Though stranded knitting is probably the easier of the two main color knitting techniques (the other being intarsia, which we'll get to next week), there are still potentially problematic areas on the road to mastering this skill.
The floats on stranded knitting need to be not too loose and not too tight. © Sarah E. White.The biggest problem many knitters have -- and I'm still in this group even though I have a fair amount of experience -- is the tendency to pull the yarn too tightly when changing colors. This can cause the knitting to pucker, completely throw off your gauge and make the finished project look like something you would not want to wear or use. You can't block out this problem because the tight strands across the back of the work make it impossible for the knitting to stretch as much as it normally would.
If you're having this problem in a piece of stranded knitting, the best thing you can do is rip back and try again. User mousepotato (also my online buddy and the watchdog of our forum; go say hi!) suggests lifting a finger to make more room in the float so the fabric won't pucker.
Do you have any great stranded knitting tips? I'd love to hear them, either here in the comments, or you can share them on the tips page.
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