Hey there, young Bessie. It's Jaya from Hobby here, and
you are listening to Skiing and Sell, the podcast that unravels
it all. Today's episode is for every
knitter who's ever squinted at their color work and thought,
hmm, why do my motifs look a little blurry?
Or maybe you've admired somebody else's bold and crisp stranded
sweater and wondered, what's their secret?
Well, I've got you. The secret is color dominance.
It sounds fancy, but it's really just a small detail with a huge
impact. And once you understand it,
you're stranded. Knitting like the bold, Nordic
inspired designs in the tortilla collection, will look sharper,
clearer and oh so professional. So grab your yarn, maybe 2
shades that you've been dreaming of and yeah, let's pair them
together and let's unravel the mystery of color dominance.
So what is color dominance? Now, in stranded knitting,
you're always juggling 2 yarns. 1 is active, one is hanging out
in the background until it's kneaded again.
But here's the trick. The way you hold those two yarns
determines which color pops and which one recedes.
The yarn held closest to your stitches or closest to your
needle or closest to your body becomes the dominant color.
It's the one that stands tall and says, notice me.
The other yarn, the one carried a bit further away, naturally
fades into the background. Think of it like taking a photo.
One subject is in focus, the other one blurs softly behind.
In color work, dominance is your lungs.
It tells the eye what to focus on.
In the tortilla collection, that means your motive color should
always be dominant. If you're netting stars,
zigzags, or yoke motifs, you want those shapes to pop crisply
against the background. So how do you do that?
Now, there's more than one way to wrangle 2 yarns, and none of
them are wrong. But whichever you choose, the
golden rule here is consistency. If you carry both yarns in your
left hand, keep the dominant color closer to your palm and
the background towards your fingertips.
If you're one in each hand coordinator, keep the dominant
yarn in your left and the background in your right.
And whichever method feels most natural to you, stick with it
and stick with it through the end Switch halfway through and
suddenly your motive will look fuzzy.
It's going to start looking uneven.
So yeah, a pro tip is definitely to flip your work over and check
the floats. Remember, check the floats now.
If your dominance is consistent, you'll see two neat parallel
lines marching along in the back.
It's a very satisfying little check in, so do try it out.
Now let's just imagine that you're knitting the Dorothea
sweater, OK? It's got these bold vertical
motifs across the yoke. If you swap dominance halfway,
suddenly half of your motifs are going to pop and the other half
are going to fade away. So the result is just going to
be a sweater that looks like it's having a little bit of an
identity crisis, and nobody wants that.
OK, consistency. Once again, consistency keeps
your motifs sharp, your fabric smooth, and your design looking
intentionally so. Think of it like handwriting.
Changing pens midletter. It gets messy, but keeping the
same pen from start to finish and the flow is beautiful.
Now, Bessie, here's where floats and dominance meet.
Even when you're catching floats, remember that's when you
secure long strands so that they don't snag.
You still have to keep the dominance order the same.
If you accidentally flip the two yarns while trapping afloat,
you're going to break the illusion.
The motive color might suddenly dip into the background.
So here's the mantra. Dominant always stays closest,
background always behind. Repeat it as you net and your
motives will thank you. Dominant always closest,
background always behind. Now here's some extra tips to
make color dominance kind of like click.
OK, so when you Swatch with both yarn positions, net the same
motif twice, switching which color is dominant.
Then you're going to see the difference and the difference
will blow your mind. 1 is going to look super crisp, the other
one is going to fade. Use for instance light and dark
combos. The clearer the contrast, the
more obvious the dominance becomes.
Practice, you know, maybe on smaller project like for
instance the Dortea mittens or the cowl are perfect for this.
Manageable canvases where you can really really see the effect
and remember dominant. That's the motive.
If in doubt, just ask yourself, which part of the design do I
want to stand out? That's the yarn that should sit
closest to your stitches. Now of course, of course I had
to include a little color work history.
And if you haven't heard a previous episode and then this
is going to be very interesting to you, let's zoom out for a
moment, OK? Because color dominance isn't
just something that we're doing now.
It's been part of stranded knitting for century.
Even knitters didn't always call it that.
In Norwegian selbu maintenance, the star motifs are always
dominant. So knit in a contrasting yarn
that pops against the background, The floats on the
inside reveal A consistent dominance tradition.
In Fair Isle knitting from Shetland Island, color dominance
is almost a religion, the rule of two colors per row with one
popping and one receding. That's what creates those
mesmerizing little geometric patterns.
And even in the beautiful Icelandic little Papesa
sweaters, dominance shapes the bold yoke motifs.
Now, without it, those snowflakes and those chevrons
would blur into mush. So when you're practicing
dominance, you're tapping into the same wisdom knitters have
been passing down for hundreds of years.
You know, you're part of a lineage of makers of crafters
who knew that the tiniest detail, which is, you know, yarn
placement, could transform their work from ordinary to
extraordinary. Now let's bring it back to our
fiber fame. The Dortea collection is a
master class in color dominance. The mittens show you right away
how one yarn pops and the other one fades.
The cowl gives you space to practice repeating motives and
see consistency in action. The sweater and the yolk
sweater, that's where you basically graduate, you know,
large motives that depend on crisp dominance to really,
really shine. All the patterns, of course, are
free on the hobby.com website. And the blog has photos that,
you know, show swatches in action with different dominance
positions. It's I feel, a great visual.
If you're more of a see it to believe it learner O go check it
out. I added the link to the blog
post in the notes of this episode.
And Busty, Here is the thing, Stranded knitting is as much
about the journey as the finished piece.
Now, every float, every color choice, every neat little motif
is part of your Maker story. So if you can't resist trying on
your tortilla sweater halfway through, floats dangling and all
same, OK, same. That joy, that pry, that can't
wait to share energy is what color work is all about.
So bestie, that's color dominance unraveled.
What it is, why it matters, how to master it, and the history
that makes it feel even more magical.
Don't forget, you can grab the free patterns, the free tortilla
patterns on hobby.com and check the blog for swatches, for
photos and even side by side examples of dominance in action.
And when you'll net your tortilla, please share it with
us. Tag us at Hobby under score yarn
and at Copenhagen Fibers on Instagram and use the hashtag
Hobby tortilla and hashtag Copenhagen Fibers by hobby.
We live for your color work selfies.
Until next time, keep your yarns in their lane and your motifs
both. That was all for me, Jaya from
Hobby. I will see you best see super,
super soon. OK, All right, Love you, bestie.
Bye.