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Contemporary yarn crafts by Heidi Gustad. Knitting, crochet, latch hook and macrame.

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Intarsia 101

September 4, 2018 4 Comments

This tutorial is part of our Read Along Knit Along series & is brought to you by LoveKnitting, Eucalan & Knitter’s Pride.

Intarsia 101: What is intarsia knitting, how it's different from stranded colorwork, and how to knit intarsia, featuring an in-depth video tutorial to demonstrate the technique for absolute beginners. Click through for this awesome tutorial.
Intarsia. It’s a word that strikes fear in the hearts of knitters, myself formerly among them. First of all, it’s a colorwork technique, i.e. a way of knitting with 2 or more differently-colored yarns to create colorful patterns. Intarsia is special because once you can work the technique, a whole new world of possibilities opens up for you as a knitter. Everything from argyle (one of the most famous knitting designs in the world, achievable with intarsia knitting!) to, well, a picture of a zebra becomes something you can knit into your work. Doesn’t this sound fun?

What’s Intarsia?

Also known as picture knitting, intarsia enables knitters to create isolated chunks of color and/or motifs of multiple colors. Intarsia earns its picture knitting nickname particularly when you consider pieces like statement sweaters featuring a single word or image on the chest. In knitting, you’ll most commonly come across intarsia worked flat in stockinette stitch, and your pattern will most likely be in the form of a chart.

Intarsia 101: What is intarsia knitting, how it's different from stranded colorwork, and how to knit intarsia, featuring an in-depth video tutorial to demonstrate the technique for absolute beginners. Click through for this awesome tutorial.

How to knit intarsia

As you’ll learn in the video below, intarsia is accomplished by knitting different sections of a given row of knitting using multiple, separate balls of yarn. For instance, if your intarsia chart features a row in which two colors are worked, you’ll be knitting from three separate balls of yarn. The first and last ball of yarn you’ll work from are the same color, and the second will be a contrasting color. (If you’re a visual learner, watch the video to see how this works.) Often in intarsia, the “balls” of yarn your working from are shorter lengths of yarn, wound into butterflies or on to bobbins.

Intarsia 101: What is intarsia knitting, how it's different from stranded colorwork, and how to knit intarsia, featuring an in-depth video tutorial to demonstrate the techinque for absolute beginners.

Intarsia vs. Stranded Knitting

Intarsia is different than stranded knitting (a.k.a. fair isle knitting). In fair isle, you’re carrying one or more strands of yarn in different colors, “floating” the unused colors on the wrong side of your work. Those floats result in several strands of yarn at the back of your work, hence the name “stranded.”

Love & Lopapeysas: All about knitting an Icelandic sweater

Icelandic Lopapeysa sweaters use stranded colorwork to create motifs worked in the round. Notice that the colorwork runs all the way around each round of this sweater. This is different than intarsia, where contrasting yarn colors are limited to isolated portions of the row/round. 

Sometimes reading an explanation of a knitting technique worded two different ways (and especially from two different teachers) is helpful to understand it. During the process of designing my Intarsia Mountain pattern, my pattern Editor explained the difference between the two techniques like this:

In intarsia, different sections of each row are worked in different colors. Intarsia is different than stranded knitting in that the knitter doesn’t carry the unused yarn behind the work. Instead, she drops the old color, brings the yarn for the new color up under the yarn of the old color, and then continues on knitting in the new color until the next color change or the end of the row. This method twists the yarns to close any gaps between the old and new colors.

The Hat Hat | Hands Occupied

The Hat Hat is an example of intarsia knitting. 

If you’ve only knit stranded colorwork up to this point, you’re not alone. Tons of knitters are in the same boat. The biggest thing to understand about intarsia versus stranded colorwork is that in stranded colorwork, stitches are held together by tension across sections of color in the row. In intarsia, sections of color are held together a little bit like a suspension bridge. Differently-colored strands of yarn interlock with each other when you change colors to avoid gaps between stitches at the color change. For a swatch of intarsia featuring a simple shape, the left and right edges of the square interlock with adjacent stitches for horizontal tension, and the bottom and top rows of the shape are knit into the stitches above or below them, just like any other piece of knitting (colorwork or otherwise).

Intarsia 101: What is intarsia knitting, how it's different from stranded colorwork, and how to knit intarsia, featuring an in-depth video tutorial to demonstrate the technique for absolute beginners. Click through for this awesome tutorial.

Video tutorial: Intarsia 101

Since knitting is almost always easier to understand visually, I’ll stop yammering about tension bridge swatches and let this video drive home the basics of intarsia. Just remember: The key with intarsia is to ensure your differently-colored strands of yarn interlock with each other when you change colors to avoid gaps between stitches at the color change.

Intarsia resources

Like I said, sometimes it’s helpful to read several different folks’ explanations of a knitting technique, so here’s a bit of additional reading to help you better understand intarsia. And as always, if you’ve got any questions, holler in the comments or email me at heidi-at-handsoccupied-dot-com. 

  • Intarsia Knitting Demystified: How to Intarsia Knit -Interweave
  • Beyond the Basics: Intarsia -Vogue Knitting
  • Tips for Knitting Your Best Intarsia Yet -Craftsy
  • Stars & Stripes Felted Hot Pad & an overview of intarsia -Purl Soho
  • A basic intarsia hat knitting pattern -Knitty

Practice swatch

If you’d like to try intarsia for yourself or brush up on your technique, here’s the chart pattern for the swatch featured in the video. Please note: the chart includes a slipped stitch edging and two rows of garter stitch are featured all the way around the swatch to prevent rolling. 

Intarsia 101: What is intarsia knitting, how it's different from stranded colorwork, and how to knit intarsia, featuring an in-depth video tutorial to demonstrate the technique for absolute beginners.

Click here for a larger chart.

Intarsia 101: What is intarsia knitting, how it's different from stranded colorwork, and how to knit intarsia, featuring an in-depth video tutorial to demonstrate the technique for absolute beginners.
Intarsia Mountain by Heidi Gustad, pictured in a neutral color palette

Intarsia & the Read Along Knit Along

This post was published as part of the fall 2018 Read Along Knit Along, during which we’re knitting my Intarsia Mountain pattern. Intarsia Mountain is, you guessed it, knit entirely using intarsia. To accomplish this bold, nearly-reversible design, garter stitch is used in combination with stockinette stitch to achieve the finished look. If you’re RALKALing with us and are ready for more advanced tutorials, head to the Hands Occupied Ravelry Group for great discussion of intarsia and how it applies to making Intarsia Mountain, and keep your eyes on the Hands Occupied YouTube channel for relevant video tutorials that will be published there before the full blog posts about each technique are published on this blog.

Intarsia 101: What is intarsia knitting, how it's different from stranded colorwork, and how to knit intarsia, featuring an in-depth video tutorial to demonstrate the technique for absolute beginners. Click through for this awesome tutorial.

This tutorial is part of our Read Along Knit Along series & is brought to you by LoveKnitting, Eucalan & Knitter’s Pride.

Filed Under: Giveaways, Reviews & Sponsored, Knit Along, Knitting Tagged With: how to knit intarsia, intarsia, intarsia 101, 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. JTM

    September 4, 2018 at 1:51 pm

    This is awesome! I always thought intarsia was not worth the trouble, but your breakdown is making me rethink that approach!

    Reply
    • Heidi

      September 4, 2018 at 3:11 pm

      It really, truly opens up so many new ideas in your knitting, and there’s a whole WORLD of patterns you’ll be able to do if you hop on board the intarsia train! :)

      Reply
  2. Jocelyn Ang

    April 30, 2020 at 4:28 am

    Is it possible to do intarsia if you’re not using knitting needles? I am hand knitting with super bulky yarn.

    Reply
    • Heidi

      May 1, 2020 at 2:18 pm

      I would think so, but you may need to do some experimenting to practice with tension first – a big swatch! :) LMK if you want to brainstorm ideas on how to make this work.

      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, an author, yarn craft designer and content creator specializing in knitting, crochet, latch hook & macrame. My work unapologetically features primary colors and vintage-meets-modern style. My first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is now available!

Professionally I’m most known for: advanced intarsia knitting design & modern latch hook design.

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Happy Wrestlemania weekend, folks!!! 🎊 It’s c Happy Wrestlemania weekend, folks!!! 🎊 It’s coincidentally International Punch Needle Rug Hooking Day today, so I’d be remiss not to share a first look at this project finished JUST in time to wear while I watch some rasslin’ on a pirate ship in a football stadium in Tampa! 💪🏻 I’m excited to watch tonight’s women’s matches the most. Eee!
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Pictured: A blond woman in a denim dress and glasses wearing a giant belt made with punch needle. The belt is made with wool in primary colors and was inspired by the WWE Universal Championship title belt. 
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This is just a preview - after jab 2.0 tomorrow (feeling grateful 🙏🏼), I’ll be editing together a vlog about the design process for this wooly waist cover. Sometimes it’s hard to know how to make some of your wilder craft ideas come to life. Stuff you’ll never find a pattern for, you know? I’ll finish editing that ASAP, but I might take a few days to edit if I feel like trash from 💉 and only want to watch wrestling and wrestling YouTube for a day or two. 😂
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#ipnrhd #punchneedle #wwe #wrestling #championshipbelt #wool #yarn #handmade #universalchampionship #universalchampion #rugmaking #wrestlingfan #wrestlemania37 #wrestlemania
A look at the halo on the back of my wrestling-ins A look at the halo on the back of my wrestling-inspired punch needle project! It’s interesting to see how fuzzy the handspun beige yarn is compared with the primary color sections of @knit_picks Wool of the Andes Bulky. ❤️💛💙🤎 
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Pictured: The back of an in-progress punch needle project. A wooden punch needle tool sits on the work.
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#punchneedle #woolrug #rugmaking  #kpambassadorsapr21 #sponsored #griefproject #handsoccupied #wrestlingfan #universalchampion #yarn #yarncraft #wool #needlepunch
Happy Easter / One week til Wrestlemania! Finishin Happy Easter / One week til Wrestlemania! Finishing up the punch needling part of this crazy @wwe inspired project by tonight. 💪🏻🧶 Anybody else have crafty plans for this fine spring day? 
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Pictured: A blond woman sits, smiling and holding an in-progress punch needle project inspired by the Universal Championship belt. Houseplants are in the background and there’s lots of sun. 
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#punchneedle #griefproject #handsoccupied #heidigustad #wrestlingcrafts #wwe #universalchampion #universalchampionship #wool #wooloftheandes #primarycolors #oxfordpunchneedle
I'm finally starting to get some of my energy back I'm finally starting to get some of my energy back from the past few weeks, and as I dip my toe back into production mode, the long-promised seamed sweater knitting YouTube series is at the top of my list. I've got FOUR versions of a simple sweater I've been playing with since last JULY to feature as a free pattern for folks who want to knit along during the series. Pictured is the first prototype for the series, knit in 2 colors of @knit_picks Mighty Stitch yarn. I imagine this soon-to-be short sleeved number will come in handy as an emergency Waldo costume or Christmas sweater. 🌲 
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I've got my own list of topics I think folks would like to see in a series like this: things like tips for construction, working with vintage patterns, how to seam as invisibly as possible, and more, but as always, I'd love to hear from you: What scares you about knitting seamed sweaters? What would be helpful to cover, especially since we'll be doing more long form video content. I get so much positive feedback on my series of 20 minute+ intarsia tutorials, so I'm using those as a starting point as I produce this series. Seamed sweaters using vintage or self-improvised patterns are one of my favorite things on the planet, so I'm eager to share some seamed sweater skills with y'all super sweet folks. 😉 
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Pictured: A red and white striped, short sleeved sweater knit in pieces that have yet to be seamed. They are laid out on a yellow and orange colorblock background and one sleeve is yet to be bound off. 
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Work continues this evening on my absurd punch nee Work continues this evening on my absurd punch needle pro wrestling inspired championship belt project. I’ve finished most of the front pretty quickly thanks to the @knit_picks Wool of the Andes Bulky yarn I’m using. For now, I’ve got a couple more weeks until Wrestlemania, & I’m on track to finish this in time! 
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The biggest question I have is what to do with the “plates” - the open circles in the picture. Should I try to closely replicate the Universal Championship belt or go rogue and make it wool themed? Please advise in the comments. ☺️🧶🙏🏻🐑 
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Pictured: The front of an in-progress punch needle project. A wooden punch needle tool with navy yarn running through it rests on top of the work. 
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