"Yea" can finally do two colors!!! but

[cheley]

Hi everyone... I can finally do two colors (I think for now I'll call it stranding/fake isle) but when I use both hands, the floats in back are too unsightly and it's really slow, so when I drop a color and pick up a color that seems to go alot better (I knit english)... EXCEPT THE TANGLING GOING ON BACK THERE!! Any thoughts/ suggestions for you (more than one color) pros???? Thanks alot Cheley

[Kime]

If you want to drop and pick up you have to make sure you pick up color one from under color two, and color two over color one all the time. You are probably picking up one way most of the time no matter which color and that is twisting them.

My suggestion is that you keep practicing with two hands and probably practice more first with continental until you are more comfortable with it, unless you feel you are really comfy with it already. In the long run it will be worth your while and you will get faster and your tension will improve. If your floats are unsightly because they are too long, then you need to learn how to weave them in as you go, which also takes practice. When I first started color work I made a Kaffe Fassett Jacket (Jack's Back) and I was slow and awkward at first but by the end I was pretty good at it. The bad part was my tension changed during the project because I didn't practice the technique enough before hand and I ended up having to sew a seam (with a sewing machine) down one arm to make it fit because my tension got looser! It takes at least half a sweater's worth of practice to get your tension stabilized so if you have only done a small project then you need more practice to get it down.

[Ingrid]

Then again, I always knit stranded knitting with my right hand only. I just don't like using both.

It IS very important, however, to keep one strand on 'top' and one on the 'bottom' to prevent the tangling, as Kime said. Let's say you're using blue and red--you want the result on the back to look like this

______________main color
______________contrasting color

What I do is wrap the main color by pinching and wrapping, and knit the contrasting color with it over my pointer, if that makes any sense. If you keep the strands lined up, they'll look better on the back, too.

[cheley]

Then again, I always knit stranded knitting with my right hand only. I just don't like using both.

It IS very important, however, to keep one strand on 'top' and one on the 'bottom' to prevent the tangling, as Kime said. Let's say you're using blue and red--you want the result on the back to look like this

______________main color
______________contrasting color

What I do is wrap the main color by pinching and wrapping, and knit the contrasting color with it over my pointer, if that makes any sense. If you keep the strands lined up, they'll look better on the back, too.

Wow!!! That (somehow) makes sense!! Thank you,Ingrid...one other question...Can I consider myself no longer a newbie??????