Trapping floats is a handy technique for when you’re knitting stranded colorwork. Wait… What’s trapping? What are floats? What’s stranded colorwork?! Our Trapping Floats Tutorial explains everything!

Trapping Floats | Purl Soho

Our free Raindrop Hat + Arm Warmers pattern in Vinter Wool

Stranded colorwork is when you switch back and forth between two colors of yarn. The “floats” are the strands of yarn that connect the last time you used a color to the next time you use it. When they get too long, they can easily snag on things and cause problems, and that’s where “trapping” comes in. Trapping is how you can tack down the middle of each yarn float so it’s not so long and ungainly… And it’s super easy to do!

Trapping Floats In Stranded Knitting: Video Tutorial

Click To See Video Transcript

Hi, this is Whitney from Purl Soho, and I’m going to demonstrate how to trap floats when you’re knitting stranded colorwork. Stranded colorwork is when you switch back and forth between colors within the same round, like here in the swatch for our Raindrop Hat. You can see that we have this wonderful stockinette design on the right side of the work, but the issue we’re addressing here is on the wrong side where you have these strands of yarn that connect the last time you used a color to the next time you use it. We call these floats, and when you have floats that are longer than about an inch they tend to snag on your finger and buttons and earrings.

So I’m going to show you a handy trick to tack down the non-working yarn halfway through the float by trapping it with the working yarn. Like here’s the beginning of the Raindrop Hat and you can see that each float is tacked down in the middle to create two shorter floats that are less likely to snag on things. It looks very tidy and it’s super easy to do, so let’s trap a float and you can see how to do it.

Okay, so I’ve worked up to a place where I’ve just finished knitting a contrast color stitch, and now I need to knit five main color stitches, which is about an inch of fabric and a good opportunity to trap a float. So the first thing you do is knit up to the halfway stitch of your main color stitches. So I’m going to knit two, and the next stitch is the halfway mark of my five stitches. If you have an even number of stitches, you just get as close to halfway as you can.

So to trap the float, all you do is take your non-working yarn and at the back side of your work you cross it over the working yarn like that, and then you just knit the next stitch like you normally would and finish off with the last two stitches, that in this case we need to knit. And you can see that on the right side of the work, all the stitches look like normal stockinette stitch. And on the wrong side of the work, this float is really neatly tacked down halfway through. Let’s try it again.

We’re at a moment where we need to knit a contrast color stitch, so I’ll do that. Then we have to do the five main color stitches. So we’ll go to the halfway mark here. One, two, time to trap. So we take our non-working yarn and we cross it over the working yarn like that, knit the next stitch, and then finish off with our last two stitches. So let’s take a look at the back side again, at all of these nicely trapped floats. They’re really tidy and secure and, as you now know, also super easy. So that’s how you trap floats in stranded colorwork.

Trapping Floats In Stranded Knitting: Step-By-Step Instructions

Prefer still photos and text? Follow along here!

Trapping Floats | Purl Soho

You’ll know it’s time to trap a float when the long strands of yarn on the wrong side of your work are about an inch or longer. For example, in the Raindrop Hat + Hand Warmers pattern, there are runs of five main color stitches that end up being about an inch long… The perfect time to trap a float!

Trapping Floats | Purl Soho

Knit up to the halfway point of the float. In this case, knit 2, and your next stitch (the 3rd) is the halfway point. (If you have an even number of stitches, just get as close as possible.) Now you’re ready to trap!To trap the float, simply bring the non-working yarn (gray, above) over the working yarn (green, above). This will secure the non-working yarn as you knit the next stitch.

Trapping Floats | Purl Soho

Knit your next stitch (and the remaining stitches in the run) as normal with the working yarn.

Trapping Floats | Purl Soho

You’ll see that the non-working yarn got neatly tacked down by the working yarn, avoiding a long and messy strand. To continue, just pick up the next color as usual, and the float will be complete!

Trapping Floats | Purl Soho

Ready to master stranded knitting and trapping floats? Get our free Raindrop Hat + Arm Warmers pattern and pick up some Vinter Wool yarn to knit it… Our hand-dyed Norwegian wool yarn has a toothy feel that makes it ideal for colorwork!e!

Looking for more inspiration? Explore all of our free knitting patterns and knitting tutorials, buy one of our many knitting kits and yarn bundles, and shop for beautiful yarn. We have over 35 gorgeous natural fiber yarns in 100’s of magnificent colors, designed to bring integrity, beauty, and joy to your next knitting project and only available at Purl Soho!