Color dominance in colorwork knitting

What is color dominance?

When you are knitting colorwork, the strands of one color go behind the strands of the other color. The color with the strands in front will be the dominant color. The color with the strands behind will be the non-dominant color. This is because the strands that run behind push the other color forward towards the right-side surface of the fabric making the stitches in that color a bit bigger. The bigger stitches pop a bit more when looking at the right-side of the fabric.

If you look at the picture of the swatch above, you can see a slight difference between the top half and the bottom half of the swatch. It's the same color pattern of alternating between each color the entire way through the swatch, however, halfway through knitting it I switched the colors to the other hand.

In the bottom half, the caramel color is dominant. In the top half, the gray is dominant.

In the photo below you can see the difference color dominance makes on the wrong side of the knitted fabric. The background color (meaning the one that is not held dominant) has its floats laying on top of the other color's floats. You can see in the bottom half, the gray floats show up more strongly. This is because they are the non-dominant color and sit on top of the other color's floats. You can see very clearly where I switched hands and the color dominance changed.

Which color is dominant?

The color that is going to have its strands in front will always be the color on the left. The color on the right will have its strands run behind the other color.

The color held on the left is the dominant color.

The color held on the right is the non-dominant color.

Which color do you want to be dominant?

When you are knitting colorwork, there will be a main color and one or more contrast color(s). The contrast colors are the ones you want to be dominant, and the main color will be non-dominant.

You want the color pattern to stand out against the background, which is knit in the main color. If you hold the main color dominant, your color pattern will end up a bit muted. It will still appear and be beautiful, it just won’t pop like it should.

How to hold your yarns

If you are knitting with two hands, hold the contrast / dominant color in your left hand and the main / non-dominant color in your right hand. This is an easy way to sort out the placement of your dominant and non-dominant colors.

If you are holding both yarns in your right hand and knitting continental style with both colors, place the contrast / dominant color further to the left than the main / non-dominant color. Have the contrast / dominant ball of yarn to the left, and the strand of that color yarn further to the left on your index finger. This means the contrast / dominant color will be closer to the base of your finger and the main / non-dominant color will be closer to the end of your finger.

If you are knitting with one color at a time and dropping and picking up the different colors as you go, place the ball of your contrast color on the left and the ball of your main color on the right. As you drop each color, pull the strand of yarn towards its respective ball. This will keep the contrast color on the left and the main color on the right as you work.

Snowy Pines uses three colors in its yoke.

What about when you are knitting with three colors?

When knitting with three colors, you will have three varying degrees of dominance. One color will be least dominant, one color will have middle dominance, and the third color will be the most dominant. So which color should hold which position? You’ll have to examine your pattern to figure that out.

The easiest one to figure out is which color should be held the least dominant. It will always be your main color. The main color is the canvas on which your colorwork is painted. It sits in the background.

Next you will need to decide which color is most dominant and which one should be middle dominant. Take a look at your pattern; is there a color that is supposed to “pop”? Perhaps you are working with two neutral colors for the main color and first contrast color, and the third color is a bright punch of color. That third color that you want to be the bold pop of color is the one you will hold the most dominant. Hold the other contrast color in the middle.

If you don’t have a color that is supposed to be the bold pop of color, look at your two contrast colors. One will probably be used more than the other. Just take a look at the chart and you should be able to tell which one is used more. Hold the least used color most dominant. It will be used in the fewest number of stitches so holding it most dominant will help it to stand out.

How do you hold your color when knitting with three colors?

As we covered above, the dominant color will be the one on the left. Hold your most dominant of your three colors the farthest to the left. Your least dominant go on the right, and the middle dominant color will be placed in between these two colors.

When I am sitting on the couch, I’ll set my most dominant color on my left side, my least dominant color on my right side, and the middle dominant color will sit on my lap. As I knit, I hold the main color constantly in my right hand and throw it. The two contrast colors I work with my left hand dropping and picking them up as I work my way through the chart.

If you want to see how I knit with three colors, click this link to watch my tutorial on knitting with three colors.

What happens if I just ignore color dominance?

Your colorwork will look muted. If you hold the contrast color to the right and the main color to the left, your color pattern will still show up. It will still look good. But it won’t show up quite as well and it won’t pop like it should. Your colorwork will still be beautiful, but if you want it to look even better, pay attention to the concept of color dominance.

What happens if I switched color dominance part way through?

If you switch color dominance part way through a project, you will end up with a line through the color motif where it looks a bit different on either side of that line. It may not be a huge glaring issue. It will most likely be this little thing that niggles at you and makes you think that something isn’t quite right.

What if I’m part way through a project and I’m holding the wrong color dominant?

Just keep going as you have been. As mentioned in the previous section, switching color dominance part way through a project will give you a line where the colorwork changes in appearance. To avoid that line, just keep holding the colors as you have been. Your colorwork will still be beautiful if a bit muted. Then on your next project, you can start out holding the correct color dominant from the beginning. You don’t have to be perfect right this instant. You can learn and grow as you go along.

If it really bothers you that you were holding the wrong color dominant, you’ll have to rip the whole thing out and restart. It’s not a horrible thing to do. I’ve ripped out lots of things and have survived thus far.

Hopefully this information helps you take your colorwork knitting to the next level! If you want to learn more about color, all my colorwork knitting resources are rounded up in my Colorwork Resources Directory.