The following photos show how to carry the yarns across behind the work on both knit and purl rows. When carrying yarns make sure the carried yarn is not pulled up tightly, or ridges and ruffles will appear on the right side of the knitting. Smooth the stitches out across the needle as you knit each row. Do not be tempted to carry yarns across more than 5 or 6 stitches at a time.
For knit rows:
In this example a white stitch is worked after a red stitch and then a red stitch is worked after a white stitch.
Insert needle into next stitch:
Cross white yarn over red yarn as shown:
Knit the stitch with white yarn, leave red yarn at back of work:
To then knit a red stitch, bring yarn up from underneath white yarn and knit the stitch with the red yarn:
If you look at the back of the work at this point you will see all the carried yarns lie in two rows, with the white yarns on the upper row:
For purl rows
This shows how to work a red stitch and then a white stitch.
Bring red yarn up from under white yarn:
Work red stitch:
Red stitches worked:
To work white stitch, take white yarn over red yarn and work white stitch:
The carried yarns should form two rows with the white yarns all in the top row, note the stitches are not pulled too tight: