Learn Something New: Double Knitting

I was fortunate enough to take Annie Modesitt's double knitting class at last year's Interweave Knitting Lab. Annie is a unique knitter, as she says, "My brain works differently than other knitter's brains and I'm stubborn, which are mixed blessings." I think these things make her a wonderful teacher, though.

Double knitting was so much fun to learn with Annie! This knitting technique is wonderful for making really warm knitwear, but also for making pockets, bags, cuffs, collars, and so many more things.

Annie has a new Knitting Daily Workshop, Double Knitting: Essential Techniques to Knit Two Layers at a Time with Annie Modesitt. Here's a little bit about double knitting:

Double knitting is an ingenious technique that simultaneously forms two layers of knitted fabric while you knit with just two needles. The stitches of the two layers alternate on the needles, and for the simplest double knitting, the stitches for each layer are worked with separate balls of yarn.

	Annie Modesitt demonstrating a cast-on for double knitting

Annie's cast-on is simple and effective. She casts on to a circular needle using the long tail method. When she's cast on the number of stitches needed for both layers of the double knitting, she divides the stitches in half and pulls the cord through as if she's going to start the Magic Loop method of knitting (see the photo at right).

For double knitting worked in stockinette stitch one "stitch" represents two loops of yarn-a knit stitch of yarn A and a purl stitch of yarn B. (A and B can be either same or different colors of yarn.) The knit stitch forms the right side of the fabric facing you, the purl stitch forms the wrong side of the fabric facing away from you (see photos at left). When instructions say to knit a particular number of stitches, knit the knit stitch of the pair with one yarn and purl the purl stitch with the other. In so doing, you work the rows of both layers at the same time.

Here's Annie to introduce her new workshop:

One of my favorite memories of my class with Annie is when she told us we were going to "mistress" double knitting. In response to our vacant stares, she replied that instead of mastering things, she liked to mistress them. Thus, amid peals of laughter, we began our class.

Download Double Knitting: Essential Techniques to Knit Two Layers at a Time with Annie Modesitt today and get started!

Cheers,