Archive of Thread: Yarn Brake for Intarsia Knitting Back

4 years ago
I recently purchased a yarn brake to do intarsia knitting.  I started to knit an intarsia baby blanket and thought I would lose my mind keeping all the yarns from tangling.  I found a video for using a yarn brake on a sweater so you can knit both the shoulders of a sweater around the neckline at the same time with two yarn balls and an intarsia carriage.  I found one for less than $30, bought it, tried it and it worked like a charm.  At some places in the pattern for the blanket I was knitting there were 7 different balls involved and the brake worked like a charm.

Sue, do you have any experience with a yarn brake or a video?  I haven't found one if you do.  I have not been able to find much information about them. 

I would love to hear other's experiences with a yarn brake.  I never heard of them before now.
Thanks.

4 years ago
Shucks, Karen.  I don't even know what a yarn brake is !!  Can you summarize its functionality for me?  Thx.  Sandee in Seattle, WA USA

4 years ago
The yarn brake is just a bar with spool-like dividers that keep a bit of tension on the yarn similar to just holding it in your hand but does all of them at the same time. I've done intarsia by using my normal carriage and needles in D,  Russels in II, side levers in O and hand feed. This is fine with one or two yarn balls but when you have a more complex pattern it took forever this way and I always mess it up. With the yarn break you hand feed all needles in D in a row and take one pass of the carriage.   The brake keeps all the yarns separate and with the normal the 'yarn in the back and over the top' rhythm the yarn will always be aligned and not twisted.  The pics I am attaching are just google images but I think they will help you visualize what it does. Very simple really but a very helpful tool for not a lot of $$.  Hope this helps.

4 years ago
Oh!  OK.  I'm very surprised that with all the MKing I've done that I haven't seen this before.  Very clever.  Is it specific to a particular brand of machine?  I have all Studios at the moment.

4 years ago
I used to do a LOT of intarsia and I bought a yarn brake, thinking it would be the best thing since sliced bread, but I HATED it!  I much preferred having the threads hanging down with a clothes peg to weight them.  I got rid of the yarn brake!

Jenny

4 years ago
It is not specific to any brand of machine.