Colorwork Stitch

Intarsia

Advanced Colorwork

A colorwork technique using separate bobbins of yarn for solid color blocks, twisted together at color changes instead of stranded.

Wind a separate small bobbin (or butterfly) of yarn for each block of color in your chart.
Work across the row in stockinette, switching to the new color's bobbin exactly where the chart shows the color change.
At every color change, pick up the new color from underneath the old one and twist the two yarns around each other once before continuing — this locks the colors together and closes any gap.
Continue across the row, picking up and dropping each bobbin as its color block calls for it, twisting at every join.
Work back across the next row the same way, twisting yarns at each color change again.

Unlike stranded colorwork, intarsia is worked flat, row by row — the yarn never gets carried across the back, so the fabric stays a single flat layer with no floats.
Bobbins tangle fast with more than a few colors; letting them hang loose and untwisting them every few rows saves a lot of frustration.
Keep tension even at color joins — pulling too tight puckers the fabric, and too loose leaves a visible gap between color blocks.