Getting Started

Best knitted up with your most beautiful silk, this scarf looks great with two yarns of similar hues, and can be worn comfortably in nearly any climate.

Double knitting creates a reversible fabric with knit stitches facing out on both sides of the work. You’ll knit on both sides at the same time, and the result is a two-layer fabric. The two photos below show the front and back of the the pattern. Two contrasting colors are used to emphasize the affect of the double knit technique.

Colors A and B are always used together to cast on. Whenever AB is specified in the instructions, knit or purl with both strands together. Whenever A or B are specified separately, knit or purl with the individual strands.

This double-knit pattern has been designed in such a way that after the first row you won’t need to refer to any charts or patterns. After you’ve turned the work to start the next row, just knit the knit stitches and purl the purl stitches, using the same color strand that was used in the previous row as it now faces you. The most important thing to remember is that when knitting you should bring both strands to the back, and when purling bring both strands to the front. Here’s how to do this: Keep the color B strand above the color A strand so that you can more easily knit with color A and purl with color B. Hold both strands behind the work when knitting (see top photo below) and hold them both in front of the work when purling, as shown below in the bottom photo. Try to keep the strands from twisting while you maneuver them from front to back, knitting A and purling B separately.

If you’ve never used this technique before, practice with two identical yarns in two contrasting colors to create a swatch: