How to knit intarsia in the round - Step by step tutorial

Step by step tutorial on how to knit intarsia in the round
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Intarsia is a colorwork technique that allows you to knit big blocks of colors surrounded by others using multiple bobbins. The problem: If you want to knit it in the round, the bobbin always ends up hanging down at the far end of a color block, but as you start a new round, you need it at the beginning.
You can solve that problem, by knitting back and forth and creating provisional joins. By twisting the yarn ahead you create a loop. You'll continue knitting on the wrong side with this loop, and once you reach the other end of the color block, you can tighten the gap.
Knitting intarsia in the round is probably a technique best reserved for intermediate knitters with quite a bit experience. While the technique is fairly easy to explain, it gets complicated to knit due to the all the different bobbins, multiple needles, etc.
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[@salvadordahlias]

Oh my goodness, Norman! I've been knitting for ten years and I've never been able to learn how to do this! This is such a clear explanation. I feel like a whole new world of knitting has opened up!

[@NimbleNeedles]

So very happy to hear this. Personally, inarsia is by far my favourite knitting method. Like u said, just soooo many stunning possibilities

[@TheSuzberry]

This is the clearest description of the technique I’ve seen. Teaching is so challenging - and you do such a wonderful job.

[@TheEhuang]

Clearest demonstration and explanation of intarsia in the round, and I've seen many! One benefit is that Norman starts from the beginning; other videos show you from a point already many rows/rounds in.

[@NimbleNeedles]

Thank you sooo much Elaine. This means the world to me, because, believe it or not, that's the goal I set for all my videos!

[@byggrynsgroet]

my mind went 🤯 when you tucked at the yarn to get rid of the extra in the provisional join, i never thought it would work like that!

[@thesilverpen]

This is the only video I have watched on this exact technique that fully made sense through the whole process. Took me a while to find it, but so glad I did!

[@putrescentcadaver]

Watching your intasia flat looks great and simple. Intarsia in the round will be slow. I'm going to have to practice more and watch the video a few more times before it actually makes sense to me. Thank you again for the great video work!

[@NimbleNeedles]

yeah, flat it's super simple and in the round it's...incredibly difficult!

[@carmenmarialucia5266]

Norman, you're too sweet 🤗🤗🤗 Thank you for all your tutorials!

[@Islandflower66]

This was the clearest tute on intarsia in the round I've watched so far, thank you!

[@NimbleNeedles]

aww. Thank you!

[@frausisu7465]

Well done Norman! You took so much confusion out of it! I love that you put written explanations below your videos. Thank you.

[@NimbleNeedles]

it's a pleasure! :)

[@jenbell7041]

Oh thank you so much for this clear tutorial! I thought I was going crazy reading the instructions on a sample knit and you just made it so I can see what was written! Thank you !!!

[@magelinekelley7536]

Thank you for the clear demonstration of this technique

[@sannaberco8906]

Such a good teacher you are, thank you

[@amandasmith3130]

THANK YOU NORMAN--you saved a baby girl's first Mrs Weasley letter sweater! 😘

[@NimbleNeedles]

awesome!

[@fly_you_fools]

I needed to learn this and came straight to Norman for instructions. It’s such a good video. And I’ve decided I’m just going to use duplicate stitches after I knit the item in one color plain SS. because this is a pain. 😂

[@NimbleNeedles]

haha...i feel you!

[@cfhillen]

AMAZING! You are fantastic, Norman! Thank you so much for your kind sharing. I am excited to knit again!!

[@NimbleNeedles]

You are so welcome!

[@kaptngator]

Very clever! Thanks for your comprehensive instructions! I am not even a regular knitter (yet) 😃!

[@NimbleNeedles]

You are so welcome! and feel free to come back in case you have any other questions. I'm here to help :)

[@alisonsaxena1633]

Thank you Norman 🙏👍

[@cristianavadean2349]

This was super clear! Thank you!

[@NimbleNeedles]

Happy to hear that & you're welcome! :) :)

[@horoshogromko]

Thank you for the video, and also thanks for the tips on the website - the one about putting in lifelines was particularly helpful.

[@NimbleNeedles]

Glad I could be of help! Let me know if there's anything else you have troubles with :)

[@acornbud4894]

Always a tricky technique for me. Thanks for sharing this clear video!

[@NimbleNeedles]

so happy to hear that and always a pleasure to help! :)

[@zoedoodle9824]

Great technique!

[@rghayden]

Thank you so much. This is fixed a design issue for me.😊

[@michelleconnolly5425]

Thank you! Thank you!

[@kadenceparker]

Thank you! I'm relatively new to knitting and I already made socks. I wanted to make Moon-themed socks(from Five Nights At Freddy's) and make little stars on the legs. I'm going to use this for my socks and gloves and look at your other intarsia video for that scarf. I have learned how to knit from your videos and I have never once been led astray.

[@annep.1905]

I wish I had seen this about a week ago! At least I now know for future reference. Thank you!

[@thk849]

Norman you are my superhero ❤❤❤❤

[@NimbleNeedles]

Oh wow..thx for your feedback 😊❤ does this mean I can knit myself a Cape? 😅❤

[@geriattrique7141]

Mind blown! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@zhangtongle]

Sehr gute Idee!

[@sarahwenger1284]

Great video I now know how to do this but I do not know if I have the patience for this technique! I might do sew over the knit stitches for colorwork whenever I need

[@NimbleNeedles]

duplicate stitch is certainly always an option but will create a different kind of fabric. But I entirely agree, this technique is a bit inconvenient :P

[@rowantheo809]

thank you for the video!! someone said that intarsia can only be worked flat so im happy to know that this is possible even though it takes a while to get my head around it (you always explain things so well that i feel like i could just treat this as a step by step tutorial and it will go pretty smoothly once you start). although... i looked for this technique because i wanted to make a weasley jumper in the round with the letter M... so i think for that project i should probably stick with duplicate stitch 😭😂 or just switch colors and carry floats for each row haha

[@NimbleNeedles]

the weasley sweater is typically done with duplicate stitch. But if you do a seamed sweater, intarsia wil be pretty easy (and look muuch better).

[@beatnikqueen]

Mindblowing! I knit in the round using another technique, with a yarnover. But it left holes :( I'll try your method next.

[@mixedandknot5911]

Hello Norman, I love all your instructional videos. Thank you kindly for your time and patience. I have subscribed to your Newsletter but I cannot download the men's intarsia sweater pattern. I know that it is for men but I do not care because I am making it for myself because I love it. If you could give me a few pointers on how to change the pattern to fit a woman, I would be totally grateful.

[@NimbleNeedles]

Thank you so much for your kind feedback and your support. As for the sweater - glad u received it by now. Sadly, I do have to tell you that I never knit a woman's sweater so I honestly can't help you there. Shoulders might be too wide and you'll need breast darts. 😥

[@lorrainnemcglone4895]

Truly amazing. My problem is how do I increase and decrease. I knit animals and my body is always in the round cause my sewing is not great. There are increases and decreases to shape for the arms and legs, while adding a coloured tummy for say a dog….can you help me here. Many thanks love your channel. Been knitting for 60 plus years and I can still learn from you..wow thanks

[@NimbleNeedles]

well, for knitted toys i typically prefer nimble-needles.com/stitches/how-to-knit-lifted-increases/

[@lorrainnemcglone4895]

@@NimbleNeedles many thanks for you reply. I do use this method. It was where I turned when knitting in the round for intarsia that it was very messy, hard not to leave a hole so I slipped this first stitch and it wasn’t neat at all.. not good enough to be selling as I have many customers wanting my knits and I think I’d lose them if I sent out a product that wasn’t very neat. Again many thanks for your reply. I think at 71 my brain has no more learning room…thanks

[@NimbleNeedles]

@@lorrainnemcglone4895 i am not sure if we are talking about the same thing. I don't see how increasing would leave a (bigger) whole when doing intarsia compared to regular knitting. Or are you talking about the color transition?

[@zanti5853]

This is really really cool! Thank you so much! A while back I tried to knit a colorblock pullover raglan style and it frustrated me deeply, so it isn unfinished and in a box now. I might just pick it up again. I have one question however: Does this thechnique also work with multiple intarsias? Say you wanted to create another red square on the opposite needle...? Thank you very much for all the great work you are doing here!

[@NimbleNeedles]

it sure does. You only need to decide on one break point and work across the rest of the color blocks the regular way. It can quickly become a bit overwhelming, tho

[@zanti5853]

@@NimbleNeedles Right, that makes sense! Thank you so much!

[@EsmereldaPea]

​@@NimbleNeedles- thanks Norman! Going to try this now. (I've tried it before and gave up (but then again that one was a complicated cable of a pretzel with 4 bobbins being cabled this way and that, so that didn't help matters!) I was initially thinking I only needed one bobbin of the background color but then realized that didn't make sense.

[@asmileisspecial]

This is a great tutorial, thank you! Hurts my brain while making sense at the same time. My only question is with all the turning the work etc, would this be in patterns that use intarsia in the round or would you have to figure out when to purl to a colour change? I hope that makes sense! It reminds me a little bit of double knitting but even harder!

[@NimbleNeedles]

Hmm..I don't quite understand the question, sorry. Would you mind to elaborate a bit?

[@Kate-fz3rp]

woah!

[@Latbirget]

This is so helpful thank you! I have a question though. On my motif I have two rows of three a bit like your block and then increasing to 15 so the block of 3 in the middle has 6 sts of the same colour on either side. Do I have to treat this as a separate motif and cut the yarns from the first block of 3?

[@NimbleNeedles]

that is a difficult question. in traditional intarisa, yes, you have to cut it. These little floats can gather/cinch the fabric and often that's not what you want. But weaving in too many ends usually doesn't look very pretty either. So, if it's a horizontal bridge, I won't do it, but if it's vertical, i sometimes do it.

[@loutaichi6856]

Thank you for your videos, always so clear. I was wondering if you could twist the yarns to avoid a gap, knit backwards (also learned from you) only the black part to bring back the black yarn at the beginning, then knit in the round starting after the four black stitches which you would slip in the next round since they already have been knitted. I don’t know if you see what I mean, (I guess it would have been easier for me to just try it than putting it in words), but if you do and it can be done, a tutorial would be greatly appreciated! Thanks again!

[@NimbleNeedles]

well, what you can definitely do is, you can knit backwards instead of turning around. That's definitely an option. You can also combine that with a short row like technique without these provisional joins. I, however, noticed that this technique I am showing here in this video looks the neatest for me.

[@loutaichi6856]

@@NimbleNeedles Thank you for taking the time to answer. I will try both ways and see what happens!

[@Kejtlena]

Your instructions are very clear and helpful but my goodness does this seem tedious

[@NimbleNeedles]

ha....you are right there. I always say: intarsia in the round is a technique not meant to be. And if you plan to do this with 10 bobbins it might quickly drive you insane >.

[@stevemichael8186]

As always amazing tutorials, i feel like im biting off more then i can chew trying to do a sock with a letter on it, having to combine both intarsia and fair isle for like the letter f but its sideways so i did two rows intarsia, but then for the smaller parts of the f i had to like float the intarsia past 6 stitches then do floats for the small parts, but now i have one float longer then 6 stitches and not sure what the remedy would have been for that...

[@NimbleNeedles]

it definitely sounds like you might trying to do a bit too much. Try to understand how socks work firt, and then you can ramp up the difficulty. What you are trying to do would be incredibly hard even for me.

[@stevemichael8186]

@@NimbleNeedles somehow im doing it already got 2 of the 4 letters with only that first messup float over 6 stitches other then that i dont have any floats more then 2 stitches and incorporating both in the round intarsia with fair isle... it does take some thinking though lol

[@johnmyers8633]

Loved the tutorial, but oh my, this is not the easiest knitting technique I have ever seen. However, I really want to make Argyle socks someday...

[@NimbleNeedles]

well practice, practice, and practice. Argyle socks are probably one of the most difficult knitting patterns of them all ;-) But a worthy goal!

[@ollie_acorn]

my braiiiiiiiiiin

[@NimbleNeedles]

🙈🙈

[@anika2539]

This has been super helpful, thank you! Yet i couldn't find any Video on intarsia knitting in the round with more than 2 colours. Can you da that? I wanna do dresses for children with a motive in the middle and sweaters as a gift. The colour pattern is something like A (main colour), B, C, B, A (in your case green is A, Red ist B and C would be inside the Red). For now i'm just trying to work in the C somehow with no clue, but that only works when it's only a few stitches. Oh man i hope you understand what i mean 🙈

[@NimbleNeedles]

Hey Anika, well the technique is really the same. You only need to bridge ONE color block with the provisional cast on. The rest you can easily work in traditional fair isle as you are knitting back and forth anyway. So, it shouldn't be a problem. I could do a video in the future,but can't promise you anything. Producing these videos does take a looot of time :P

[@anika2539]

@@NimbleNeedles ah okay! I think i did that intuitively, but thought naaa, that cant be right! I will try again and check the tension more cause i didnt get it quite right the first time :)

[@vapinggaming]

Have you done a tutorial for casting on with a color change? I have seen multiple tutorials for adding color mid-work, but there is very little out there showing the best way to change colors at the very beginning- at the cast on. Also- is it possible to change your type of cast on midway? Maybe you are doing a pattern that requires you to go from stockinette stitch to 1x1 ribbing and you want the cast on edge to flow from something like a long tail to an Italian cast on? Never seen it done. Maybe it is not possible? Or maybe someone just hasn't figured it out yet...

[@NimbleNeedles]

you can easily change your cast-on midway. there are no rules here. so you can cas ton 3 knit stitches and 3 purl stitches and then do 5 with a twisted cast on. Doesn't matter. But I wouldn't change yarn mid-caston. This will create an unstable base.

[@zachharris3282]

Would this work with magic loop method?

[@NimbleNeedles]

Yes and no...it will be a bit more fiddly..but yeah, you can give it a try

[@eh5320]

see I have the wrong problem where the “red” yarn aka my new color strand is also at the end when it should be at the front.. problem is that I’m working with circular needles and I’m not sure how much of this tutorial is applicable to my work

[@NimbleNeedles]

it doesn't matter if you use circular, dpns or magic loop. It's always the same, really. and when it's at the end, you turn around, create a provisional join and go in the other direction.

[@kt1pl2]

But if you're knitting just a part of it, then you turn it to purl won't some of the stitches on the knitting row not be worked?

[@NimbleNeedles]

no...i am not quite sure I follow you. why wouldn't they be worked..they willbe worked just later on.

I was going to use this for a sock with multiple color switching in every round, butt I think that won't work. I guess I'll be using intarsia in the round for the biggest single surface and use a combination of fair isle and duplicate stitch for the details. Wish me luck!

[@NimbleNeedles]

well...in this case do consider knitting it flat instead. Might be better results. If you incorporate a garter stitch selvage you could seem them with the mattress stitch for garter stitch which doesn't leave behind a noticeable seam inside. I mean, do what you feel is right for you but mixing too many things in one project often is a recipe for disaster! ;-)

@@NimbleNeedles true, and I knew that I didn't know what I started. It'll be a few unravels until I get it right but that's how one learns.

[@anime_drow-blockman-go]

How bout for multiple color

[@NimbleNeedles]

ii still plan to do a video on advanced intarisa in the round.

[@GuisborneAdmirer]

What if I have to change colors several times in the round😢??

[@NimbleNeedles]

well, for those instances you can use the normal intarsia technique. You only have to define want turn around point.

[@P.M.P.181]

I've been trying to knit a tree motif all day and I cannnnot understand where or how to increase. And I can't seem to find any videos showing this technique from the very starting point of the top of the tree 😢

[@NimbleNeedles]

hm...well, I am loosely planing an advanced intarsia video. But this will probably still take quite a while.

[@P.M.P.181]

I figured it out! Although the top of my tree looks a little blunt 😅 I had to make a swatch and practice intarsia in the round without any increase. Once I got the practice, I was able to figure the rest out. I had successfully done this technique in the past and thought just a refresher would help, but no 😅

[@wenmil1967]

No no no.. LOL to complicated for me but thank you 🙂

[@NimbleNeedles]

🙈🙈🙈😅

[@sonjanordahl3158]

This one makes my head hurt. I may have to stick to flat intarsia or fair isle.

[@NimbleNeedles]

this is a very difficult technique, yes. And i mean..flat inatrsia and a mattress stitch goes a long way.

[@lindaarmstrongjackman9788]

I think it would be easier to knit

[@NimbleNeedles]

Hey Linda. What would be easier? Not sure I understand the context correctly. 🤔

[@rocioastete9441]

omg, the double pointed needle, all the twists you make and the size of what you are knitting is so small that is very confusing and messy. I couldn't understand anything :(

[@NimbleNeedles]

well, this is a super advanced technique. So, maybe start with something a little bit more simple?