How would you knit this design?

Not sure as don't do multi colour as of yet. But you have me really interested what this is for ? Design reminds me of roman mosaic laid out in grid like that.

Remember that knitting stitches are wider than they are tall. 5x8 grid, or even 3x4 grid, will give you a better idea of the vertical appearance of a pattern than you get from a squared grid.

As far as floats - I'll float a color for as many as 8 stitches before I start worrying about catching the float. Most of my colorwork is knitted at 8spi or better so I'm not exceeding the "one inch" rule of thumb for floats.

OK, that's a little more flexible. Thanks for both tips.

Fair Isle done with proper Fair Isle wool is very "sticky" - the yarn will cling to itself and slightly felt over time, so they didn't have to worry about the length of the floats. They also used fingering weight or finer yarn, so the number of stitches translates to a physical distance of maybe half an inch.

I've done some things with combined intarsia and stranding. I've done some long stranding with worsted weight acrylic - as long as the stranding is loose enough. If the item isn't gloves or sleeves where fingers would catch in the floats, you don't have to catch it in.

Kaffee Fassett designs involve elaborate intarsia. It depends on how much you want to do it.

=Tamar

I would agree with an important exception - keep the floats shorter on sleeves - especially in children's garments. I do color work with soft washable wool fingering for kids' sweaters and find that they do tend to forget to make fistswhen they put their hands in the sleeves - so keep the floats to no more than four stitches (three if I can) on the sleeves. It isn't that much more work to catch the floats where the gap is longer and keeps them from being pulled.

"Harlan Messinger" skrev i melding news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net...

I took the liberty to try your pattern, I hope you don't mind! I made an earwarmer from some leftover yarns, not all colores in the same yarn so the quality is NOT the best.

There is, as you know, much multicoloured knitting in Norwegian patterns, but often with only two coloures at the same time.

I have also knitted a lot with 3 coloures (I normally knit with first yarn over left forfinger, under the middle, over ringfinger, under the little finger. Yarn nr2: Over the two first fingers at left hand and then under middle, over OR round little finger. Yarn nr. 3 follows the work, sitting over right hand's middle finger, or around it. It depends of yarn type and need for tightness) You have to practice a bit to get it even.

This time it was four colours, that was the FIRST challenge(!) I found it very difficult to get stitches even!!

As wooly said: Because the stitches are broader than they are high, the pattern will be "lower" than the chart shows. BUT I was not able to... (and I tried HARD) knit without draw the work together sideways. It's partly due to lack of practice with so many yarns at a time, AND also because there are so many vertical stripes (SECOND challenge). Then it's very difficult not to get sort of "plissé folds".

I started to "weave yarns" after 4 stitches at the backside(THIRD challenge). But since no fingers (as in arms) will "hitch" in the yarn, I started to let the yarn float free. I know the opinions are different about how long floatings you can have. I will say it depends of what sort of yarn (thin yarn make shorter floatings) and what you are knitting. (compare gloves and a hat) I think "free float" functioned OK here.

You will see all this at the pictures, and that neither the "right" side, nor the back is especially nice, but it vas an interesting attempt!

It's possible to strand four or more colors in a row, but it does make the piece extra thick.

Now that I've looked at it again, I think I'd do it in my typical weird way, by picking a background color and then mentally dividing the rest into segments and work each segment as though it were separate from the others. I'd use a length of yarn for each of the other colors within the segment; however, because there would be such a wide gap between two single stitches of the same color, I'd start at the bottom with the middle of the length of yarn, and use the first end for the first column and the second end of the length for the second column of that color.

It's a technique I used in the past to knit block letters into a piece. I'd have to try it with your design to test whether it would work well, since your design is practically all separate strands with relatively little "background" to hold it together.

=Tamar

I keep the 8 space floats in my weaving , in crochet i just work the unused thread into the work , in knitting i twist the float every 2nd or 3rd stich with the working thread ,,, mirjam

Tamar you seem to work very much like me ,,, i would do the sepration thing as well if the colors are separated ,, But i have another problem to solve working in the round with colors , Each work needs pre planning , sometimes i use Dps and work seprately on segments ,,, planning is good brain excercize ,,,,, :>:>:> mirjam