Creative Knitting – Beyond Knit and Purl

There is nothing more disheartening than to be working along with two colors on a double knit and discover that you have an uneven row on one side or the other, creating an unattractive line across the face of your knitted surface.   Some people call this “rowing out.” Who wants that??

As a rule I knit very evenly in stockinette, but when I double knit I have run into this problem.  What’s the answer?

I tried knitting with the yarns carried in one  hand, but soon knew that this was definitely NOT the answer.  Next, I tried using both hands, just as I do when color knitting.  It worked much better, but the purls were still  a bit loose.  Then, I took the time to work just a few stitches (about 16) in a swatch, examining every row.

I soon discovered that I needed to take up more slack when I purled the alternate color.  The results were stunning.  The trick- look for the purl bump.  Raise it up so that you can see it near the top of your needle.  You might even feel the yarn taking up the slack as you make the lift-I did.

If you are knitting Continental, and purling English the “purple” on the right-hand index finger below will be raising the “purl bump” toward the top of the needle.

I you are knitting English and purling Continental, then your left-hand index finger will be lifting the purl bump into position before the right hand swings the yarn back to begin the next set of yarns in the sequence.

The results-

No ridges

My advice- practice this.  See what results you get.  I works for me, maybe it will work for you.

One more thing.  I don’t know if you have noticed but when you are double knitting the gauge changes.  In my experience, I find that it usually runs 6 stitches to 8 rows, instead of the 6 stitches to 9 rows that I knit in a flat pattern.  Because of this, I have uploaded both charts, as one can be used for regular color knitting and the 6 by 8’s can be used for DK knitting.  These charts are in on my “Free Patterns” page.

As this is the first block of my “Idaho Memories Afgan”  I did not want to be dealing with this problem for 30 blocks of the design.  Now I don’t have to.  Yeah!!!!

Hope this helps-  KT