How To Do Woven Floats Technique

This hand knitting article will introduce you to the Woven Floats Technique. See what it looks like, how it is constructed, some different methods of knitting and check out the series of cowls I designed around this technique. Knitting that is worked using Woven Floats Technique creates a warm, multi-strand fabric which looks tidy on both the right and wrong sides. I found it so unusual, I decided to go exploring and create a series of knitting pattern designs. The designs start off basic, then slowly add features and skills as the series progresses. So, the easiest one is first and later ones have more to keep your concentration.

I’ll continue to update and edit this article as I progress through the series.

I have at least another 4 ideas I’d like to do but there are other projects looking at me with big, dewy eyes, begging to be given some attention. Subscribe to my news, because I will continue to create more designs and add them to this blog.

What Is Woven Floats Technique?

Look At Regular Colour Work First

If you are familiar with Stranded Colour work or Fair Isle work, both of these techniques use 2 or more colours. Stocking stitch (also known as stockinette stitch) is used to create a pattern. It might be worked in the round or back and forth. Knitting in the round tends to create a more even result. Let’s use the example of working with Colour A and Colour B.

The colour strands are held at the back (wrong side or WS) of the work and are lifted up to the needles when it is their turn to be added to the pattern. If Colour A is worked for a few stitches, then Colour B stretches out along the back of those stitches. This creates a long horizontal thread called a “float”. Practicing Stranded Colour or Fair Isle Technique allows you to find just the right amount of tension in the float. You are aiming for a float that it is not so tight as to pucker the stitches of Colour A and not so loose that it creates the shape of a hanging hammock.

Catching The Float

After Colour A is knit for 4 or more stitches, it is often good practice to catch the float of Colour B before continuing to knit the next stitches in Colour A. This keeps the back of the work tidy and reduces the chance of a super long float getting caught on a shirt button, your ring or fingers whilst dressing or undressing. You can catch the stitch by wrapping Colour A either up over or down over Colour B before you work the stitch on the needles. Repeat again if Colour A continues another 4 or more stitches.

Essentially, both Stranded Color Work and Fair Isle use stocking stitch which is knit on the right side (RS) of the work. On the Wrong Side of the work, you can see floats, the places where the floats have been wrapped and the purl stitches.

Compare To Woven Floats Technique

With Woven Floats Technique, you flip the fabric over. Now the wrong side is the right side and vice versa. The pattern is created with the floats, the places where the floats are wrapped and the purl stitches. Some parts of the pattern are created by the long floats themselves. These can become bold, striking shapes and so I have called these my Main Colour (MC) in the designs.

Other times, a more detailed, grid pattern can emerge from the method of wrapping up and down before each purl stitch. We do use more grid yarn than the float yarn in the design. However, the grid yarn is not as dominating in the over-all picture and so I call this my Contrast Colour (CC).

In my series of knitting pattern designs, I’ve stayed with a staggered grid pattern for the background plus some slight variations on the theme. The most unusual feature which makes it different from Stranded Colour and Fair Isle is that the MC is never worked on the needle. It literally floats along, held against the fabric by the CC wraps. CC is the only colour that creates stitches along the row. All stitches are purl on the RS, wrapping up and down over the MC strands. This is not necessarily a rule for the technique over all but is the rule I used for the series.

Where Did It Come From?

As with many hand knitting techniques, it is hard to know when knitters started to experiment with this technique. I saw a designer talking about it on the net. She said that she saw it in a vintage photograph so, I assume that could be 100 years ago. There were no instructions attached to the vintage photo. Zooming in on the photo allowed her to work it out for herself. The Designer was about to teach a class which I could not attend so, I figured, hey, if she can work it out, maybe I can too.

How To Do Woven Floats Technique

What Do You Need?

For this series I’ve mostly used 3 strands of yarn at once.

• 1 Strand of CC colour for the grid pattern that wraps and is worked on the needles
• 2 Strands of MC colour, in the same weight as CC, held together for the floats.

As a variation, you can use one heavier weight strand of yarn for your MC to replace the 2 strands of MC described.

For needles, you may need to experiment to see what suits best to match your yarn. For this series of designs, I used:

• Fingering weight patterns, 3.5mm (US size 4) needles
• DK weight patterns, 4mm (US size 6) or 4.5mm (US size 7) needles.

Feel free to try one needle size up if you want a fabric that is less dense and has more drape. Do a swatch to check the gauge so you can calculate what size will be the result. Being a cowl, it’s ok to be a little bit bigger.

Length: The circular needle length is a little smaller than the circumference of the design. For practice, start with something small such as the 40cm (16 inch) length.

Different Methods Of Working – Let’s make a sample

Left Hand Throwing technique

1. Lay the foundation. Cast on stitches for your sample. As an example, for 40cm or 16 inch length cable, fingering weight cast on 97 sts. For DK weight cast on 89 sts.
2. Work a few rounds as a foundation. I like to use Moss stitch because it has a similar stitch gauge. You can use one strand of MC or one strand of CC for these rounds. It’s up to you. If you make your foundation in MC, work one extra round of knit using CC.
3. Starting the technique. Lay the other two strands over the work between the needles. If your base rounds were MC, lay another strand of MC and one of CC. If you base rounds were CC, lay 2 strands of MC. All 3 strands now stay on the Right Side of the work for this lesson.
4. UP. To create an up stitch, wrap your CC under, then UP OVER the front of the two MC strands and purl the stitch on the needle using CC. This very first stitch will look rather plain. The UP stitches after this will create a diagonal line up to the left with the CC yarn.
5. DN. To create a down stitch, wrap your CC DOWN OVER the front of the MC strands. Lift CC behind MC and purl the stitch on the needles. This creates a diagonal line down to the left with the CC yarn.
6. Continue to alternate between UP and DN (up and down) stitches creating a zig zag line. Every few stitches, stop and space out the stitches on the right needle and the floats to match the gauge. (I find 20 sts for DK weight and 22 stitches for Fingering weight every 10 cm or roughly 4 inches is ideal.) Don’t worry too much if the MC strands look a little kinky. They will straighten out a lot more when you block the project.

I find the motion of switching between up and dn involves twisting the yarns back and forth just as you would do if you were working stranded colour work with the strands at the back.

Working at the back is another option. I did experiment with this. Of course, working knit stitch is a lot faster but I found it difficult to keep track of the pattern. If I made an error I was more likely to miss it when the grid was facing away from me, resulting in a lot more backtracking to correct the errors.

Up versus down

As you work more rounds you will find your mojo and the most efficient way of working the Technique to match your method of knitting. I use Left Handed Throwing for knitting generally and find it useful to create a loop in the wool for a DN stitch which then drops in behind the CC for the UP stitch. This way, I never have to juggle the balls of yarn.

Continental technique

This is the same as above but points 4 and 5 are different from the instruction above.

1. Lay the foundation. Cast on stitches for your sample. As an example, for 40cm or 16 inch length cable, fingering weight cast on 97 sts. For DK weight cast on 89 sts.
2. Work a few rounds as a foundation. I like to use Moss stitch because it has a similar stitch width. You can use one strand of MC or one strand of CC for these rounds. It’s up to you.
3. Starting the technique. Lay the other two strands over the work between the needles. If your base rounds were MC, lay another strand of MC and one of CC. If you base rounds were CC, lay 2 strands of MC. All 3 strands now stay on the Right Side of the work for this lesson.
4. UP. Wrap your CC under, then up over the front of the two MC strands, purl the stitch on the needle using CC. This very first stitch will look rather plain but further UP stitches will create a diagonal line up to the left with CC.
5. DN. To create a down stitch, yarn back CC, insert right needle into the next stitch as if to purl, lay the 2 MC strands over the needle and pierced stitch keeping the tension. Wrap the CC down over the MC strands, wrap under and up the back of the needle (clockwise), pull the loop of CC with the right needle through under the stitch and the 2 MC strands. This places the tail of CC in front of the MC strands ready for the next UP stitch.
6. Continue to alternate between UP and DN (up and down) stitches creating a zig zag line. Every few stitches, stop and space out the stitches on the right needle and the floats to match the gauge. (I find 20 sts for DK weight and 22 stitches for Fingering weight every 10 cm or roughly 4 inches is ideal.) Don’t worry too much if the MC strands look a little kinky. They will straighten out a lot more when you block the project.

Right hand throwing technique

As neither of us work right handed throwing, I would be keen to see how you work the stitches with the strands in your right hand. Feel free to tag me if you record a video or take photos so I can describe it here in the article.

Tips for Tension

Keep your tension a little relaxed. The goal for each wrapped stitch is to wrap over the floats as if they were a tube. This is why the project uses a lot more CC yarn than if you were working regular stocking stitch.  If you work at normal tension for purl stitches, the floats will be pushed into the background and the over all effect is not as grand. Once again, I recommend you take the time to spread the sts along the right needle as you work so the shape of each stitch is much wider than tall.

First Round / Row

As you work along the round up, down, up, down… You will see the pattern emerging.

A pattern emerges from the up/down rhythm of the stitches. The Up stitch lifts to an upward pointing triangle. The Dn (down) stitch has a float in front of it. Pay attention to the difference between these two. They will help you spot mistakes, find where you are in the pattern and also can be used as an audit when you have lost your way.

Second Round / Row

At the end of the round, with an odd number of stitches, you will be working the opposite stitch to the round below. If the first stitch of Round 1 was DN, the first stitch of Round 2 is UP. Keep going for a few more rounds and you will see the diamond grid starting to form. This can help prompt you to know what next stitch to do.

• If you see an upward pointing triangle, use DN stitch to come down and meet the point.
• If you see a stitch hiding behind a float, use UP stitch to lift up to meet it.

Once you have laid out a few rounds, the spacing is much easier to keep even.

As the fabric develops, you will find your focus is drawn to the floats rather than the stitches. The floats fill in the gaps between the diagonal diamond grid lines.

Correcting And Fixing Mistakes In Your Knitting

Wrong wrap changes direction for all the next stitches

The difference between the two stitches – the UP with a pointed triangle and the DN with a float in front – is really helpful. You can use it as an audit to check if you’ve made a mistake in the pattern. However, one wrong wrap can change the direction for the next stitches.

If you see the next round placing an UP stitch over an UP stitch and a DN stitch over a DN stitch, then something has gone wrong with the work.

Look back over the round and the round below very carefully to spot the error. Use your Start-Of-Round Marker and any section markers if you are working a chart to find where the error occurred. For example, say, in Round 5 all the section markers start with a DN stitch. Check the beginning of each section in the round until you find the section that changed direction. This can be a quick way to locate the error.

When I was first learning the technique, I made plenty of mistakes. I was focused on getting the tension right and would frequently wrap the wrong way. Other times I might need to pause the work to manage a distraction, then would continue, thinking I knew the last stitch I worked. Sometimes I would notice I was putting an UP stitch over and UP stitch, so would correct without going back. Now that can be really messy!

Checking your knitting frequently can help you catch the error early so there is less work to undo.

Floats too long

It can take some practice to space out the first few rounds of stitches. If you find you’ve worked the first rounds too loosely and the floats are falling down into a curve, you can use a crochet hook or the tip of the knitting needle to gradually feed the floats back along the round, forward or back, and spread it out further to take up the slack. If the floats are too tight, it’s a lot more tricky to suck extra yarn in from the surrounding areas. Spacing the stitches as you go means you don’t have to unfurl (or rip back) your work and knit it again.

Several wraps going the wrong way

It may be possible to undo a purl column if a grid stitch needs to change direction. However, you can’t change a grid stitch that has been accidentally wrapped twice.

Getting lost in the surgery

If you undo the column, correct the error but then can’t find your way back up the column, put an open lock stitch marker through the last correct CC stitch in the column so it doesn’t unzip any further, then undo your work carefully back to that stitch.

Patience may be required when you are first learning this technique but the end result is worth it. To save time, I recommend looking back over stitches just completed to find the errors early

UPDATED

Creating The Woven Floats Series Of Cowls

I have a bad habit of falling in love with a new yarn and adding it to the stash. Sometimes I’ll buy it specifically for a new design. Other times I’ll buy it because it is interesting and I’ll design around it. Either way, the yarn then sits waiting for me, hoping I will remember of its existence.

For this series of cowls (which are circular scarfs) I decided the first rule was that I wasn’t allowed to buy any more yarn to make the designs. As is typical, I would sometimes come up with designs where I just didn’t have the colours I needed in my stash. Being resourceful, I was able to either acquire the yarn through the local Knitters’ Guild or swap colours I had from the local yarn shop I no longer needed.

Woven Illusion Cowl

Working the Woven Illusion Cowl was really delightful using two DK weight yarns. The CC cream colour was a wool acrylic viscose tweed blend worked with MC of pure wool. I will be interested to see how the CC blend goes with wear and tear over time. Let’s see if it lasts as long as the wool. Generally speaking, wool yarn is known for its longevity and hardiness. However, it isn’t always suitable to make garments that sit directly against the skin. Many people have sensitivities and allergies to wool. They find it either scratchy or even to the point of creating a skin rash. So, it was a bonus having the blended yarn to use up against the neck.

One Tree Hill Cowl

One Tree Hill Cowl (currently being tested) used a DK weight and a Worsted weight yarn that felt very similar in thickness and weight. It’s important you hold and feel the yarns, especially if they are coming from two different brands. Pinch the yarns and hold them side by side to see how they might work together. (Just another great reason to support your local yarn shop rather than buying on the internet.) I had the heather grey wool left over from another project and was given the beautiful forest green wool manufactured by Knitpicks.

UFO Sky Cowls

The two UFO Sky Cowls (currently being tested) were meant to be one pattern. I made one but then thought I could include a different shape and couldn’t be bothered ripping out all that I had done. On checking with other knitters, they felt both versions had their benefits – one with embroidery and one without. They felt each would appeal to different knitters. The cowls were both worked in DK weight wool from the same brand with the embroidery worked in fingering weight colours left over from other knitting projects.

Peru Double Cowl

The Peru Double Cowl was inspired by my love for fingering weight Drops Alpaca (from Peru). I paired the alpaca with a wonderful vintage bouclé yarn from New Zealand. I find, when I go out at night, that I like to wrap something around my head and ears to keep warm. Carrying a hat can be annoying and, if I use a shawl, my friends laugh and tell me I look like a Russian peasant. So, making a long cowl that can wrap up over the head and still keep my neck warm solved the problem. The was the first design I had someone offer me several hundred dollars for. Quite the compliment for a newbie.

Floating Sunset Cowl

The Floating Sunset Cowl (currently being tested) was another fingering weight cowl using all the techniques I’d gathered over the making of the series. This one created more of an impressionist version of a landscape image. I had the gorgeous hand dyed DK weight yellow left over after I made the Sunny Halter in the Vivacious Vest series. Then I collected the other colours by returning unused yarn to the local yarn shop. I was really pleased with this one and it has inspired the next one that is just begging to be made. If you want to follow the series, subscribe to my newsletter and I can keep in touch with new designs as they are published.

Woven Floats Technique Continued….

What Yarn Can Be Used?

I was surprised how little wool was needed for these cowls. When the MC is not worked on the needles at all, you can almost calculate it without working. Multiply the circumference by the number of rows. The amount of CC yarn required, which does all the work, will vary dramatically depending on the thickness of the MC yarn. This is because almost every stitch wraps over the MC. If you use Chunky for your MC yarn, you are going to use a lot more CC yarn than if the MC is just a Worsted weight yarn.

I think it would also be fun playing with different structures of yarn. A crepe wool designed for cabling, which has very little fluff (halo) would give great definition for the CC whilst a really fluffy MC would burst through between the stitches creating more of a 3D effect.

Choose yarns that have some substance and aren’t too soft. Avoid tencel, viscose or rayon as these will not hold the pattern securely.

Experiment with slubby raw silk or banana leaf silk. Try an uneven twist like Fibre Natura Papyrus, handspun recycled sari silk or lambs wool. Some of these can be scratchy on the skin. Take care to find a suitable CC that sits between the MC and your neck. Add some mohair to give extra fluff to a woollen MC.

Woven Floats Technique begs for high contrast colours for maximum impact. Look to opposite sides of the colour wheel for inspiration or the light and dark of the same colour. Go nuts! Don’t forget to tag me in your projects in Ravelry. I love to see what colours you chose.

How Else Can This Technique Be Used?

The fabric created using Woven Floats Technique is fairly solid. There is little to no stretch horizontally but still has stretch vertically. When using fingering weight yarn, the fabric is still surprisingly light weight. The Sunset cowl and Peruvian Cowls have lovely drape.

Using heavier weight yarns like DK weight (8 ply) or Worsted weight yarn (10 ply) were more concerning. I was worried the result would be some enormous Michelin Man rubber tyre around my neck. Luckily, that was not the case. The DK weight knitted cowls in the series all still fold and drape well, albeit thicker, like a woolen blanket.

As a small knitting project, cowls are relatively quick to complete when you are first learning the technique. Woven Floats Technique would also make lovely panels to attach to the front and back of a jacket. You could work the whole jacket in Woven Floats Technique. However, I am guessing the project would be rather laborious as well as thick at the seams.

There is a great benefit to sewing the panels on to the garment afterwards. You don’t need to find stitches for the surrounding areas that match the same gauge. (The gauge is the height and width of each stitch. An accurate gauge can make a massive difference when you look at 200-300 stitches around the width of a jacket.)

Other uses for Woven Floats Technique

Woven Floats panels might also be worked in the shape of a shoulder pad. The pad can be sewn over the shoulders of a sweater, cardigan or jacket. How about adding them to a fabric jacket? When you want a more powerful look, shoulder pads are great for creating the illusion of bigger, stronger looking shoulders. Men’s sweaters or women’s corporate jackets and tops are the perfect place to feature Woven Floats shoulder pads.

Tote bags, shoulder bags and clutch purses would be lovely to feature Woven Floats Technique. Use firm yarns, metallics, plastic yarn or woven reeds. (I have thought about working a bag in wool but prefer my bags to be fully waterproof.)

There are many more interesting ways to use Woven Floats Technique in garments and accessories. I am confident those skilled in crochet will have already found a way to work the technique with a hook. Let’s see how many more patterns appear in years to come.

 

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