because backwards-knitting is like crack - cheaper and faster
Circular Intarsia - Technique 4
This technique was documented in an article by Rick Mondragon (the current editor of Knitter’s Magazine) titled, “Knit in Blocks of Color - Without Bobbins,” published in Threads magazine in February 1995; later republished in the book Great Knits (1995, Taunton Press). I also learned it at a class sponsored by the Rochester (NY) Knitting Guild that year. It seems to work best with blocks of color or stepped progressions, as opposed to variant shapes.
Basically, you knit one block of color, turning back and forth, increasing and decreasing as needed, as if it were a “stand-alone” piece of knitting. Then, when working the colorblock next to it, you pull a loop of the working yarn through the loop created at the edge of the last one when the work was turned, between the last purl stitch and the first knit stitch (or vice versa, if on the other side). Work with that loop of yarn as if it were a regular working end, pulling more through as needed, to the end of that row, then turn and work back again. When you reach the side where the loop was pulled through and you’ve worked the last stitch, just pull on the end of the yarn that’s attached to the ball, snugging the loop tight against the stitches just worked. That’s two rows worked, perfectly and invisibly attached to their neighboring colorblock! Repeat, pulling the loop through the next loop up, until the top is reached. Then, the colorblock you just worked becomes the one through which you pull loops for the next colorblock.
This technique reaches “brilliant” status when combined with backwards-knitting, since each row is so short.
How does it work ITR, you ask? Well ... it doesn’t, at least not alone. It works great until you get to that last colorblock join, then no amount of pulled-through loops will help you twist yarns on both sides. But, if you combined it with Technique 2 or 3 on that last join, then it would work. And it’s pretty cool, isn’t it? So, aren’t you glad I added it anyway?
Now, there’s gotta be a Technique 5 ... gimme a minute ...
