Intarsia,or bobbin knitting,is a form
of color knitting. Unlike Fair Isle—
where colors are worked and carried
across rows in a repetitive pattern—
with intarsia you can scatter isolated
blocks of color over your knitting or
put one large motif on a background
of another color. You knit each motif
using a separate ball(s) or bobbin(s) of
yarn. When changing colors, you twist
yarns together on the wrong side to
avoid having holes on the right side.
Before beginning an intarsia project, you should wind your main and contrast
colors onto two or three bobbins for each color.
1 On the right side, knit to the place where the intarsia motif is to begin, drop
the main color yarn, and get ready to knit with the contrast color yarn.
Note:You might want to tie the new yarn to the old yarn before knitting the first stitch of the new
color. This helps maintain even tension. You can untie it and secure the loose end later. Just be sure
to leave at least a 6-inchtail on the new yarn.
Intarsia with Two ColorsTry Intarsia.
2 Knit as many stitches in the contrast color as your pattern calls for.