Plain stockinette fabric can become double knitting by the process of "transformation." An earlier post shows how to hold two stockinette fabrics back-to-back (purl sides together) drop a column, then re-latch the back ladder on the front, the front ladder on the back. This gives a baffled, stuff-able fabric, like a puffer jacket. Another form of transformation gives a very pretty alternate color edge for double knitting.
Today, that same trick, but with color patterns.
 |
| This scarf started as two rectangles, one purple, one green. It was transformed into double knitting by dropping columns, then latching them up again. The color patterns form by alternating the draw-up from front or back. |
In a previous post, this scarf displayed an example of double-knit edging by transformation, but, in fact, on the entire scarf, every colored pattern was made by dropping columns, then hooking up the ladder rungs in pattern, first on one fabric face, then the other.
If you think about it, this is just a variation on a theme. Instead of transforming widely-spaced columns to form baffles, like in the last post, or transforming edge columns for alternate color edging, today's trick transforms nearly every column.
The multi-colored pattern comes from transforming different-colored ladder-rungs within the columns.
--Back stitches are latched to the front for a certain height.--Just above that stack, front stitches are latched on the front.
Stacking colors within the columns forms a pattern based on the interruptions.
WHY double-knit this way? For MACHINE KNITTERS, this is a way to transform stockinette yardage into a whole new category of knitting you can't get on a home knitting machine.
For HAND-KNITTERS, the answer might be curiosity to make an all-over pattern like the sample scarf, but a more practical use is instead to use this for patterns here-and-there. Double knitting by transformation would be an easy way to add a little flower or motif in double knitting, right in the middle of an otherwise plain blanket or scarf. For example, here's a Greek Key motif spanning 18 columns over 26 stitches, which isn't so very many to stop and transform in the middle of, say, a long scarf or a lap robe.
HOW-TO
This earlier post has the practical how-to for dropping and re-latching vertical columns into double knitting. Today's post builds on that skill by bringing the dropped columns closer and interrupting the latching pattern into different colors. Consider reviewing the earlier post before going on.
Greek Key Motif
This pattern is numbered internally to make counting easier as various rungs are either "jumped over" to bring contrasting color rungs forward, or "re-latched" to work main color rungs as part of the pattern.
 |
| Greek Key chart. Click here for large free-floating version, click here for printable black and white version. |
This example is just a little square to practice on.
Start with a provisional cast on, and needles large enough to give a fairly loose fabric. The chart adds two extra rows at the top in gray. Those extra two rows prevent the top edge getting shop-worn through handling. If this isn't knit in the middle of something bigger, those gray rows are pulled out at the end.
To knit this chart from two separate pieces of fabric, make one piece 24 stitches wide by 34 rows high, the other same width but one row shorter: 33 rows high. Work the edges as a chain selvedge, this is prep for the edging to come. Remove the provisional cast on, then place the live bottom stitches on needles.
The provisional cast off has been removed and those live stitches transferred to knitting needles. The top live stitches are held on stitch holders.
 |
| Both pieces grafted together |
A third alternative: begin the second fabric by starting it through the loops at the bottom of the first. This makes a purl-looking cast on, but is structurally identical to a grafted fabric (no offset.)
Attach the fabrics along one long edge by dropping the chain selvedge stitches, using the transformation trick for making beautiful alternating edges. This makes a reversible pocket-shape closed on two sides, smooth (knit side) out, purl sides back-to-back.
 |
| Bottom and one side attached. Red will be the "front fabric." |
Next, drop two ladders: one each on each color fabric, the same number of columns away from their common edge. Below, a red ladder released, a yellow ladder behind it.*
In this (and every!) column, don't ladder out to the very bottom. Always stop the same number of stitches up from the bottom. On the chart, three rows are always left unworked along the bottom edge.
Once you've released two ladders in corresponding columns, the fabric facing towards you is the "front fabric" (here, red). The other (here, yellow) is the "back." Arrange the fabric so that the two ladders are exactly one behind the other. (The "exactly behind one another" part is what you have to fudge if using a folded fabric.)
Now comes the trick: to re-latch the ladder, you draw up a rung through the bottom loop, in the ordinary way of re-latching except that, where you want a contrasting color (cc) stitch, you draw up a rung from the back fabric.
 |
| Ladders released, front and back, in corresponding columns, on stitch holders |
In this (and every!) column, don't ladder out to the very bottom. Always stop the same number of stitches up from the bottom. On the chart, three rows are always left unworked along the bottom edge.
Once you've released two ladders in corresponding columns, the fabric facing towards you is the "front fabric" (here, red). The other (here, yellow) is the "back." Arrange the fabric so that the two ladders are exactly one behind the other. (The "exactly behind one another" part is what you have to fudge if using a folded fabric.)
Now comes the trick: to re-latch the ladder, you draw up a rung through the bottom loop, in the ordinary way of re-latching except that, where you want a contrasting color (cc) stitch, you draw up a rung from the back fabric.
On the chart, the first loop over the crochet hook at the bottom of a front column is in row 3. The corresponding loop on a stitch holder at the bottom of a back column is also in row 3. The first rungs drawn forward or back would be in row 4.
It is very, very easy to grab the wrong rung, especially when you first start and there are no cc stitches alongside to use as reference points. For the sample square, it's no big problem to count up from the bottom. But in the middle of a plain piece of fabric, it's hard to count up from the bottom. Instead, create a reference point. Baste a line of thread along a row to act as a reference mark, or use a "disappearing ink" quilt marker. (Test first on a swatch to be sure it'll completely fade.) If you like to plan ahead, knit in a horizontal stripe: that's what I did on this seat cushion.
It is very, very easy to grab the wrong rung, especially when you first start and there are no cc stitches alongside to use as reference points. For the sample square, it's no big problem to count up from the bottom. But in the middle of a plain piece of fabric, it's hard to count up from the bottom. Instead, create a reference point. Baste a line of thread along a row to act as a reference mark, or use a "disappearing ink" quilt marker. (Test first on a swatch to be sure it'll completely fade.) If you like to plan ahead, knit in a horizontal stripe: that's what I did on this seat cushion.
HOOKING UP CONTRASTING COLOR STITCHES
a.k.a "jumping over" to bring back rungs to the front
Working from the front, and, starting upwards from the bottom, reach OVER the first (bottommost) loose front rung. Insert the hook to the back of both fabrics, and draw through the first loose bottom rung of the ladder in the back fabric.
Jump the hook up and over one (and only one!) front rung as you reach to the back to draw up the next-highest back rung. It's super-easy to jump over two, especially when you first start.
 |
Working from the front (red) side. The yellow loops come from the fabric back. The yellow column to right is a column which has already been worked. |
Step-wise progression...
- A yellow back-rung, labeled 1, has already been drawn to the front. It is the loop around the crochet hook.
- Next, the hook is jumped over the next-higher front (red) rung, labeled A. This pushes A behind the crochet hook.
- The hook inserts and draws the next-higher yellow rung from the back fabric, labeled 2.
- Once yellow back-rung 2 is drawn down through yellow stitch-loop 1, yellow-2 becomes the stitch-loop around the hook, as yellow-1 slips off--it's now a fully latched-up stitch.
- Red-A (the front rung which was jumped over) is parked on the back of the fabric for now, trapped in place by latched-up stitch-loops yellow-1 and yellow-2.
- Once yellow-2 has been drawn through yellow-1, the hook next jumps over red front-rung B, to grab yellow-3.
- Once yellow-3 is over the hook, it will be drawn down through yellow loop-2. This parks red front-rung B on the fabric-back, trapped in place between latched-up stitch loops yellow-2 and yellow-3 .
This continues until all the back (contrasting color) rungs required to be worked by the pattern are in a tidy column on the front of the fabric. Just such a stack of latched-up yellow back-rungs is to the right on the photo.
When all the contrasting-color (back) loops required by the pattern have been latched up, turn the fabric over, and, working from the back, hook up all the red front rungs. They're easy to see and easy to hook, because they have been forced to the back of the fabric in stacked order, trapped there as the yellow stitches were previously worked in that column.
Once all the front rungs are worked to the back, flip the fabric and again set off working on the front. Except that now you are ...
HOOKING UP SAME-COLOR STITCHES
a.k.a. "re-latching" to work front stitches as part of the pattern
Suppose the next stitch to transform is red stitch "X" in the column with the arrow.
There are now three front (red) rungs to draw through. So this time, DON'T step over the lowest front rung. Instead, grab it and draw it through the (yellow) loop on the hook. The chart requires two more red stitches above the X, so draw through the two next highest front (red) rungs as well.
Three front rungs in red have been worked. This time, it is the yellow back rungs which are parked on the back fabric, waiting to be worked. Flip the fabric, and draw the three waiting back-rungs through on the back fabric. Then flip the fabric, ready to start off from the front (red) side again.
Continue in this way, always working from the front fabric first, then back, drawing through whichever kind of loop the chart requires, either front red or yellow back.
As the work progresses, the design takes form.
As the work progresses, the design takes form.
 |
| Design developing: view from back. |
If knitting a small square, then when all the columns are transformed, close the remaining side, same way as the first. Now all that remains to be done is to finish the square at the top. Rip out the extra rows, remembering again that whichever color you choose to graft with will have an extra row added back, so pull out one extra row in that fabric. A grafted bottom edge or a folded one is matched by a stockinette graft. If you used a purl-looking cast on, match it with a purled bind off. Once the top is closed, it's a reversible fabric, identical top and bottom, side and side.
The result is completely indistinguishable from traditional double knitting--here are both sides of the finished square.
 |
| Back (yellow background) and front (red background). |
If working a motif in the middle of a blanket or such, stop knitting when a few rows above where the top of the motif should end. Transform the fabric, then knit further. This saves having to drop down so many rows.
Again: for machine knitters, this is a way to do something quite different with the acres of stockinette a knitting machine easily churns out. For hand knitters, it's a way to add reversible designs in the middle of a scarf or lap robe--items which are, more or less, also acres of stockinette. However, the purple and green scarf (opening photo) was transformed in every single column, and it didn't actually take me longer than double knitting would have. Perhaps novelty made the time pass quicker?
I'll end with another trick of fascinating structure.
Transforming a single piece of stockinette knit in alternating-color one-row-high stripes
Once you figure out that all you need to transform a single fabric into a double-knit is an equal proportion of loose ladder rungs set next to one another, you realize any method of filling this condition works as a set-up for transformation. So, you could start with a fabric knit of one-row high stripes in two different colors.
 |
| A single-layer fabric of alternating one-row stripes. The purple at the bottom is waste yarn to be removed at project end. |
Releasing a single column at a time yields ladder rungs of two different colors, one atop the other. Now latch up all the stitches of one color from the "front" of the fabric, and all the stitches of the other color on the "back" of the fabric and it becomes a double knit fabric made of two layers, back-to-back. Varying the order in which you pick up the rungs yields color patterns. Here is the one-row fabric being transformed--the work is on column 10 of the above chart.
 |
| Pretty weird, huh? |
The fabric shortens because stitches originally atop one another in stripes transform to snuggle back-to-back in a double-thick fabric. That's why the original fabric was knit so long: twice as long as the finished work.
The finished fabric from this trick is similar to, but not structurally identical with, double knitting. The color motifs are connected through the thickness of the fabric only where there has been a change of color along a vertical column, but not at a horizontal change.
A few tips: This trick must be started with a provisional cast on of several rows of waste yarn--purple in the above illustrations. The column is run all the way down to the bottom, then the base stitch for each column is anchored in the waste yarn, meaning, the waste yarn is the first loop over the hook. Finding an anchoring spot is tricky: two columns--one for the back fabric, one for the front fabric-- must be anchored for each one stitch of waste yarn released. You've got to poke around with the crochet hook, anchoring the extra column through the waste fabric through loops drawn up at random. It all comes out OK because when the waste yarn is removed (carefully! one stitch at a time! ) the loops are waiting to be picked up, regardless of where anchored.
Once released from the waste fabric, the bottom loops are caught up on a knitting needle. The two fabric faces are grafted together top and bottom. The sides are attached as for the first trick, by an alternating latched-up chain made from the released edge stitches.
The finished fabric from this trick is similar to, but not structurally identical with, double knitting. The color motifs are connected through the thickness of the fabric only where there has been a change of color along a vertical column, but not at a horizontal change.
A few tips: This trick must be started with a provisional cast on of several rows of waste yarn--purple in the above illustrations. The column is run all the way down to the bottom, then the base stitch for each column is anchored in the waste yarn, meaning, the waste yarn is the first loop over the hook. Finding an anchoring spot is tricky: two columns--one for the back fabric, one for the front fabric-- must be anchored for each one stitch of waste yarn released. You've got to poke around with the crochet hook, anchoring the extra column through the waste fabric through loops drawn up at random. It all comes out OK because when the waste yarn is removed (carefully! one stitch at a time! ) the loops are waiting to be picked up, regardless of where anchored.
Once released from the waste fabric, the bottom loops are caught up on a knitting needle. The two fabric faces are grafted together top and bottom. The sides are attached as for the first trick, by an alternating latched-up chain made from the released edge stitches.
As to speed, this trick actually goes faster than the first. All the rungs to grab are in plain sight, rather than being hidden on the fabric back: less fishing around with the crochet hook.
It's a fascinating piece of yarn topology, but I'm not sure of a practical use for this trick? If used in widely spaced columns, it could maybe ruche up vertical gathers across a garment front? In a one-color fabric, this would create quite a mysterious structure. Something to try some day...
--TK
*The chart shows 3 edge columns, this sample has only 2. The chart is correct.
*The chart shows 3 edge columns, this sample has only 2. The chart is correct.
