Sunday, March 05, 2006

Double Knitting

I Taught a class in Double Knitting on Tuesday and figured since I made up the whole tutorial I may as well share it!

This technique creates a thick, double-sided fabric with two “Right” sides. It is usually used to do double-sided stockinette, especially in contrasting colors. Applications include reversible scarves and blankets, hats, and lined mittens or socks. In the picture, the back side looks just like the front except the backgroud is red and the heart is gray.


Double Knitting was used to create the Checkerboard Rhino Scarf as well.


For this class you will need two balls of worsted weight yarn in contrasting colors (Main Color (MC) and Contrasting Color (CC)) and size 7 or 8 straight needles.

Basic Double-knitting technique, using this heart chart. To read the chart, read from the bottom right to left on odd rows, and left to right on even rows:


Cast on 9 stitches using the long-tail method, holding both strands together as one.

Set-up row: On the next row use the right needle separate the MC loop, and knit it with the MC working yarn. Move both strands between the needles and purl the CC loop with the CC working yarn. Repeat for each stitch, separating the two colors for the rest of the row. You should now have twice as many stitches, and they should alternate MC, CC.



At the beginning of each row, twist the MC yarn behind the CC yarn for the first stitch. This ensures that your two layers are joined at the sides:
(the Red is the MC in the photo)


Each square of the chart represents TWO stitches, one on the front and one on the back. The color shown is the color you knit when you are on the RIGHT SIDE. MC is the background color, the first stitch of the row, and CC is the motif color. When you change colors, you must keep the stitch-pairs together, for example, row 2 (on the WRONG SIDE) goes (pmc, kcc), (pmc, kcc), (pmc, kcc), (pmc, kcc), (KMC, PCC), (pmc, kcc), (pmc, kcc), (pmc, kcc), (pmc, kcc).
Continue this way, following the chart.


Double-knitting Bind off: Slip the right needle through both loops of the first stitch, the MC and the CC and k2tog. Knit the next stitch the same way, then bind off. Continue the k2tog bind-off across the row.


Double-knitting benefits from a good blocking after you're finished.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

*bookmarks*

Wilma Fingerdu said...

dbl knitign i ssooo cute but sometimes it can be a pain in the arse...

Micky said...

Hi. I just saw your dragon scarf on the Red Scarf Project. I read your archives and saw that you were going to be putting up a link where anyone could buy the pattern. I didn't see one and was just wondering if you had the pattern for sale. It is an awesome scarf.
Thanks in advance for any information about it.
:)

Anonymous said...

thnx so much this post helped me alot=] keep knitting! your work is beautiful

Anonymous said...

Oh thankyou! I had watched a tutorial on double knitting at knittinghelp.com, but it never showed how to cast on and knit the first row. Now it just seems obvious, the sign of a good tutorial.

Unknown said...

Your turotials are awesome! Thanks so much for doing them beginning to end!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for the great instructions. Other sites left me confused. Now, I am soaring along with my dbl knit scarf.

Anonymous said...

This is amazing! i picked this up very quickly. you are very clear and to the point! thank you for that great pictures and instructions. do you know where to get any double knitting patterns online? im having trouble finding them.

Anonymous said...

I guess I must have lost my ability to think and comprehend!!!

I have followed directions for "double knitting" to the letter and still DO NOT have two layers of fabric connected at the edges.

The basic concept seems simplpe. However, in the end I still don't get it right.

Does anyone have any additional suggestions?

Yvonne_in_Ashland

NigelG said...

'I still don't get it right.'
Maybe what you are missing is what I didn't get at first. On a K st both yarns are at the back - right? When you P the 2nd colour of the pair both yarns come to the front and you P one st. Then both yarns go through to the back again for the next K. Hope this helps.

NigelG said...

The other thing I didn't get straight away was that you always work the colours in the same order MC/CC; MC/CC all the time. The change in colour comes from whether you P or K them. Check the tutorial again. I haven't done it yet but I am going to do it on the way home from work on the train. BTW I loved the mis-spelling of turotials a few comments back LOL :-)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for a good explanation

Anonymous said...

it took me a while but i got it. btw...your tutorial appears to have an error in it. Row to should actually go P MC, K CC...because we're working in st stitch right?

Morgge said...

Hi. this is my first time on this website and i do NOT understand at all how to double knit. when it shows the purl stitch, i have a knit stitch! i have Google and asked, and every other type of search engine but all of them said that i was right but it looked different so if you possibly can HELP ME!!!

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I love to see your tutorials patterns, but most of the pictures do not load. The pictures on your main site does not show up. I was mainly interested in Entrelac Tutorial! I found a reference to your site from a discussion group but could not see any of the graphics. Thank you so very much.
If you don't have time to go over them, if you would just email me your file, I will be greatful.
Pault1211@gmail.com

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Your images are not loading because your images have .html added to the file name. For example, if the name is picture.jpg, your links have picture.jpg.html. If you simply delete the .html it should fix your images for the tutorial. It seems really well written, and I would love to see the pics! :D