A step-by-step tutorial on anchoring your floats with ladders on the back side of your stranded colorwork project.
The most traditional forms of Fair Isle knitting have a very hard rule. Don’t bridge more than 4 stitches. Modern knitters overcame the issues of loose stitches and sloppy tension by trapping overlong floats on the back side. However, those trapped floats can sometimes be visible on the front. So, let me introduce you to Ladder Back Jacquard that can solve this age-old problem once and for all.
What is Ladder Back Jacquard?
Jacquard knitting is the French term for what others may know as Fair Isle, Norwegian knitting, or simply stranded knitting. Ladder back jacquard takes this concept one step further and anchors overly long floats on the back side using special ladders. These ladders on the back are nothing but a truncated form of double knitting. Instead of creating a full double layer, only selected stitches are knitted double.
Let’s show you how to knit it.
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Instructions: How to knit ladder back jacquard
Jacquard ladders can be added to any stranded knitting project with color blocks that are more than 4 stitches wide and run across more than 4 rows. It can be done in the round or flat. If a color block is wider than 10 stitches, it's recommended to start multiple ladders side by side to bridge these stitches in a secure way.
Instructions
- Stop knitting right where you want to place your ladder. Typically, that's in the center of your color block.
Note: I typically don't want floats that are longer than 4-5 stitches. So, if my colorblock has 12 stitches, I will place one ladder after 4 and another after 8 stitches (see steps 2-5). - Bring BOTH yarns to the front.
- Lift the strand between the two stitches back to the knitting needle so it leans towards the left.
- Purl the strand through the back loop using the color of your float (the unused yarn that should not be seen from the front). Steps 3-4 are also known as Make One Purl Left (M1PL).
- Bring both yarns to the back again.
- Continue working across the rest of your row. Repeat steps 2-5 for every color block that is more than 5 stitches wide and place a M1PL in the float color in the center of each color block.
- Flat Projects only: Work across until you come to the first ladder back jacquard stitch and bring BOTH yarns to the back.
- Knit into the ladder stitch using the float color only.
Make sure that the two strands do not cross and the main color remains in front.
- Bring both yarns to the front again and continue according to your chart. Repeat steps 7-9 for every jacquard ladder stitch you added in the first row.
- Round & Flat project: On the right side of your project, work across until you come to the first ladder back stitch. Then bring both yarns to the front.
- Purl the ladder back stitch using only the float color.
- Bring both yarns to the back again.
- Continue working according to your chart. Treat each ladder back stitch in the exact same way. Make sure to give your stitches a good yank after every color change so the floats connecting the ladder on each side don't end up too tight. Don't bunch up the stitches on your right needle in your hand.
- Finishing the Jacquard ladders: Once your colorblock is less than 5 stitches wide, you can opt to merge the ladder with the rest of your fabric. To do that, stop right in front of the ladder back stitch with yarns held in back.
- Knit the ladder back stitch together with the next (so a normal k2tog).
- This should transport the ladder back stitch to the back of your project. From here, continue according to your chart and finish the other ladders as you see fit.
Notes
You may opt to place a stitch marker before each ladder back stitch if you get easily confused. On the front side, the ladder back stitch will be the only stitch that has a little purl bump at its base. So you can also read your knitting.
Also, do consider marking the ladders in your chart using a pen or pencil. That way, you cannot accidentally miss the start or end of the ladder.
Typically, ladder back jacquard looks best when knitted with relatively small knitting needles. That way the first and last stitch of a ladder will not peek through. Also, while the ladders themselves are utterly invisible on the front, the strands may still peek through if you stretch out your fabric far enough. Again, if your gauge is tight enough and/or your yarn is slightly fuzzy, even that will not be a problem.
Different ways to start ladder back jacquard
The key to understanding ladder back jacquard is the realization that it’s just a form of abbreviated double knitting. When you place an increase in the setup row, you are simply adding stitches for the second layer on the backside. If you were to do that after every stitch, you would end up with a fully reversible project. It follows that you can start the ladders with just about any other knitting increase. Here are two popular options.
A) Backward loop increase
The standard way to start your ladders with Make One Purl Left has one issue. It creates a slightly distorted stitch at the start. You can partially remedy this by adding a yarn over in the previous row, but it still can be noticeable. To avoid this, you can use a backward loop increase instead.
Step 1: Stop at the place you want to add the ladder and bring both yarns to the front.
Step 2: Twist the float color around once. You can do so clockwise or counter-clockwise. In this case, it doesn’t matter.
Step 3: Bring both yarns to the back and continue according to your chart.
The result will be a jacquard ladder that is not connected with the fabric at its base. So, no matter how much you stretch your fabric, and no matter how slippery or smooth your yarn is, the start of your ladder will never be visible.
On the downside, this will create a little pocket where your fingers, toes, etc. could potentially get caught. As a result, I would recommend keeping the floats to the left and right as short as possible (3-4). Still, if neatness on the front side is your goal, this method is hard to beat.
B) Lifted Increase
The problem with both Make One Purl Left and the Backward Loop Increase is that they are somewhat awkward to knit. If you only have to add one ladder here and there, this won’t be an issue. If it’s a huge Fair Isle project with hundreds of ladders, this will quickly become a factor. In these cases, lifted increases can be a smart solution.
Step 1: Stop right where you want to place the ladder and bring both yarns to the front.
Step 2: Knit a KRL or KLL using your float color.
Step 3: Bring both yarns to the back.
The downside of a lifted increase is that it pulls on a single stitch in two directions. If you stretch out your project, you will be able to see a faint little eyelet. If you are working with a rustic, slightly fuzzy yarn, this will be no issue. In the swatch worked with cotton above, it’s less than ideal.
A different ending
Another thing to consider is the end of each jacquard ladder. Knit two together seems the obvious choice. It’s both the easiest and neatest increase in knitting. However, that doesn’t mean it’s your only option. You can basically finish with just about any decrease in knitting.
You could, for example, pick a left-leaning increase instead – like SSK:
Step 1: Stop one stitch ahead of the ladder stitch.
Step 2: Knit an SSK.
Step 3: This will also transport the ladder stitch to the back.
Instead of SSK, you could also use any other left-leaning decrease. For some, SSK looks awesome; others find it’s a bit sloppy and prefer techniques like SSPK, etc. I personally found that it makes very little difference. The finished decrease will not actually have a lean because you are merging back and front and not two adjacent stitches directly connected with each other.
The only difference I was ever able to observe is the position of the decrease. No matter if you pick SSK or K2tog, the ladder stitch will wrap around the backside of that stitch. If you stretch things out, this can be slightly visible. If you have a color block that is 6 stitches wide with the ladder in the exact center. K2tog will place that “double stitch” on the 4th stitch, while SSK would place it on the 3rd.
Personally, I can’t see how this will matter. If I were you, I would just pick the decrease that is easiest for you to knit.
Advanced Ladder Back Jacquard
The realization that ladder back jacquard is just double knitting can be used to take this one step further. When you bring both yarns to the front to purl into the ladder stitch using the float color, you are technically speaking, glossing over the details.
The right way to phrase things would be: Bring the colorblock yarn to the front and do whatever you want with the float color. (If you are on the wrong side: bring the color block yarn to the back and do whatever you want with the float color).
You can use this knowledge to create ladders with the purl side facing outwards. I find twisted ladders a bit more useful since they tend to look a lot neater (while still being as stretchy).
Step 1: Bring both yarns to the front.
Step 2: Purl the ladder stitch through the back loop (ptbl) using the float color.
Step 3: Bring both yarns to the back again.
If you have a flat project, you would have to twist the ladder stitches on the wrong side as well. Instead of knitting into them, you knit them through the back loop. I find it’s quite an easy adaptation that can yield superior results. So, why don’t you try it out on a swatch yourself?
Anyway, that’s how to do ladder back jacquard. Comment below if you still have any questions.
I would like to see a tutorial with a chart provided in order to practice the ladder back technique. If you know of a YouTube channel which may offer this, or is you ever provide this I would appreciate it.
Wow! You are so delightfully thorough in all your explanations of the variations. You are truly a knitting engineer.
What would be your thoughts on using a crochet hook to create ladders? Rather than all of that yarn forward stuff which slows me down, just make long floats, then in the row where you need to finish them, stop knitting where you want the ladder, crochet one up and k2tog with the end loop to finish.
I’d think this would be more efficient when the ladders are more than 4 or 5 rows long.
well, thing is. You typically need quite a long time to finish a sweater etc. And everytime you touch your knitting, these long floats can do whatever they want. So 40 hours later, the adjacent stitches will be all worn out. So, I personally would advice against it but if you are fine with that. well, give it a try.