ColourSpun In Stitches - Knit Intarsia

It's Valentines month and so I thought you may like a quick little heart to knit into a gift for someone you love. This one uses intarsia, which is easier than it sounds, just make sure you keep your tension even when changing colour.

Also Known as picture knitting, intarsia knitting involves working sections of colour with separate balls or bobbins of yarn to produce a fabric that is only one layer thick as the non working yarn is not carried across the back. Instead, at each colour change the old colour is dropped and the next colour is picked up to work the next section. This means that you will have lots of bits of yarn hanging off your work. To prevent tangles, avoid working with whole balls of yarn; rather wind your yarn off onto bobbins which can hold the yarn not in use close to the work to prevent tangles. When changing colours, to prevent holes forming, drop the old colour and pick the new colour up from underneath the old yarn, wrapping it over the old yarn to hold it in place before continuing to knit. At each colour change, give the yarn a little tug to keep the stitch size uniform.

Intarsia is usually worked flat in stocking stitch from a charted pattern. I photo copy the pattern and place it in a plastic sleeve; then use a permanent marker to draw a line through the rows as they are completed, making it easy to see where I need to pick up the pattern.

You will need:
2 balls of ColourSpun yarn in different colours –colour A (background) and colour B (heart) available from www.colourspun.com
5 knitting bobbins (wooden pegs also work well)
1 pair knitting needles to suit your yarn

Instructions:
Wind 3 bobbins of colour A - 2 quite full and one with only a little on which will be used in the centre at the top of the heart.
Wind 2 bobbins of colour B – 1 full and one with only a little on for one side of the top of the heart.

Cast on 35 stitches
Rows 1 – 4: knit
Row 5: (Wrong side) K3; P29; K3
Row 6: knit
Repeat rows 5 and 6 twenty more times working in colour pattern from graph
Row 47- 49: knit
Cast off purl wise.

Note: The heart pattern starts on row 7.

Darn in ends – keeping colour A in colour A stitches and colour B in colour B stitches to prevent the ends showing on the front of your work.