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Colorful knitting, crochet, latch hook and macrame from craft book author & designer Heidi Gustad.

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Advanced Intarsia Knitting Tips

October 4, 2018 5 Comments

This tutorial is part of our Read Along Knit Along series & is brought to you by LoveKnitting, Eucalan & Knitter’s Pride. Learn about our sponsors and enter to win the RALKAL prize pack here. 

For your best intarsia results ever, you've got to visualize the process of knitting your pattern. Click through for some of the best tips and tricks to level up your intarsia knitting.
At some point in your intarsia knitting career, you might find yourself wondering how to perfect your approach to knitting several colors of yarn at the same time. This thought will likely come to mind if you’re knitting intarsia and you’re needing two or three (or more!) lengths of the same color of yarn to work a single row of a project. If you’re in this position, I’ve got some favorite tips and tricks just for you!

For your best intarsia results ever, you've got to visualize the process of knitting your pattern. Click through for some of the best tips and tricks to level up your intarsia knitting.

An in-depth look at how to approach intarsia knitting

Let me introduce you to a little something I like to call “imagiknitting.” ;)

See? Basically, you’re going to look at your intarsia chart, and grab a pencil and knitting needle. Then you’re going to imagine the process of knitting your project, row by row, keeping track of your place (especially right and wrong side rows) with your needle. As you work, you’ll identify where you’re going to need to introduce a new piece of yarn and mark it, continuing the process all the way through your chart. Next, you’ll do a little bit of addition to know how many stitches of each color you’re working. From there, you can use your favorite intarsia tail estimation technique, you can create your bobbins/balls/lengths of yarn for each color of your project, and you’re finally ready to cast on, project fully planned from start to finish. For folks who really prefer to keep their intarsia projects organized as they go, this tutorial will help connect a few dots for you!

For your best intarsia results ever, you've got to visualize the process of knitting your pattern. Click through for some of the best tips and tricks to level up your intarsia knitting.
For your best intarsia results ever, you've got to visualize the process of knitting your pattern. Click through for some of the best tips and tricks to level up your intarsia knitting.

This tutorial is part of our Read Along Knit Along series & is brought to you by LoveKnitting, Eucalan & Knitter’s Pride. Learn about our sponsors and enter to win the RALKAL prize pack here. 

Filed Under: Knit Along, Knitting Tagged With: advanced intarsia, how to knit intarsia, intarsia, intarsia mountain, ralkal, read along knit along, video tutorial

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. She specializes in knitting, crochet, latch hook and macramé, and her first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is out now!

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Comments

  1. Emma Weinstein

    February 18, 2020 at 3:12 pm

    I was wondering how you suggest knitting intarsia in seed stitch. I’m currently trying a sweater pattern and can’t get the color changes right because of the knit-purl / purl-knit transititons.

    Reply
    • Heidi

      March 28, 2020 at 12:51 pm

      I don’t really do Intarsia with seed stitch for this exact reason. 👍🏻☺️

      Reply
    • Patricia

      September 29, 2020 at 11:27 am

      I am looking for help doing the color change in seed as well. My pattern instruction says to twist on WS. I’m not sure what that means.

      Reply
      • Heidi

        September 29, 2020 at 11:34 am

        That means that the interlocking action (when you change from one color of yarn to another) occurs on the wrong side of your work. Most intarsia technique calls for doing the interlocking action on the WS all the time, so this instruction feels like they may have intended it to be more of a reminder. That is just a guess on my part however. Does that make sense? -Heidi

        Reply
  2. Norman

    April 7, 2021 at 10:48 am

    was just looking for other intarsia fans and found your site and yay to a fellow mediaviner :) Great tips btw!

    Reply

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Heidi Gustad from Hands Occupied / Craft Book Author and Knitting, Crochet, Latch Hook and Macrame Designer

Hi! I’m Heidi (she/her/hers), a craft book author & pattern designer specializing in knitting, crochet, latch hook & macrame. Really anything with yarn! ❤️  My work combines vintage and modern design elements, featuring bold colors and graphic motifs.

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handsoccupied

Yarn craft designer & author. Into intarsia knits, latch hook, color & vintage-modern style.
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Heidi Gustad 🧶✂️
Sneaking in a few stitches in the shade. 😎 Sneaking in a few stitches in the shade. 😎
Another morning of filming! One of the knitting vi Another morning of filming! One of the knitting videos I’d like to release soon is a big overview of how to swatch and why - if you have any questions or favorite tips, let me know. 
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To be honest, I want to be able to link to this video as a resource when I get angry gauge questions, so please don’t hesitate to share your best tips. Together, we can tame the knitting Karens. 😆
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#stopswatchandblockit #handsoccupied #knitting #knittersofinstagram
A big issue I've had in the last year is putting t A big issue I've had in the last year is putting together new design work but not doing any independent releases of them. Chalk it up to anxiety, burn out, or whatever but here we are. 
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Last week I turned 35, so in honor of that here’s 3 things: 
❤️ a picture of me at my most stylish 
💛 a little glimpse at some of the design things I've recently been working on
💙a promise that I will be releasing some of the pictured designs this year. Getting back in the swing of things after taking it easy is hard 😆 - wish me luck!
Like a riding a bike! June guarded the neighborhoo Like a riding a bike! June guarded the neighborhood while I shot a new crochet tutorial today. With any luck, editing will go smoothly & I’ll be posting new videos to YouTube regularly soon! Got any requests for tutorial topics? 
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#handsoccupied #crochet #studiodog #crochettutorial
This yoke deserved a mid-blocking closeup, don’t This yoke deserved a mid-blocking closeup, don’t you think? ❤️💛💙
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Pattern: modified #soldotnacrop sweater / yarn: various from my stash
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