Who is Jacquard Ladderback? A late Georgian Era, gentleman thief to rival Raffles with his fiendish cunning and skill? Fiendishly cunning and skilled is right …but it’s actually a new knitting technique I’ve learnt to help with the long fairisle floats for Misurina. (It’s usually call Ladderback Jacquard but that didn’t sound as fun 😉 )

Where did I find this wonder?

Browsing Ravelry’s Misurina Projects, researching needle sizes, I happened on the follow quote in SpinKnitSueHobbs’ Mirurina Jumper write up,

I’ve learnt how to do Ladder Back Jacquard for the very long floats at the bottom of the yoke design. So stonking brilliant!!!

SpinKnitSueHobbs

SpinKnitSueHobbs’ Misurina was lovely – obviously an accomplished knitter. I love the gradient in the yoke pattern…

It’s a tecnique I’ve never heard of and “Stonking brilliant” had my attention.

I googled and youtubed. I absolutely agree with “Stonking brilliant” 😛

What is Ladderback Jacquard and how do I do It?

Ladderback Jacquard is a way to turn a series of long floats into a ladder of unanchored stitches at the back of the work. The huge advantages that leapt out at me were that is doesn’t show at all on the right side (unlike my usual “Weaving in” method that occasionally peeks though to the right side), and more importantly, creates elasticity – great for me as I have to work very hard to not pull the floats too tight.

You might find LadderBack Jacquard referred to as “LBJ” – made me smile as, to bird watchers, that stands for “Little Brown Job” i.e. a small brown bird that’s difficult to identify cos so many look similar!

Aparently, this is very like the method used for double knitting (something else new for me to try)…

I’m not going to explain how to do this technique here as I found a wonderful, short, succint and clearly demonstated YouTube video that describes it better than I could. It’s here: Knit Darling’s Ladder back Jacquard – Invisibly manage long floats in stranded knitting

Watch it – it’s only 6mins long and will change your fairisle for the better.

How is my Misurina looking?

I have put a ladder either side if the 4 stitch cable that divides the main motif as I was worried about the cables pulling tight as there was a 6 stitch float every row, right there with the cables. I’ll add more ladders as I get to the “pointy end” of the motif. It has slowed me down a little but I’m happy to slow down for a better result.

It looks like this so far…

Close up…

And the right side…

I’m still a little concerned that my colour choices don’t give enough of a contrast but I am certain that Ladderback Jacquard is “Stonking Brilliant”!