Sunshine Punch
This article contains some tips and extra videos for Sunshine Punch, the cute and colorful hat from Courtney Flynn of @flynnknit. Don’t have the pattern yet? It’s available for a limited time in Knitrino–click the button below from your phone to get the pattern.
As always, if you have any questions about this pattern, please email us at support@knitrino.com.
Table of Contents
Getting Started with Knitrino
If you're new to Knitrino, check out the Quick Start guide for short videos that show you how to use Knitrino. Those new to chart knitting may wish to review our blog post on Reading Knitting Charts.
Stranded Colorwork Knitting
Overview
We've heard from a lot of new colorwork knitters that they're intimidated by stranded knitting - they worry that it won't be perfect. We'd like to give you all a little gift right now and say "It won't be perfect, yay!" If you're new to colorwork, recognize that you're learning a new skill and it will improve a LOT with practice. Think about your project as the **first** colorwork project you'll make - it's a journal that will document your growth!
Color Dominance
Knitrino recommends knitting stranded colorwork with two hands. For most knitters, the strand of yarn that is carried lowest on the wrong side will create larger stitches and can appear more dominant on the right side of the fabric, so carry the float of the background color in the highest position on the wrong side, and the color you most want to pop in the lowest position.
For most right handed knitters knitting with 2 hands, you'll carry the background color in your right hand and the contrasting color you most want to pop in your left hand. For left handed mirror knitters, you’ll carry the background color in your left hand and contrasting color in your right hand.
Colorwork Tips
Everyone knits differently. Many knitters knit tighter when stranding and so often, patterns suggest going up a needle size. Some knitters, though, knit more loosely with colorwork. The goal is to have floats that lie flat without being taut when the stitches are well stretched out across the needle.
Here are some tips you can try to improve your colorwork:
As you're knitting, spread the stitches out to keep the floats from being too tight. You can also adjust the tension of the carried yarn, if necessary.
Occasionally stretch the knitted fabric along the diagonals to even out stitch sizes.
Keep the working yarns in the correct positions, and arrange the yarn balls to match.
You can try turning the work inside out so the floats are facing you. This can help you see your tension issues and adjust as needed.
If a stitch is pulled too tight and appears too small on the right side, you can fix it at the end by making a duplicate stitch over top in the correct color.
And don't forget that blocking forgives a multitude of sins. :) If you're worried about your tension, try steam blocking or wet blocking before you're finished to see how your hat will look.
This video shows how to implement some of the tips above (for Right Handed Knitters). Left Handed Mirror Knitters should watch the second video.
Using Duplicate Stitch for the 3rd Color
There are just a few rounds where you’ll strand with 3 colors. If you find this too difficult, you can always knit all the stitches with 2 colors, then go back at the end to add the 3rd color using duplicate stitch. Keep in mind, this will make your hat bulkier where those stitches occur, and be sure to block your work to get the duplicate stitches to lie flat.