Ladderback Jacquard

Ladderback jacquard (LBJ) is a really fun technique for stranded knitting when you have consistent rounds with long floats. It's an alternative to locked floats: it lets you keep these floats tidy behind the work.

The anatomy of LBJ is this:

• You create an invisible foundation stitch with a Right Lifted Increase

• You work the ladder stitches by purling your "resting" yarn on the ladder stitch

• You close off the ladder invisibly with a knit 2 together

A few additional considerations: You typically do not need to lock your floats when using Ladderback Jacquard. Some knitters may find that they need to go DOWN a needle size once they get into the LBJ section of the pattern. It all depends on how you knit.

The Foundation Stitch

Create your foundation stitch with a right lifted increase. 

Right handed knitters: Insert your working needle into the right half of the stitch BELOW the next stitch and place it on the holding needle. Knit the loop with color A. Knit the next stitch with color B as normal. 
Left-handed (mirror) knitters: Insert your working needle into the left half of the stitch BELOW the next stitch and place it on the holding needle. Knit the loop with color A. Knit the next stitch with color B as normal.

Ladderback Jacquard

Work the Ladderback Jacquard by bringing both yarns to the front of the work and purling the ladder stitch with the resting color (in this case, it's color A). Then return both yarns to the back. 

Try it now with the Rulebreaker Cowl in Knitrino by clicking this button from your phone 👇