Creating a Two-Toned Marl Effect

Recently I saw a jumper that I liked and I wanted to try and create a similar two-toned marl effect. The knitter said that they had just used two colours together in the machine so I wondered if I could create a similar effect.

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I have lots of thin industrial yarn, some 2/30 and some 2/28. Two strands of 2/30 can make a fine 3 ply and 3 strands can make a 4 ply. Two strands of 2/28 can make a 3 ply and three strands can make a thick 4 ply. (Here is post on using a twisting stack to create a thicker yarn.) So I chose two distinct colours to see the result.

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I wondered if I could create the same effect with two strands of different colours and set out to find try this out. The first swatch did not give this effect so I tried a variety of methods to get closer to the desired effect. Finally I had to use 3 strands of yarn to get something that I liked.

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I thought that I would write a blog post to record my efforts. Hopefully it will inspire you to create some interesting two-toned effects. In all these examples I used BSK 2/28 industrial yarn, one in a brown colour and one in a beige colour (link to BSK industrial yarn page).

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Swatch A: Separate Mast Wires

You do not need a twisting stack to knit with two strands of yarn as you can put each strand through a separate mast wire. The mast tension will need to be high for the thin yarn. Both yarns are then put together in the carriage for knitting.

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As you can see from the diagram above, the result shows block/stripes of colour rather than a marl effect. This happens as the yarns tend to twist only occasionally in the carriage. Knitting a bit faster seemed to reduce the size of the blocks but this was too tiring to do all the time.

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Swatch B: Same Mast Wire

I also tried using the same mast wire. Both cones were on the floor behind the machine. Taking one strand from one cone and one strand from the other cone, I threaded them both together through the same mast tension unit and wire (mast tension needed to be reduced for thicker resulting yarn).

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The above diagram shows the result. I think that the gave a similar large block stripe effect as using different wires. Both effects were too ‘blocky’ for what I wanted. I needed something to twist the yarn more.

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Swatch C: Using Twisting Stack

In order to twist the yarns, I used my Hague twisting stack. I used a yarn winder to wind one of the colours onto a ‘hat’. This hat was made by myself out of card as I did not have a free plastic hat. Also the plastic hats for this winder do not have a hole in the middle so you cannot thread another yarn through it.

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Both colours were put on the twisting stack, one threaded through the middle of the other and the resulting twisted yarn was then used as a 3 ply yarn in one of the masts.

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The industrial cones are often too big to use in a twisting stack so if you do not have a winder you can make your own twisting stack from cardboard boxes. However you have to make the hole very smooth with tape else the yarn will just keep catching.

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This swatch shows the results. The colour stripes are now thinner but there are still lots of areas of the same colour and the overall effect is still too ‘stripey’. I think I need more twist but did not have a professional twister so I needed to have a think.

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Swatch D: Twisted on a Cone

I wondered if the effect would improve if the yarn was already twisted on the cone.

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I used the twisting stack to twist together the two strands onto a ‘hat’ using a yarn winder. Then I knitted the swatch with this already twisted yarn.

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The resulting swatch showed more break up of the blocks, so now there were small areas of colour, so it was an improvement on the effect that I desired. However, there were also lots of areas where the beige colour was dominant.

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Swatch E: Fairisle

Running out of ideas to twist the two strands, I decided to take a different tack and tried knitting fairisle using punchcard 1 from the basic standard set of punchcards or electronic sheets for Knitmaster or Brother machines.

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Instead of alternating the two different colours (that would definitely not give me the random effect that I wanted) I decided to use two lots of my twisted yarn (each approx 3 ply). So I divided my twisted yarn hat from sample D onto two hats and used each one in its own mast wire and its own carriage gate as two 3 ply yarns.

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As you can see from swatch E image, it did get rid of the blocks of colour, giving a more random marl effect. I would definitely use this technique again. The only problem was that I really wanted more of the darker colour with just hints of the lighter colour.

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Swatch F: Three Strands

The only problem with all the five samples so far was that I wanted them to be brown with bits of beige and most of them had more beige than brown in them.

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I decided to use the twisted yarn on one of the hats and added a strand of brown using my twisting stack to loosely twist them together. Thus all three strands were in the same mast wire (very loose tension) as a thick 4 ply. I knitted the sample in normal stocking stitch.

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Swatch F shows the result, which gave a reasonable marl effect that had more of the darker colour. Not as good as a professionally fully twisted yarn, but an effect that was still attractive. I would definitely do this again.

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Overall

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It proved more difficult than I originally thought to get the desired effect. You definitely need more than 1 strand if you want one colour to be dominant. So six ways to put two different coloured yarns together. I preferred the last sample and would be happy to knit a jumper or cardigan with this two-tone effect.

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What about you? Have you done this before? Do you know a different way to get a two-tone effect? I would love to hear about it.

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Happy Knitting!

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Carol