Ranking Colorwork Knitting Patterns from Easiest to Hardest.

Some colorwork knitting patterns look rather complicated, but they might be a lot easier to knit than you might think at first glance. And then there are other patterns that look just beautiful and very innocent until you realize that you have to work with three different colors at once, or even knit a garment that requires you to take a pair of scissors too. So in this video, I am ranking 12 colorwork knitting patterns all the way from beginner-friendly up to expert level. We're going to look at stranded colorwork, mosaic knitting, and intagia, and gradually working our way up to all-over colorwork, three colors in a single round, speaking, and some truly spectacular traditional Norwegian designs. So whether you have never knitted colorwork before or are looking for a project to challenge your current skills, I think that by the end of this video, you are going to have a pretty good idea of what to knit next. Let's get started. Beginner. Let's start with a pattern that I think is a wonderful introduction into stranded colorwork, and it is Birkeleunen by Ingor Samuelsson. And if you have never done colorwork before, I think this would be the perfect project for you just because there is not much colorwork to deal with at all in this garment. There are actually two different versions of the pattern available. You have the Birkeleunen that is knitted with a worsted weight yarn, and the Birkeleunen Puff that features puff sleeves and is knitted with a decker weight yarn. Most of the top is worked in just plain stockinette, and you only have this relatively narrow band of colorwork around the yoke. And you're also working with just two colors, and because the motif itself is quite small and repetitive, you can concentrate on the two things that I think matter most when you're first learning stranded colorwork, and that is managing the two strands and keeping your tension even. One of the most common problems when learning how to knit stranded colorwork is pulling the floats at the back too tightly, and when you do that, your colorwork fabric starts to pucker, and I have brought an example here to show you. This is a headband that I made for one of my daughters, and I hope you'll be able to tell within these large snowflake motifs that there is some puckering going on, which is, of course, unfortunate, but it is just part of the learning process. And I think with a pattern like Birke Linen, where you have such a small contained section of colorwork, it's perfect to practice without getting intimidated. So if you have maybe knit a basic sweater before and would like to learn stranded colorwork, Birke Linen would be a great pattern to start with. The next pattern I want to talk about is Mountain Mist by Tinker Knits, and this pattern holds a special place in my heart because I've knitted it myself and I'm actually wearing it today. And I can tell you from experience that this is a very approachable way to start experimenting with stranded colorwork. And again, this is a pattern where the colorwork portion only sits at the yoke, so you only have to do colorwork for a small part of the garment and don't have to worry about doing both the stranded colorwork and also a complicated construction at the same time. But compared with Birke Linen, the colorwork takes up a bit of a larger portion of the yoke, so you're getting more practice maintaining consistent tension and managing your floats. And that's something I really like about patterns like this for your first few colorwork projects. You're learning a new technique, but the entire sweater isn't dependent on it. And once you finish the yoke, you can relax again into a straightforward stockinette. So that's why I would put both the Mountain Mist and the Birke Linen in the beginner-friendly category. And now we're going to look at a pattern that looks much more complicated, but in reality, it does not move us up very far at the difficulty scale. Adventurous Beginner. This is the Pressed Flowers Cardigan by Amy Kristoffers. And by looking at it at first glance, you might feel a bit intimidated because the colorwork is covering up the entire cardigan and it almost looks like embroidery. But here's the interesting thing. This isn't stranded colorwork at all. It is mosaic knitting. And that means instead of managing two colors at a time and carrying the color that you're not using behind your work as floats, you're only working with one color at a time. The floral pattern is created through slip stitches. So you work with one color, slip certain stitches according to the pattern, and then switch colors. And I actually included this exact cardigan in my cardigan ranking video. And this was one of the things that made it such an interesting pattern there too, because it looks considerably harder than the technique really is. And that doesn't mean it's completely mindless. You still need to follow the mosaic pattern carefully, read the chart, and maintain an even tension. And because the pattern continues over such a large part of the garment, mistakes can obviously become quite noticeable. But if you have looked at more elaborate colorwork knitting patterns before and thought there is absolutely no way I can knit something like this, I would encourage you to have a look at mosaic knitting patterns, because like I said, they look much more complicated than they are, and they can be a great introduction into colorwork knitting. Next up, let's talk about the Rosy Yoke Sweater by Lena Holm Sampser. And I want to be very clear that I'm talking about the circular yoke sweater here. So the rosy yoke sweater, not the rosy sweater, because this is a very similar design from the same designer, but it's just a little bit more complicated than the rosy yoke sweater. What I like about this one for someone who's ready to move beyond their very first trended colorwork project is that we're still working with a fairly contained section of colorwork around the yoke, but the rose motif is more substantial than what we saw in Birke Lünnen. So now you're spending longer managing your two colors, maintaining your floats, and particularly important, trying to keep your gauge consistent between your plain stockinette and your colorwork. And that's something that can catch people off guard because a lot of knitters naturally knit stranded colorwork more tightly than plain stockinette. So even if your stitch count is completely correct, the colorwork portion of your sweater can end up a bit narrower. So by this point, you should be fairly comfortable holding or managing two colors at once and reading a simple colorwork chart because the next pattern that we're going to look at is going to take things up a notch. Intermediate. This is the Floral Breeze Cardigan by Hyunji Jin. And instead of stranded colorwork or mosaic knitting, this time we are looking at an intagia project. With stranded knitting, you're carrying your unused yarn behind your work, and that works beautifully for relatively small repeating motifs. But imagine trying to carry your yarn along those very long parts of the sleeve where you're knitting with only one color. You would end up with ridiculously long floats. So instead, with intagia, you're essentially working separate areas of color with separate sections of yarn. And that introduces a new challenge, yarn management. Instead of simply holding two colors and carrying them around the garment, you can end up with multiple balls or bobbins attached to your work. And when you change from one color to another, you need to join those areas correctly so that you don't create holes in the fabric. You can see it very well in this image here from Beth, who is a member of my online community, the Handmade Wardrobe Circle. And let's have another look at the Floral Breeze Cardigan now. As you can see, the intagia appears on the sleeves and it consists of only two contrasting colors. So I think this would be a suitable first intagia project. I wouldn't necessarily say that intagia is more difficult than stranded knitting. An all over-stranded colorwork sweater can be incredibly involved, but it just requires you to think differently. So far, we have talked about working with only one color at a time with mosaic knitting and managing two colors at a time with stranded knitting. And from this point on, we are going to add new techniques to increase the complexity more and more. And eventually, we're also going to have a look at colorwork knitting projects that involve managing three different colors in one row or round. Intermediate-Advanced. This is Clair de Lune by Saski & Co., formerly known as the Petite Knitter. And unlike the first stranded colorwork sweaters we just looked at, where the colorwork was concentrated mainly around the yoke, here the pattern continues across almost the entire sweater. And that makes a bigger difference than you might think. With something like Mountain Mist, if your tension isn't quite perfect, you're only managing that tension for a relatively small portion of the garment. And here you need to maintain it consistently for a much longer period of time. And you're also repeatedly switching between the two colors, reading the chart and managing your floats. And then we have another traditional colorwork technique at the edges, and that is corrugated ribbing. So instead of working your ribbing in a single color, corrugated ribbing uses two colors within the rib pattern itself. So typically one color is used for the knit stitches and another for the purl stitches. I think it creates this absolutely beautiful-looking edge, but it requires you again to keep an even tension and manage your floats. And I wouldn't say any one of those techniques is particularly difficult, but we are dealing with a different challenge here now, and this is consistency. So by this point, I think you should feel fairly comfortable managing two colors at once without the need to constantly having to check your tension or being unsure how to manage the floats, because the next pattern that we're going to have a look at is going to introduce yet another new challenge. This is Como Rebi by Knitting for Breakfast. And looking at it at first glance, you might not understand why I've placed it above Claire de Lune, because we already had a look at this all-over color work pattern and working with different colors at a time, but there is one important difference because Como Rebi asks us to work with three different colors at a time. Until now, even when a project contained several different colors overall, we have generally only had to manage two working yarns within a single round, and adding a third changes things quite significantly, because now you have three strands of yarn attached to your work at the same time, and you need to keep them organized, maintain the correct color dominance, keep your floats from becoming too tight, and somehow prevent the three balls of yarn from turning into an enormous tangled mess. And because you are distributing three colors across the same round, some of those colors may only be used occasionally, which can create longer floats that you need to manage as well. So this is definitely not where I would recommend that you start when you want to learn stranded color work, but at the same time, it is not overly challenging as well, because even though you are dealing with three different colors in one round, the construction of the sweater is still relatively straightforward. And from this point onward, we are going to increase the difficulty dramatically advanced. This absolutely beautiful design is called Kirsebär Blomstring or Cherry Bloom by Lene Tösti, and I'm just in love with this design. It's been in my favorites for a long time. And you might be wondering why I have put it in this category, because it looks rather innocent at first glance, but there are several things to consider. First, the color work requires you to work with three different colors at a time. It is also knitted at a rather fine gauge, and this is also the point where we are going to have a look at sticking. One of the challenges with stranded color work is that most knitters find it a lot easier to knit stranded color work in the round rather than flat, because if you're knitting flat, you have to knit the right side and purl the wrong side, and that means that you not only have to knit color work, but also purl it, and that can be a bit more challenging. But obviously, if you want to knit a cardigan, you need some kind of opening in the front, and one traditional solution is brilliant and a bit terrifying at the same time, because you knit the body in the round as a tube, and then you cut it open. But before cutting it, you create or reinforce an area of stitches called the steek, and then you carefully cut through the knitting and secure and finish those edges to create the cardigan opening. But there is a reason that sticking has such a long history in traditional stranded color work knitting, and that is that when you are using traditional yarns, so more rustic yarns and also non-sukawash yarns, the wool fibers have the tendency to hold onto each other, so the different colors in your work, they grip each other and help stabilize the fabric. So sticking itself is not one of the more challenging techniques we have seen, but if you have never done it, it can be a bit terrifying at first. Kieselbär Blomstring is worked seamlessly from the top down with the cardigan body knitted in the round and a steek incorporated at the front. Short rows are used to shape the circular yoke, and once the body is finished and the steek has been cut, stitches are then picked up along the front edges for the button bands. So the basic construction is actually quite familiar. It is the addition of the steek, combined with the stranded colorwork that moves this into more advanced territory. And from this point on, every pattern that we're going to have a look at is asking us to manage several advanced techniques at once. Very advanced. This is Briggess by Jennifer Lee McLarty, and as you might be able to tell immediately, this just requires you to be at a different skill level. And in case you're wondering about the name, Briggess is a focal point in Canada, I think in Newfoundland. And at this point, you should definitely feel extremely comfortable knitting stranded colorwork, reading a complex colorwork chart, knowing where you are in the motif, maintaining an even tension and even floats that is expected anyway, because this just requires a different level of skill. The difficulty here is that you need confidence in the entire process, and that is something I think is worth emphasizing when we talk about colorwork difficulty, because a pattern doesn't necessarily become difficult because it contains one particularly scary technique. Sometimes what makes a pattern difficult is simply the amount of concentration it requires over a long period of time. And when you look at Briggess, the main body is worked from the bottom up and in the round with steeks incorporated at both the front and the back, and the shoulders are joined using a modified three-needle I-cord bind-off. But that is really only the beginning because the central vertical bands are picked up and worked in the round with another steek, and even the hem band and neck band are worked in the round with steeks. The neck band also includes an inner facing, which creates a clean and structured front opening while the I-cord bind-offs finish the hem and the armholes. So this garment does not only ask you to do a fairly extensive amount of colorwork, but also being able to manage this more complicated garment construction. And I think at this point, you should be able to understand how garments are generally constructed really well. I don't think I could make a video about stranded colorwork without mentioning Marie Wallin. And although she has a number of very beautiful designs in her portfolio, the one I've chosen to show you is Yell. And what I generally like about Marie Wallin is that color does not become like an accent in her design. It becomes the focal point. It's pretty much part of the fabric. Yell uses a large palette of different shades with motifs flowing across the garment and colors changing constantly. Now, an important distinction here is that having a lot of colors in a project doesn't necessarily mean you're knitting all of those colors simultaneously, but it does create another level of complexity because you need to keep track of which colors belong where, make sure you're using the correct shade and the correct motif, and maintain an even cohesive tension across a fabric where the color combinations are continually changing. And this design also brings us back to steaking. So by now you're combining extensive fair isle style color work with a larger color palette, chart reading, consistent tension, finishing, and the confidence required to steak. And I think this is also the stage where experience becomes incredibly helpful because if you're doing so many color changes all the time, even if you have just a slight shift in your tension from one color to the other, or maybe some inconsistencies in the floats, this is going to show in the overall garment very obviously. And because the color work is really the focus here, that is why I think Yael deserves a spot in this more challenging category. But we're still not at the top because I have saved the most challenging patterns for last. And for that, we are going to go all the way to Norway. Expert. This is Rusekofte by Cicelyer Heuwijk. And if you have watched my cardigan ranking video, her name might sound familiar because one of her designs also occupied the top spot in the cardigan ranking video, and there is a reason for that. Her garments don't simply use stranded knitting as one decorative element. They combine traditional color work with extremely elaborate finishing and construction, and the finished garment becomes almost a piece of textile art. And Rusekofte is a perfect example, I think, because at this stage, I would expect the knitter to be completely comfortable reading detailed color work charts, maintaining color dominance and tension, managing floats, and working extensive color work without needing to think consciously about the basic mechanics anymore because your attention needs to be available for everything else that is happening. You have rows with three different colors. There are three different steaks in this pattern, an elaborate color work motif, pockets, crochet edges, and embroidery. At the beginning of the video, knitting with two different colors at once was the challenge. And with a pattern like this, that is just a skill that is assumed. And knitting with two different colors is just part of managing a much larger, much more complicated garment. And I think Rusekofte is simply a spectacular pattern, but I also don't think it is the most challenging pattern that Ciceliere Hoewig offers. The pattern that I would put at the very top is Paisley-Kofte 1. And just by looking at it, I think you might get a first understanding why. We have this extraordinarily elaborate all-over patterning, a huge amount of visual detail, and a garment where almost every part contributes something to the finished design. And this is no longer a project where you learn one new color work technique and then spend the rest of the sweater practicing it. This is more the kind of project where everything you have learned needs to work together because you need excellent control over your stranded color work tension, and you need to be comfortable reading complex charts and recognizing motifs within your knitting. You also need to manage a large amount of pattern fabric consistently. And then you need the patience and precision to execute all of the finishing in a way that matches the complexity of the knitting itself. And I think that is something we sometimes underestimate when we talk about advanced knitting. Difficulty isn't necessarily one technique that you don't know how to do yet. At this stage, it is more about managing complexity. And that is why Paisley-Kofte 1 takes the top spot for me. It requires technical skill, of course, and quite a lot of it, but it also requires concentration, confidence, patience, and focus to create something like this. But if you do manage to knit this design, I think you have created something extraordinary. So looking at all of these 12 patterns, I think what's very interesting is that the complexity of color work knitting patterns can't really be put into one straight line. Mosaic knitting can look incredibly complicated while being surprisingly approachable. And Intagia asks you to think about color completely differently from stranded knitting. Adding a third color creates another challenge. And then eventually the difficulty becomes less about learning one particular technique and more about managing many different skills at once. So if you're new to color work, I wouldn't look at something like Paisley-Kofte 1 and think I could never knit that. I would look at Birkelinen or Mountain Mist and start here. Because every one of those advanced techniques is just another skill you can learn one project at a time. And if you enjoyed this video, I think you're also going to like my cardigan ranking video. I'm going to put it on the screen for you. And I'll see you in the next video. Take care. Happy knitting. Bye.