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Intarsia

Intarsia is a technique used for colour

patterning in which there are no
floats, as each colour is separately
knitted in to its own shape. Many
colours can be knitted into one row
and because there are no floats,
large, bold pattern shapes can be
made. Special intarsia carriages are
available for the more sophisticated
machines. Always start with needles
at intarsia position: latches open and
needles forward about 1cm (2/5in).
This is usually achieved by a pass of
the empty intarsia carriage.

Intarsia technique

2
1 A ball of yarn is required
for each pattern shape;
place them on the floor in
front of the machine.
2 Place the end of each
coloured yarn across
the open latches of the
groups of needles in the
pattern order for the row,
with the short end nearest
to the carriage and yarns
crossing under needles.
3 Take the intarsia carriage
across the needles to knit
the row; each separate
colour will knit with its own
needles.
4 Repeat the procedure,
manually placing the
Surface texture > Patterned knits

yarns back across the

needles in the order
required for each row,
crossing under needles
as before.
5 Knit one row and
continue.