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How to Knit Intarsia Without Bobbins or Butterflies

September 25, 2018 1 Comment

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. 

Learn how to knit intarsia patterns without using bobbins or butterflies, and check out the case for disorganized intarsia knitting with two great video tutorials.
A lot of intarsia tutorials & books might lead knitters to believe there’s only one way to knit an intarsia pattern successfully. In reality, as with any knitting, the choice for how to work your own work is up to one thing only: you. If you’re someone who prefers their WIPs (works-in-progress) to look immaculate and tangle-free as you go, that’s fine! If you’d rather get on with your knitting, tangles be damned (i.e. dealt with later), that’s fine too! In today’s intarsia tutorial, I’m going to walk you through how exactly to work an intarsia pattern without bobbins or butterflies, as well as the case for letting your intarsia look a bit disorganized as you go.

How to knit intarsia without bobbins or butterflies

First up, let’s take a look at some ways to knit intarsia without bobbins or butterflies. In particular, this video covers how to work from opposite ends of the same skein of yarn, as well as letting your yarn tails fly free as you knit.

If you’re more into tidy work as you go, here’s a tutorial for how to work intarsia using bobbins & butterflies, including how to estimate your yarn tails for each color and how to wind butterflies. 

Learn how to knit intarsia patterns without using bobbins or butterflies, and check out the case for disorganized intarsia knitting with two great video tutorials.

The case for disorganized intarsia knitting

Wondering why you’d want to deal with the inevitable tangles that happen as a result of bobbin-free intarsia knitting? I’ve made a little video to explain why you might want to give it a go.

My two cents: Personally, I’m a big fan of this style of intarsia knitting, thanks in part to a workshop I took at Vogue Knitting Live with Julia Farwell-Clay this year. She’s a brilliant intarsia pattern designer, so I figured I’d listen to her when it came to honing my intarsia knitting skills ahead of releasing my Intarsia Mountain pattern design. In the workshop she talked about simply (and I’m paraphrasing) getting on with it when knitting intarsia. This concept was a total game changer for me. Before, the idea of militantly estimating and bobbin-ing my tails seemed counter-productive to the goal of actually finishing a knitting project. With inspiration from Julia giving me the confidence I needed to just go for it, I’m now full-on obsessed with intarsia as a technique from a knit design perspective.

Do you have to knit “disorganized” instarsia? Not at all.

I’ll say this again because it bears repeating: your knitting is your own. If you think knitting intarsia in a more disorganized style isn’t your cup of tea, you go ahead and make those bobbins. But if you want to give his approach a try to see if it suits your personal knitting style, do it! There’s a great (and free) practice swatch in this post if you want a low-risk pattern to try out organized and disorganized intarsia for yourself.

Learn how to knit intarsia patterns without using bobbins or butterflies, and check out the case for disorganized intarsia knitting with two great video tutorials.

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: disorganized intarsia, how to knit intarsia, intarsia, intarsia bobbins, intarsia butterflies, intarsia mountain, intarsia tails, intarsia without bobbins, 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. Louise

    September 29, 2018 at 9:33 am

    Thanks, Heidi, for the best-ever demo of interlocking. I’m definitely giving this method a try. I knit Portuguese-style, so instead of turning the work I stay on the right side and knit backward for the wrong side row! Oddly, while my purl stitches would have been a tad looser than my knits, my backward knitting matches the regular perfectly!

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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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Craft book author & pattern designer ❤️💛💙
knitting, crochet, latch hook & macramé
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Please email for pattern support. 🧶

Heidi Gustad 🧶✂️
When you have four big skeins of pretty 2 ply yarn When you have four big skeins of pretty 2 ply yarn, you immediately think sweater, right? 
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My wardrobe could use another handmade sweater - I’m thinking something simple, seamed and with a decent amount of ease for potentially wearing tucked in with jeans or skirts. 🤔 
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Yarn: @universal_yarn Fibra Natura Cobblestone in Antarctica and Dragon’s Breath, wound in thick skeins of 100% superwash wool that’s a light DK weight.
How to to knit throwing (a.k.a. English) style . How to to knit throwing (a.k.a. English) style 
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In knitting, there are a few common knitting styles. Most often you’re going to encounter continental style and English (throwing) style on your knitting journey. I recently had an old video teaching continental style get a lot of views. Based on the comments, it was clear the people wanted to also see a throwing tutorial, so here you go! 🧶
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Please note that there is a LOT of variation in knitting styles, and one isn’t necessarily better than another. Most often, I’ve found it comes down to two things: how you were taught and whether or not you’re really into colorwork knitting (which can involve a mix of styles). 
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Longer-term knitters who’ve made it this far: do you prefer one over the other? And why? 
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#handsoccupied #englishknitting #learntoknit #knitting #howtoknit #knittersofinstagram #knitting_inspiration
How to do a one-step provisional knitting cast on How to do a one-step provisional knitting cast on / a.k.a. crochet provisional cast on, scrap yarn cast on
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I read recently that tiktok and Instagram are being used as search engines more and more. 🤔 I thought since I’m going to all the work of making tutorials on YouTube, I should experiment with making a quick version of them for other platforms. There are obvious teaching limitations to vertical video, short-form content like this, but I think I covered the gist of this cast on in a minute. The YouTube version also covers how to unzip this cast on because there was time for it 👍🏻 L1nk is in my profile. 
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I’m very much looking for feedback as I continue to make instructional knitting & craft videos. Sometimes good tutorials are hard to find, and (ideally polite) feedback helps me improve. 
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#handsoccupied #provisionalcaston #knitting #knititngtutorial #knittersofinstagram #crochethook #knittingtutorial
For the first time in a long time, there’s a new For the first time in a long time, there’s a new tutorial from Hands Occupied! 🎉 The video is live on YouTube & the blog. 
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The post covers what provisional cast ons are & how they differ, and the video covers how to work a one-step provisional cast on using scrap yarn and a crochet hook. (This is a great one to save for future reference.)
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I learned several names for this method while researching this video & post. Crochet provisional cast on, one-step cast on, scrap yarn cast on - if you know even more names for this technique, please share! 
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#handsoccupied #provisionalcaston #knitting #scrapyarn #crochethook
Working on a sample for some upcoming videos. It’s an overcast day with intermittent sunshine & I have a scruffy little sidecar. 🐶 Can’t complain! 
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What’s on your needles this week? 
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Yarn: @debbieblissknits Cashmerino Aran 
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#handsoccupied #knitting #knittinglife
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