Tag: Christmas baubels

Again a bit off opic – My Detour in Stranded Knitting

In this post I share my first experiences with stranded colourwork and the challenges of knitting with two colours. After a lot of experimenting, I found a method that works well for me and makes knitting feel relaxed again. My Christmas stocking turned into a practice piece, but two Christmas baubles and a small new project came out of it.

My Progress in Colourwork

Last month I shared my excursion into knitting – more precisely into stranded colourwork, a technique that was completely new to me. I started practising it by knitting a Christmas stocking. If you missed that post, you can find it here.

Even back then I wasn’t sure whether the stocking would be finished in time for Christmas. I’m quite proud of how much it has grown since then – and yet I’ve decided not to finish it.

That may sound frustrating, but it really isn’t. By now, I truly enjoy knitting with two (or more) colours. Getting there, however, took some effort.

Learning Colourwork the Hard Way

I learned to knit decades ago, using the continental style. That means I usually hold the yarn in my left hand, wrapped once or twice around my forefinger. When it comes to knitting with two colours, there are countless ways to manage the yarn – and even more tutorials.

I watched many of them. And I tried many of them.

None of these techniques worked for me in the long run. Either I felt like I was about to break a finger, or after just a few stitches everything got hopelessly tangled and I had to stop and rearrange the strands. I found it exhausting – and I was close to giving up.

An Aha Moment

My turning point came almost by accident. While reading about colour dominance (a topic you inevitably encounter when dealing with colourwork), I watched a video by Arne & Carlos about tension. In that video I noticed how Arne knits with two colours.

I tried his way – and so far, it works surprisingly well for me.

I now knit with just one strand at a time, as I’m used to, and pick up or drop the second colour only when needed, usually with my right hand. It doesn’t feel slower at all. My tension isn’t perfect yet, but it’s much more even, my fingers no longer get tangled, and knitting feels relaxing again.

When Practice Shows

Of course, all that experimenting turned my Christmas stocking into a real practice piece – and unfortunately, it shows.

If you look closely, you can clearly see the improvement over time: the stitches in the later sections, starting after the first green part, are much more even than at the beginning.

That alone wouldn’t have bothered me too much. But I also discovered a few mistakes in the early part of the pattern. That was the deciding factor.

The stocking is a thing of the past.

From Stocking to Christmas Baubles

Instead, I knitted two Christmas baubles – and I love the result.

Like the stocking, the bauble pattern is by Arne & Carlos. It’s their 2021 design and includes a basic pattern for a Christmas bauble plus 24 different motifs. So far I’ve made two of them: motif #19 on the left and #24 on the right

A Small, Last-Minute Project

Besides that, I’ve just started a small project that might become a last-minute Christmas gift: a phone cozy.

The pattern comes from the book

SOXX Look by Stine & Stitch (Kerstin Balke),

a German pattern book featuring stranded colourwork designs for beanies, loops, socks and more. Unfortunately I’m not sure whether it’s available in English or outside Germany.

The phone cozy pattern has a short repeat, which makes it easy to adjust the width. It also includes instructions on which section to repeat if you need more length. With a bit of simple maths, it can even be adapted to make a tablet cover.

I‘m about half way done… Lovely, isn‘t it?

In case I got you inspired, here some links to

Patterns, Books & Videos That Inspired Me

Have a lovely time 💕