Double knitting - how I do it

Now – as promised – here’s my description of the way I do double knitting, which I used to knit the pattern from the tablet-weaving book. I used my own yarn, and two needles size 4mm.

In double knitting you simultaneously knit two layers of fabric. They can be separate layers or intersect, like in this example, where the same pattern appears on front and back of the work piece, with colours inverted. Because you knit two layers, you have double the amount of stitches on your needle than you would have if you knitted just one layer as usual. The finished project usually looks like stocking stitch on both sides.

Now, there are ways to double knit two-colour patterns, which I avoid. In one way you use both differently coloured yarns in each row. I always hated fiddling with these. I prefer to work with one thread. In the other method you use slipstitches and work with one yarn only, but you have to move back to the beginning of each row to take up the differently coloured thread there. I find this confusing.

So I came up with the way described here which avoids both of the above. The pattern, however, appears elongated when compared to the chart. I don’t mind in most cases, and when creating one’s own chart one can take account of this if it is to be avoided.

If anyone knows of others that use this way I’d like to know. I know there are now a lot of knitting videos, which I can’t watch with my slow connection.

Okay so, here is the chart for the pattern:

Because you knit back and front layers simultaneously, every square in the chart stands for two stitches. There are 16 stitches in the chart, so for a double knitted scarf with this pattern you’d need to cast on 32 stitches, plus 2 edge stitches = 34 stitches.

As usual here I recommend for the edge stitches: to knit every first stitch of a row into the back loop, and to slip each last stitch with yarn at front of stitch.

And also as usual, cross threads when picking up the other colour.

GENERAL RULES:

Each square in the chart stands for a pair of stitches, and a pair of two different actions.

There are two such pairs of actions:

KNIT – FRONT, or KX in my usual notation. That means knit stitch, slip next stitch with yarn in front of stitch; and

BACK – PURL, or OP. That means slip stitch with yarn at back of stitch, purl next stitch.

I have given two charts, one for the front rows, and one for the back rows. I find this easier for beginners, and it makes these general rules possible:

When working a row with dark yarn, always KNIT-FRONT (KX) the dark squares, and BACK-PURL (0P) the light squares.

When you work with light yarn, always KNIT-FRONT the light squares and BACK-PURL the dark squares.

In short: always KNIT-FRONT the squares that stand for the colour of the yarn you are using, and BACK-KNIT the squares that stand for the other colour.

How do you follow the charts?

Each row in the charts is worked twice, first with dark yarn, then with light yarn like this:

Work first front row with dark yarn
Work first back row with dark yarn
Then work first front row with light yarn
Work first back row with light yarn

That means you would work the first row of front and back charts, ignoring the edge stitches here, like this:

1. With dark yarn following 1st row of front chart: KNIT-FRONT once, BACK-PURL three times, KNIT-FRONT twice, BACK-PURL four times, KNIT-FRONT twice, BACK-PURL three times, KNIT-FRONT once

2. With dark yarn following 1st row of back chart: BACK-PURL once, KNIT-FRONT three times, BACK-PURL twice, KNIT-FRONT four times, BACK-PURL twice, KNIT-FRONT three times, BACK-Purl once

3. With light yarn following 1st row of front chart BACK-PURL once, KNIT-FRONT three times, BACK-PURL twice, KNIT-FRONT four times, BACK-PURL twice, KNIT-FRONT three times, BACK-PURL once

4. With light yarn following 1st row of back chart: KNIT-FRONT once, BACK-PURL three times, KNIT-FRONT twice, BACK-PURL four times, KNIT-FRONT twice, BACK-PURL three times, KNIT-FRONT once

This looks complicated here, but should become clear by doing.

The stitches on the needle may look confusing, until you’ve done the last light row of these four.

When you’ve knitted all rows of the charts like this, flip them vertically, and then work from the second row of the new bottom. Do the same again when you’ve reached the top, and so on.

It is of course possible to repeat this design horizontally. Here is my computer simulation of how it would look.

One can make up one’s own designs and charts on square paper, like I’ve done for this one:

Happy double knitting!