Wednesday, November 5, 2025

Four-needle double-knitting
vs.
four double-pointed needles
*DISAMBIGUATION*

 What's going on?

Shakespeare famously asked "what's in a name?" Evidently, the answer around here is "confusion." To explain...

TECHknitting is in the middle of a series about DOUBLE KNITTING. 

...a two-faced fabric, completely reversible

Double knitting makes a two-faced fabric, completely reversible, like the practice squares above.


Classic double knitting: alternating stitches worked on one set of needles, meaning two needle tips
--white stitches are knit, creating the white fabric face
--green stitches are purled, creating a separate green fabric on the back
Stitches for both layers lay side-by-side
Stitches for each layer are always interrupted by stitches for the other. 

TECHknitting recently introduced a new and different way to work double knitting with two sets of circular needles, meaning four needle tips. To distinguish it from the classic (two-needle) method, this new method is called "four-needle double-knitting."

Four needle double knitting: four needles in hand, two operational at any one time.
--each fabric layer gets its own needle. 
--no longer interrupted by stitches for the other side, the stitches next to one another in the fabric are also next to one another on the needles.
No interruption = easier to see what is going on.

"Four needle double knitting" is a descriptive name, an alert that this new trick differs from classic (two-needle) double knitting. Yet this name unfortunately leads to confusion of a different kind.

Confusion!
 Due to the words "four" and "double" and "needles," knitters are writing to ask whether

--> four-needle double-knitting <-- 
is related to sock knitting on 
--> four double-pointed needles <--

The answer is no. 

Same words, it's true, but in different order with different meaning.

same words, different order, different meaning

The set-ups and results are different. One is...

            --reversible fabric via four-needle double-knitting on two sets of circular needles

while the other is... 

--knitting little items like socks on four double-pointed needles (dpn's).


graphic showing the difference between four needle double knitting and four double pointed needles
Similar names, different set-ups

But, it can get even more confusing. "Double knitting"does mean the reversible fabric and the process for making it, BUT it also refers to a weight of yarn.
 
Double knitting yarn is not the same thing as double knitting. Double knitting is not the same thing as double knitting yarn. The graphic shows a little elephant being knit in classical double knitting (alternating stitches) which makes a reversible fabric--a red elephant on a white background on one side, a white elephant on a red background on the other side. The entire image is being knit with a yarn of a weight called "double knitting yarn."
More confusion with "double knitting"

Whew. No wonder there's confusion!

DISAMBIGUATION
Four-needle double-knitting is a new and easier way of creating two-sided fabric with reversible designs on both sides, using two sets of circular needles: it is not double-knitting weight yarn, nor knitting little items like socks on four double-pointed needles. 
_____________

Where we've been, where we're going
In this series on double knitting, the most recent post is about four-needle double-knitted horizontal tubes called "baffles." These are knit via the "picking" method of four-needle double knitting and can be stuffed like the baffles of a puffer jacket. The next post covers four-needle double-knitted vertical baffles. See you then.



--TK

Questions? Feedback? Contact me at 
Blue Sky  @techknitter.bsky.social or  talk to me about this post on Ravelry TECHknitter forum