Intarsia in the Round

Knitting Totoro's tummy has always been a challenge. The easy way, knitting-wise, is to knit it separately and sew it on, but I was never quite satisfied with the results. The other way is to knit it in, which is called intarsia. I tried knitting it in the round and discovered as many knitters before me that it is impossible to knit intarsia in the round without having extremely long floats and a big mess.

So either one has to deal with a seam if knitting flat, or figure out a way to knit back and forth without a seam or gap at the color change.

I started with this video, but I could not see exactly which loop she was picking up to knit together on the turn. My turns did not look nice like the ones in the video.



Next I tried the yo over method Knitty has another description here. Perhaps I am supposed to join a second ball of the main color in this method too?


I have a problem visualizing words sometimes, and while it looked a little better then my first attempt, my turns were still unsatisfactory. (This link was very wordy so I had problems deciphering it)

Dawn Brocca lists some references for additional information, but I don't own any of them. Update! After looking through my books I found some additional information in Knitting in the Old Way: Designs and Techniques from Ethnic Sweaters by Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts and Deborah Robson














This is PookieD2 showing his good side.



I still have the wrap and turn method to try next time. This method involves joining a second ball, sigh.

Anyone know of any other tutorials or methods to try?