Picking colors and knitting evenly are two important things when it comes to stranded knitting.

Fortunately, we have you covered on both.

Picking colors

There are lots of ways to pick colors.

We all have colors we like. It’s widely known that, for example, I like pink and I like flowers. And I also like Design Seeds. It’s a great site for you to get ideas for colors – including new pairings and using a combo of stash yarn and new yarn.

If you’re intrigued about picking colors, we wrote a whole post on selecting colors. We give you some great ideas!

Knitting Evenly

There are a few things to focus on in order to knit colorwork well – even tension and stretchiness are both important. Fortunately, they’re both related. Getting one gets you the other.

There is no panacea – sadly, blocking will NOT fix everything.

Tip #1: Start with a larger yarn

Say, a worsted weight or heavier. I suggest worsted weight because it’s readily available in a bunch or colors and you likely have some in your stash.

Tip #2: Simplify

Keep it simpler by selecting a project with just a few colors – and only two at a time. Our Ruby Geode cowl is a great choice because it’s worsted weight and it only uses 2 colors for 13 rounds (and there are 2 rest rounds that only use 1 color!).

Tip #3: Pick a Dominant Color

This one’s important because your knitting will look a lot more even – and the wrong side will look neat too. See the wrong side in the pic above? All the rows were knitted with the same yarn used as the dominant yarn. There are lots of tips on how to best do this so we have a whole post planned on it.

Do these 3 things and you’re sure to be knitting colorwork better.

Here are a few free Knotions patterns to try as well: