Double Knitting

Does anyone have tips for less awkward double knitting? I normally knit continental and had been doing the same for this blanket, holding both strands in my left hand. I tried knitting English with my right and continental with my left, but I kept having cross-overs (back yarn showing over front stitches and vice versa). Help!

2846760d0a3cd4d274dd8caf277aeebbjpg.jpg

I knit continental and hold both yarns in my left hand and just pick up the color needed for the stitch I’m working on. It may be a little slower than single layer knitting but that’s the way I do it.

I agree. Knitting continental and holding both colors in the same hand is faster for most and you generally don’t get twisting if you make sure you carry the yarn for the side facing you towards the middle of your finger, and the yarn for the back towards the fingertip.

If your tension is an issue with 2 yarns you can try a Norwegian knitting thimble… I tried to paste the link but my phone would not let me in the body or in the link attachment…

Yes, we may have crossed paths on another site. I usually knit English style, but have found knitting Continental for Double knitting works better for me. In order to handle the yarns easier I made a home-made “spacer” to wear on my left hand. This allows me to manage the pearl stitches easier. FYI- When I made the spacer from a large twisty-tie, I lined it with a small piece of felt to make it comfortable on my finger.

867d6512b0ac94904adfa9a23ce07893jpg.jpg

Your afghan is really pretty. I’ve tried knitting with the yarn one continental and the other English, both colors in one hand and also a knitting ring. The knitting ring helps to keep the yarn separated but my tension suffers a little and it’s annoying when I turn my work. I also keep the “purl” side yarn near the end of my finger.

Hello - I’m an English knitter because that was the most comfortable for me when learning. (I will crochet holding yarn in the left hand though!). When I knit this fair isle hat I held one strand in the left and one in the right and my tension with my left wasn’t the same as the right because I don’t knit that way (some of those stitches are tighter than the others). I read somewhere that when knitting with two colors in the same row that you should’t “carry” one particular color more than two or three stitches before twisting them around each other. Also, my one knitting book advises that when you change from one color to another you should stretch out the stitches on the right needle before pulling the new color across to begin knitting so that there is some slack in the new color and this should help with maintaining even, loose tension. I seem to remember doing that as well when I knit the below hat. As you can see in the photo of the inside of the hat I have strands which are carried across but not for more than a few stitches (some may be a few more because I forgot and was knitting away!) and many of them appear to be somewhat relaxed and loose in appearance (like I often see in others’ photos of stranded color-work). It certainly was uncomfortable and slow knitting with using my left hand as this was my first (and so far my only!) project with color-stranded knitting. I was super excited though to complete this knit hat which I adore and I am super proud of my first project doing this type of knitting - I feel it turned out really great; the pattern is something often seen in stores during the winter months.:smiley:

1d0eba83a9df16a16b0d831f75d64249jpg.jpg

bc4a2d6e1f5f399ef1de6e38f6b3b107jpg.jpg

af374eb8366ea3c3661836dc82f27bc3jpg.jpg

I’ve seen those! Do you have any trouble with twisting the yarn for carries?

What a good idea to make your own! I bet I can fashion something that would work. Hmm…

I can see how uneven tension would be s problem.

What a nice job! I need more practice with one-sided colorwork because I invariably have some puckers.

@fiddlesticks2. Excellent idea. That is the type of thing I always intend to do but dont.

@matushkaanna[LEFT] - sometimes, but no more than when i knit 2 socks at a time from both ends of the same ball. Sometimes i just have to hold it and untwist… usually when i pause to check my patterns i untwist since i’m aloready at a stopping point[/LEFT]

I found the best method for me was to do a plain one color item, knit flat using only my non-dominant hand. At first a bit awkward but towards the end that hand became stronger and the tension evened out.

maybe there should be a kal for doing just this as i’ve seen a few posts about this non-dominant hand problem…anyone want to host one?

Your knitting looks cool, I don’t see what’s wrong with it.
If we are talking about color knitting in general: background-color always goes over dominant (main) color, when you cross-overs it. With a two-handed stranding technique, you won’t mix up yarn and also you will always cross yarn in one direction. If you hold both colors in the same hand, please keep this in mind.
The reason when the one color can be seen over front: knitting tension control, or yarn choice, not every yarn is suitable for color knitting. Also, if the main color is darker than the background, this yarn harder to hide.

ee38bb30dbc9d0afe5d28bd712e9fb10jpg.jpg

1b38e2266ed9fbfb8a9117d4b1efdc28jpg.jpg