How to catch floats in knitting

Doing stranded knitted colourwork, but struggle with long floats in the back? Every few stitches, you will need to ‘catch’ your floats, to keep the work from either bunching together, or being too loose. In this tutorial I will explain step by step how to do it. See the video, or check out the written instructions below. Don’t know what a float is or why you need to catch it? Your questions will be answered soon!

What is a float?
A float is a strand of yarn in the back of the work that is created while doing colourwork, while leaving all yarns attached. Hence this is called ‘stranded colourwork’.

Why do I need to catch my floats?
If these floats are longer than 4-5 stitches wide, it can be hard to keep tension even. The wearer of the finished item might also not be as comfortable with these long floats in the back of the work. This is why we ‘catch’ them, meaning, we attach them in the back of the work more often.

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Step-by-step instructions

Catching floats works differently depending on if you knit English Style or Continental Style. Do you not know what style you knit? If you hold and wrap your yarn with your right hand, you knit English style. And if your hold your yarn with the left hand, while picking it up with the right needle, you knit continental. Go to the written instructions for your style of knitting.

English style – right side

1. Insert your needle knitwise
2. Wrap your inactive yarn
3. Wrap your working yarn normally (counterclockwise)
4. Unwrap your inactive yarn
5. Finish your stitch normally!

English style – Wrong side

1. Insert needle purlwise
2. Lay your inactive yarn over your needle, inbetween your stitch and your working yarn
3. Wrap your working yarn counterclockwise
4. Pull the inactive yarn towards the bottom
5. Finish your yarn normally

Continental style – right side

1. Insert needle knitwise
2. Wrap your inactive yarn counterclockwise
3. Also wrap your working yarn counterclockwise
4. Unwrap your inactive yarn
5. Finish your stitch normally

Continental style – wrong side

1. Insert your needle purlwise
2. Lay the inactive yarn over your left needle, inbetween your working yarn and your stitch
3. Wrap the working yarn counterclockwise
4. Unwrap your secondary yarn
5. Finish your stitch normally

That is how you catch floats! Do you have any questions? Shoot me a DM on instagram, I’ll gladly help you out! Happy knitting!