I chanced upon this method while preparing to knit Linda Marveng’s Cambridge Cardigan – it is a beautiful oversize cardigan with a plaid motif. The pattern recommends crocheting the vertical strands – as a pretty poor executor of duplicate stitch, however, I knew this wouldn’t work that well for me. True, the duplicate stitch would add a texture that stranded work, whereas horizontal or vertical, does not have, but still I thought this would be a small price to pay considering the alternative (by which read “botched job”).
So I bought Lorilee Beltmann’s DVD and I think it is worth every penny – beside working very well for this kind of pattern, it opens up loads of possibilities to add interesting colour work to any pattern.
Below is a summary of how it works, taken from Lorilee Beltmann’s website
Need: a foot of yarn for each inch of vertical colourwork
Contrary to standard stranded work, you keep main colour in the left, and contrast colour in the right hand (or anyhow MC to the left of CC).Vertical stacks start at minute 20:15 of DVD.
For column stitches, you knit them in the back loop.
For stitches moving to the right, you knit through the back loop.
For stitches moving to the left, you knit normally.
To go to Lorilee’s recap click here.
I find the result very neat – the advantage is also that the vertical strands trap long floats at the back, should you have any:
lovestoswatch 
