If adding colour to your knitting via intarsia, stranded, or even duplicate stitch techniques isn't your thing, or if you just love dabbling in paint, there is another way to add colour to your knitted items. Twist Collective offers us a tutorial on how to paint knitted pieces with dyes and foam or stencil brushes. This is a technique that will take some time to master, because dyes can create a halo effect or have sediment or blend with each other, creating a new colour that may not be what the crafter wanted — and don't forget that your "canvas" or knitted item took time to make. Twist Collective recommends that knitters trying this technique take the time to experiment with the paints on paper towels first.
Natural fibres are best for hand painting. Blogger Lynette, of Le Tissier Designs, shows us some samples of her hand painted knits and comments on how the different fibres took the dye.
It's also possible to use paint rather than dye (though dye is likely preferable to paint as paint will stiffen the knit as dye will not). In this video, YouTube user The Answer Lady demonstrates how how to paint knits using spray paint, Sharpie markers, and stencils.
In this video, The Answer Lady uses a stencil and a sponge dipped in paint to stencil her knitwear project.
In this video, The Answer Lady uses rubber stamps and an ink pad to add dragonflies to her sweater.
In this video, colour is actually removed from the knitted item with the aid of rubber stamps dipped in bleach. The bleached design can be coloured in with sharpies afterward if desired.
Then again, knitting itself can become a tool for painting on other items. This blog post tells us how to use knitted swatches to stamp knitting pattern on paper to make knitting-themed wrapping paper.
Finally, a use for those swatches. Practice on what you don't need. I enjoyed learning about this and looking at the work of these talented people.
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