The wonderful technique of double knitting creates a two-layer fabric with knit stitches on both sides. The finished fabric is completely reversible, lending itself to colorwork, contrasting fibers, or simply a knit-faced fabric that is twice as warm. The secret to double knitting is the magic of super simple slip stitches. Here, our Double Knitting Tutorial shows you exactly how to do this satisfying technique!

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 Hey this is Laura from Purl Soho and I’m going to show you how to work double knitting with two colors. And the beauty of this technique is that you can work two different layers of fabric simultaneously. And when you’re doing double knitting with two colors you can get the color you want on the side you want.

The design elements and applications are pretty limitless but today I’m going to just show you the basics. The basics have a four row repeat and I’m going to show you all four rows.

Row one of double knitting in two colors is worked with either the main color or yarn A. For us it’s this browner color of the two. And it has just a two stitch repeat all the way to the end. So the first thing you’re gonna do is knit one. Then bring your yarn to the front in order to slip one purlwise.

And then you just repeat those steps. So knit one, slip one, purlwise with yarn in front. Knit one, slip one, purlwise with yarn in front. You may notice that when I’m working with main color, I’m working into the stitches that are the same color.

Here I am at the end of row one, and you can see I have both of my working yarns coming off this edge. And I’m ready to turn my work in order to work row two. So here we go. I’ve turned my work. Now the very important step to make sure you do before you begin working row two is how you carry your yarn up the side.

It’s gonna either, if done properly, you’ll close up this side seam. And if not, you’ll have a opening here on the side. So what I want to do is identify my… the yarn I just worked with and the yarn I’m about to work with. The yarn I’m about to work with, I want to bring it under, underneath. The yarn I just worked with. And now I’m ready to begin working row two.

It’s going to seem very similar to row one. So I’m going to knit one. And then I’m gonna slip one, purlwise, with yarn in front. Again, very similar to row one, but this time I’m working with the white yarn, and I’m working into the stitches on my needle that are white.

Here I am at the end of row two, having just worked the row with this white strand. And to work row three, I’m gonna need my main color, or this brown strand over here. But, so what that means is, instead of turning my work, what I want to do is slide my work. I want to slide it all the way to the other end of my needle.

And then once your work is all the way at that tip of the needle, you’re ready to work row three. Row three, similar to the other rows, just has a two step repeat for the entire row. The first thing you’re going to do is slip one purlwise with the yarn in back. Then, you’re going to purl one.

Let’s do that again. Slip one purlwise with the yarn in back… purl one, slip one, purl one. You may notice that once again, when I’m working with the brown color yarn, I’m working into the brown stitches.

Here I am at the end of row three, and you can see I have both of my working yarns here coming off of this edge. And so now it’s time to turn my work in order to work row four.

Before you begin row four, make sure to carry your yarn, your working yarn, which is the white yarn for row four. You’re going to pull it up and in front of, and then to the back of the other yarn that you just worked with. So the new yarn you’re going to work with, pull it in front of, and then to the back. And now we’re ready to start row four.

Let me get untangled here. Alright, so to do row four, it’s going to seem very similar to row three. I’m going to slip one purlwise with yarn in back, and then bring my yarn to the front, and order to purl one. Slip one purlwise with yarn in back, purl one. And once again, you may notice that when I’m working with the white yarn, I’m working into the white stitches.

So here I am at the end of row four. You can see I just finished the row working it with this white strand here. And I am… four, row four is the last of your four row repeat. And so what I want to do is make sure I’m prepared for row one. And row one uses the main color or this brown color. So once again, what we’re going to do is slide our work all the way to the other end of the needle. And now you’re ready to start again at the top with row one.

Alright, I have a bit of a bonus clip here. For any of you who are working our double knit blanket pattern, you’re gonna come across a step that involves a tack down. You can see these tack downs have this really, create this really beautiful dash. They also join together the two layers of fabric that you’re creating.

Working the tack down is pretty simple, but I’m going to show you how. I’m going to take two normal stitches first, and then we’ll do the tack down, and then I’m going to take two more stitches. In this row, this step, I would want to slip one purlwise with yarn in back, and then I’m going to purl one.

And now I’m going to work my tack down stitch. Now whereas I normally would be slipping all the white stitches with yarn in back, I want to slip this stitch with yarn in front to create that tack down. Now my next stitch is a purl stitch, so I’m going to leave my yarn in front in order to purl. And then bring my yarn to the back in order to continue in pattern.

Slipping this stitch with yarn in back. And you can see here, this teeny little dash, it’s a little hard to see this close to the needle. But you can see the what happens here farther down on my swatch. Yeah, that’s it. That’s how you do a tack down in our double knit blanket.

Want to give Double Knitting a try? Both our Double Knit Blanket and our Verse + Reverse Scarf use two colors and two yarns, and either is a great place to practice your new skills!

Double Knitting | Purl Soho

Our free Double Knit Blanket pattern in earthy Good Wool and smooth-as-honey Season Alpaca, you’ll love the satisfying feel of these yarns together!

Double Knitting | Purl Soho

Our free Verse + Reverse Scarf pattern in our Cattail Silk with its raw elegance and our Line Weight merino with its cloud-like downy softness… Beautiful!

Looking for more inspiration? Explore all of our free knitting patterns and knitting tutorials, buy one of our many knitting kits and yarn bundles, and shop for beautiful yarn. We have over 35 gorgeous natural fiber yarns in 100’s of magnificent colors, designed to bring integrity, beauty, and joy to your next knitting project and only available at Purl Soho!