How to Knit Colourwork with the Day & Nite Gift Set - Blog

How to Knit Colourwork with the Day & Nite Gift Set

How to Knit Colourwork with the Day & Nite Gift Set

Choosing different colours for your knits is half of the fun. However, knitting stranded colourwork with two or more colours can challenge your eyesight quite a bit, especially when working with very light or dark yarn shades.

For this reason, many knitters often refrain from working with contrasting colours. Others hesitate to use hues too similar to each other. Why? When looking at the different strands for a while, they are no longer able to tell the stitches on their needles apart. Petty blunders then result in having to frog back the work, which in turn leads to frustration. And another project is about to get buried in the box of unfinished items. Understandable, but avoidable.

We have put our clever needle designers to work, and they came up with a simple and brilliant idea to make your knitted colourwork more manageable, be it stranded colour patterns, intarsia work, or double-sided and brioche knitting.

Meet the KnitPro Holiday Gift Set “Day & Nite”.This is a sophisticated set of interchangeable knitting needles made from birchwood with each needle body being two-coloured: Dark on one side and cream-coloured on the other. These special needle tips are easy on your eyes and warm to the touch. But above all, they help prevent future knitting mistakes when producing colourwork or working with variegated yarns. The gift box comprises eight of the most demanded sizes, ranging from 3.5 mm to 8 mm in size (UK sizes: 9 - 0).

So how can you make the most of your Day & Nite interchangeable needles, then? Let us show you.

Working with contrasting yarns

Vivid Fair Isle patterns live from combining contrasting colours with over-saturated colours. In fact, when starting any Fair Isle colourwork you often work in sequences from very light to very dark, thus creating breathtaking patterns. With the dark side of your Day & Night knitting needle up, you will be able to detect light stitches more easily. Then, turn your wrist to bring the cream-coloured side up and spot all your dark stitches.

At no point will you have to put your needles down and stop working. All your stitches remain clearly visible because the same colour palette that works for Fair Isle patterns also works for our Day & Nite needle tips: Combine contrasting colours to make both stand out. This will catch your eyes' attention, so your mind can focus better.

How to Knit Colourwork with the Day & Nite Gift Set

Working with variegated yarns

Choosing variegated, self-striping, air-dyed yarns, or simply combining different colours that are adjacent to the colour wheel can create amazing projects. This way, you also avoid the somewhat annoying colour changes throughout your project. Sometimes these can be tricky, especially when knitting in the round.

On the other hand, working with multi-coloured yarn may also prove to be quite a challenge on your eyesight as you cannot see how your stitches are working out under your fingers. With our two-toned Day & Nite needles, this should no longer be a problem: You can simply swivel your needle around as much as you need in order to spot how your pattern is coming along.

How to Knit Colourwork with the Day & Nite Gift Set

Double-sided Knitting: Working with several Colours at the same time

Double knitting projects create an interesting reverse effect for your projects since both sides of your finished work will show knit stitches with the reverse side facing each other. To create double-sided knitwork, you work with two strands of yarn on one pair of needles, one thread for your front, and a differently-coloured thread for the backside of your work. Then you simply alternate knit and purl stitches across the row. The trick is to bring both yarns to the front of your work when you create a knit stitch, and both threads have to go to the back of your work for a purl stitch. It means you really have to keep the focus on your colours and your pattern. Being able to swiftly switch between the different sides of your Day & Nite needles will support you in accomplishing the double knitting technique effortlessly.

How to Knit Colourwork with the Day & Nite Gift Set

Brioche or Reverse Knitting

This ribbing technique is created with two contrasting colours and produces a heightened, thick fabric that is reversible and perfect for warm winter garments. To fully understand and learn this awesome stitch, please check our brioche 101 tutorial here. It’s quite easy to learn. Basically, the brioche method requires knitting and purling every row or round twice with a slip and yarn-over technique. The difference to double-sided knitting is that you knit every colour separately. So even if you knit a flat item like a scarf, brioche requires a circular needle as you always knit two rows facing the same side before you turn over your work. Again, with your Day & Nite set of interchangeable knitting needles, you will soon master this technique as you simply knit with the dark side up while working on the light stitches. When knitting the contrasting thread you then switch to the cream-coloured side of your needle.

Should you have shied away from colour knitting to date, we hope our introduction to a few different techniques has inspired you to give it a go. After all, when creating, we are always driven to try something new. The KnitPro Day & Nite Gift Set will enhance your colour knitting skills, solve any visual problems and surely become your main asset to accomplish delightful projects effortlessly.