncaught can cause the same problem. This is why your colorwork hats and socks can wind up uncomfortably tight.
Ladderback jacquard, on the other hand, puts one or more knit stitches in the middle of each section of float, which have flex and also supply extra yarn to that part of the fabric.
Some of us have issues with our tension at the beginning or end of a long float, especially if we are spanning a large number of stitches in an effort to avoid the dreaded results of caught floats. Putting in extra ladders helps most knitters have more even tension.
One of my personal bugaboos with the limitations of stranded knitting is that extra stitches often need to be added between motifs to help span across large areas of fabric. It’s a personal thing, but I just don’t love the look of those extra stitches.
When using ladderback jacquard, I can take those extra stitches right out and allow the areas between motifs to remain uninterrupted.
Finally, I love the flexibility of ladderback jacquard. I don’t have to use it in my entire piece; I can decide where I want it and put it in only there.
I can use it for part of a round, or around the whole thing.
I can add it for just a few rows, or I can work it consistently along my entire piece.
I can even use it instead of intarsia if I want, working ladders the whole way around my knitted object until I encounter the place I need that secondary color again.
Here in Jennifer Steingas’ Aveena, I used ladderback jacquard only when the floats became longer than I like to knit. As you can see, there’s no peek-through on the front side.
Have I whet your appetite for this technique? I certainly hope so! I’ll be explaining how this technique works in my next post. I hope you’ll join me to learn exactly how to set your stranded colorwork free from limits!
Oh boy.
Already looking forward to the next post!
I love colourwork, but I am always bugged by the effect on the right side of catching long floats!
I’m looking forward to seeing it! I’m left handed- hope it’s as easy for me! I’m just about to start my letters on the Degen 4 letter sweater! Perfect timing!
I learned LBJ technique when making Caitlin Hunter’s Neigh sweater because the type of yarn and the contrasting colors were really making floats show through. It worked wonderfully! But I haven’t used it regularly in my colorwork. This article may inspire me to use it more often. I like the idea of using it just where needed. Thanks!
Can’t wait to learn this!
Extremely intrigued, know how to catch floats but this is totally new to me! Nice timing, have my first full stranded colourwork project here, doing the back plain so hopefully that next post will arrive as am getting ready to start the colourwork.
It’s a Doctor Who waistcoat, very 80s, so do have a lot of contrast between the colours, yellow as the main body with teal zigzags and red question marks. Had noticed a bit of red peeking through visible on my sample, though am a tight knitter, and wondered a bit about avoiding that, without going too tight and warping the colourwork. And also had been a bit concerned about the stretch and while the back should be Ok, had wondered whether to redo to allow just a few extra stitches for more flexibility with the front, as am petite in any case, but looking to be stuck a bit below my proper weight for quite a while longer with my gastroparesis, so since it’s made up to fit rather than to a pattern, wondered about how best to get it right. This technique sounds well worth a go.
Omg I love all things Whovian! Is the pattern on Ravelry?
I used LBJ on Ixchel. It was a lifesaver.
Check it out: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/lsdaloia/ixchel
Looking forward to learning more about this method. Thank you.
ALWAYS something new to learn! Can’t wait!
Oh how exciting!! I’ve been knitting for 60 years and still love challenging myself to learn something new. I can’t wait for your next post. Yarn and needles are ready!!
Can’t wait!
This has been intriguing me since I first heard about it. Can’t wait for the next post!
Love learning new techniques. Looking forward to your next post.
Looking forward very much to learning this technique
You left us wanting more right now!
Definitely intrigued and anxious to learn how it is done! Please post soon.
Excellent explanation!
At LAST!! A solution I can live with! Looking forward, eagerly, for the ‘how-to’ of LBJ.
I have been wanting to try this technique! Can’t wait for your next post.
I can hardly wait for your next installment!! Sounds wonderful!!
And I will g bc e sharing it with my knitting buddies at lunch today!!
Carol M. in Minnesota
You left us wanting more right now!
Thanks! looking forward to learning this technique. I have never heard of this before.
I LOVE ladderback jacquard. I took a class with Amy Detjen a few years ago and it made such a difference in how my colorwork looks. Now I feel like I have before ladderback jacquard (BLJ) and after ladderback jacquard (ALJ) sweaters in my collection, and I almost want to reknit the BLJ sweaters that have some floats peeking through. Almost. LOL
About to start the Night Blooms sweater, so this is timely advice!
I’ve been hesitant to dive into this technique – thanks for the prompt! Susan Rainey has a pattern on Ravelry called “It’s Not About the Hat”, which is a hat pattern that teaches this technique. I got the pattern ages ago, hadn’t tried it yet, definitely will now! Cheers, all!
Great article, I am making a hat for my daughter, Fishbone, it calls for every other stitch a color change. I have pulled it out twice for the above reasons and now will check with Amy how to resolve the issue. Many thanks
OK, my mouth is watering for a knitting technique – way to whet our appetites!
A solution to the reason colorwork has been avoided.
When will the next article – how to do this – appear?
Thank you!
Ladder-back was the trick my skills needed. It is magical!
I just heard about this technique for the first time in Kay’s post a few days ago, and made a note to myself to look into it after I finish my current project. Glad to know you’ll be telling us about it soon.
I’ve been hesitant to try this technique – thanks for the prompt! Susan Rainey has a pattern on Ravelry called “It’s Not About the Hat”, which is a hat pattern that teaches this technique. I got the pattern ages ago, hadn’t tried it yet, definitely will soon! Looking forward to more posts on this! Cheers, all!
This is great! Can’t wait to learn more. I’m currently working on a stranded color work pillow cover. Would love to learn how to eliminate the “peek throughs.”
What I would like to see is a tutorial, using a sample swatch, to practice using the ladderback technique. If you could do that on YouTube, I think it would help a lot of knitters to use ladderback technique. What also interests me is how you can use it for just a few rows and switch back to stranded knititng.
I can’t wait to see the technique
Thank you Amy! Yes, you’ve whet my appetite! I’m looking forward to your next installment.
I’m doing this for the first time, for a pair of colorwork socks, and it’s definitely helping in the ways it’s supposed to, but I’m still finding it fiddly and disruptive. I’ll probably get more comfortable with it the more I use the technique, and I do love how you can start and stop it whenever needed, I just need to get more comfortable with the moving the working yarn forwards and backwards
I took your class online a while back, and I LOVE THIS technique! I was even able to draft a pattern and figure out how to incorporate it! My error is that one of my yarns was heavier than the others so it’s a bit 3D, but at least it is the trees and not the sky!! I’ll be sure to test with ALL the yarns in my swatch next time. Do you think LBJ would work well in a worsted or lofty DK? Looking forward to the next article!
Never heard of this, can’t wait to learn it
Yayayayay!!!!!!!!!