Does intarsia only work with stockinette stitch?

Question

I'm a novice knitter and I want to try working with multiple colors, and I've toyed with intarsia a little bit, but I was wondering if it only works or looks decent with stockinette, or if it might look okay with moss stitch or something... This is probably a silly question but I thought I'd ask anyway.

Answer 1

Generally, intarsia is done in stockinette stitch because is gives you a flat surface with which to see the patterns. Also, working in purl or garter stitch your work will be more rectangular becuase of the ridges (these are less open stitches than stockinette). You might try a swatch and see the effect you get with moss stitch or box stitch to see if the stockinette areas keep it open enough to not distort the design. Perhaps you could do a small section (for example, if you were knitting an eye, you could do just the iris) in purl to get an effect and the rest is stockinette to keep the rest of the design flat.

Answer 2

It's generally only used with stocking stitch because of the flat surface but if you want to see what effects you get using colour with moss or garter stitch why not knit a few sample squares. There's no law saying it can't done after all. Play around a bit see what results you come out with.

Have fun.