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. 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 goes (kmc, pcc), (kmc, pcc), (kmc, pcc), (kmc, pcc), (PMC, KCC), (kmc, pcc), (kmc, pcc), (kmc, pcc), (kmc, pcc).
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.
*bookmarks*
dbl knitign i ssooo cute but sometimes it can be a pain in the arse…
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.
thnx so much this post helped me alot=] keep knitting! your work is beautiful
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.
Your turotials are awesome! Thanks so much for doing them beginning to end!
Thank you so much for the great instructions. Other sites left me confused. Now, I am soaring along with my dbl knit scarf.
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.
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
‘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.
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