If you have knit a pattern with two or more colors you have inevitably run into the phrase “carrying the yarn up the side” or “carry the yarn loosely up the side”. When I first stumbled across that instruction I did what any self-taught internet era knitter would do. I googled it. This was many years ago, and I haven’t tried it recently, but back then it turned up surprisingly few results. I ended up talking to other knitters at knit night and eventually was able to figure out what precisely that meant.
Of course now I take it for granted. And it is like many other things in knitting, everyone has their own way of doing it. And like many other things in knitting, as long as you are happy with your results – you do it the way that works for you! But with the publication of The Peephole Stole I have been reminded that not everyone automagically knows how to accomplish this “carrying”.
And you know what? It is darn difficult to describe how to do it using words. Luckily I now have a tool in my teaching arsenal for just such a situation. Yay YouTube!
In the video I show how I carry yarn up the side – focusing on using a slipped stitch selvedge because that is a feature in most of my striped patterns. I also show how I avoid tight edges just in case that is an issue you run into. If you have any questions – please do not hesitate to ask in the comments.
I would like to send out a big thank you to the knitter in the Peephole along that reminded me that this is a technique that can cause some difficulties. I don’t want to call you out by name, but you know who you are. I hope that this is helpful to you. And if any knitter out there has something that they’d like to see – just let me know and I will see if I can figure it out!
Tumped Duck 