What is slip and tuck colorwork

Some types of knitting stitches let us cover up the yarn we are currently using by “pulling up” a yarn from a previous row. This technique can be a bit unintuitive, but it lets us design all sorts of unique and interesting patterns. The main thing that you have to remember is that in KnitScape, we are drawing with stitches–not colors. Thankfully, the swatch visualization is constantly updating to show the results of your pattern.

There are two types of special stitches: slip and tuck. With a slip stitch, the yarn in work is passed behind the loop from the previous row. For a tuck stitch, a loop of the yarn in work is added to the needle. Slip and tuck stitches look similar from the front, but have different back patterns and textures.

To draw a vertical line, we want to slip (or tuck) in places where we don’t want the color to show

[vertical line gif]

The more times a stitch is slipped or tucked vertically, the longer the resulting loop becomes. When the fabric is actually knit, this stretched-out loop will deform the surrounding fabric. We can preview this by running the yarn relaxation. This effect can be used, for example, to transform rectangles into hexagons.

[hexagon relax gif]

With practice, you can learn how to design more intricate patterns, such as for letters and numbers.

[number relax gif]