I am trying to double knit this hat found here; Ravelry: Game of Thrones: House Stark pattern by Lynn Flatley
I like most others decided to drop the wolves. So there was nothing at all to the pattern except the chart so I tried to figure out how to knit letters so they aren’t backward on both sides of the hat. I found a tutorial about it here: Ravelry: Truly reversible pattern by Colleen Abbot
I’m knitting away and I think my letters are going left to right instead of right to left on both sides of the fabric. Help!
Here is my crazy chart
The second chart looks right to me. As you’re knitting the word “Winter” on side one, you would also be knitting the reversed “gnimoc” on side two. (My keyboard doesn’t reverse letters as in your chart.)
Can you post a photo of the two sides of your work so far? Let’s also get some expert advice from @Metylda
Her latest dk project worked out beautifully.
The top chart is a combination of two letters, blue and grey, the G and W overlapping each other. I took a snippit of excel sheet and didn’t show the bottom WINTER, if that makes sense.
The needles are at the W on the white side of the hat, and to the left of it are the I and N, so the letters are going to read RETNIW when you’re looking at it going to the left instead of the right and the exact same thing with the black. Here the needles are on the G, and beside it one the right are N and followed by an I for GNIMOC. I’ve managed to truly flip these letters like crazy, hahaha.
If anyone has any advice I’d love to hear it. I think this project will be wicked cool when I’m finished but these letters are driving me nutzo. Also I’m worried its a little big for a hat. I couldn’t get it to fit on 16" with all the letters and double knitting, so I did this in a #7 on a 24 cable. If I have to start over again I’m thinking of going down a few needle size maybe? I’m not sure about that as well. I’ve restarted this sucker 4 times, but it again the epic factor will not let me leave her alone.
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The explanation page that you linked to is very helpful and clear. You’ve got the idea but you’ve reversed the letters on both the white side and the black side so that they read right to left. Go back to the explanation page and graph the letters step by step as shown in the example.
For the first photo, the white side, the I and N should be to the right of the W (WIN). For the second photo, the black side, the I and the N should be to the left of the G (ING). When you flip the hat back and forth you should be able to read the letters left to right on each side.
When you’re knitting the hat, the W should be knit at the same time as a backwards G, the I should be knit at about the same time as the backwards N. [The letters won’t be knit one for one because some will take up more width (e.g. W) than others (e.g. I).]
I see some complaints on the Ravelry page about the hat being too big so going down a couple of needle size is probably a good idea. You can use the project thus far to give you an idea of how much too big it may be. It’s going to be a fabulous looking hat. It’s just a matter of getting the first couple of rows set.
I think I got it. Since I’m knitting on circulars and the stitches are going on from my left needle to my right I need to knit backwards. Currently I’m knitting
W I N T E R
G N I M O C
in that order, so like you said the W and G line up on both sides; but they’re both going in the wrong direction because I’m reading left to right. First I knit the W, and then the I and that shows up on the fabric as R E T N I W.
when really I should be knitting, first the R then then E and so on…
R E T N I W
G N I M O C
is that right? I’m still not clear why the COMING didn’t turn out good on the reverse side since it was done backwards initially, but I THINK it was because I was reading the chart from left to right instead of right to left. Which after reviewing her pattern I realized I messed up there.
So I’m ripping this, redoing my chart, starting again on smaller needles and FOR SURE putting a lifeline in before I get going on these letters. Hopefully this will resolve it…or I might be back in a few days 
Thank you so much for the help it was great. I’m going to keep posting my progress on my ravelry page in case anyone wants to see how the finished product turns out: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Vixeana/game-of-thrones-house-stark
OK for working the hat I think in terms of the chart. In that case you would start on the lower right and knit to the left starting with the G in coming on the outside of the hat, the side facing you. That side is starting at the end of the phrase.
WINTER IS COMING
<-------------------------------
The inside of the hat starts with the W and also knits right to left
GNIMOC SI RETNIW
<-------------------------------
I’d draw out the two charts. One reads as usual for English. The other you have to flip over and hold up to the light to make sure you have all the letters correctly oriented and in reading order.
Here’s how I did mine recently. I used Excel to make my charts. I adjusted the row height to 10 and the column width to 1. I made two separate charts for the front and back of the double knitting. I made sure to put dots in all the squares for the back. Then I merged the two charts. I copied one column at a time alternating from back chart to front chart. Copy the front chart from left two right; the back chart from right to left. I ended up with a chart like this.
For knitting flat, odd rows get worked right to left and even rows left to right. For knitting in the round, work all rows from right to left.
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Here’s the YouTube video I found that showed me how to do it.
OK. I think I got this. (We’ll see in a few days when I get back to that lettering part)
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This is not a simple thing to do. While you CAN do one word easily on one side, the other side is going to be a mirror image of that word. To create TWO different words, read correctly on either side, means you need to have TWO separate charts – one for each side. Then you will need to merge those charts in some way, stitch by stitch, so that the words will form correctly on both sides. While you will be knitting one word from the right side (and can see what you are doing), you will not be able to see what you are doing on the other side! This will require a lot of concentration, and nothing will be intuitive, as it would be otherwise.
I am doing a project exactly like that now – and most of the time is being used up by the charting – the actual knitting will be a breeze – once I get the charts done!
Yes I know. I did my chart in excel.
First I put one sentence down, and then a few rows down the other sentence. Then merge the two. Then I go back and column by column check it.
It requires attention to detail, but fortunately it’s only 10 rounds. I’m making pretty good progress and this time the letters are right. I’ll post photos once I’m done, along with some tips I figured out along the way.
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This post was still up when I got home. I noticed a HUGE error. I have corrected it in the above post.
I found it much easier to have the two charts merged. I set each chart how it would look on the finished item. The chart for the back side was copied one column at a time in reverse order. When knitting the item, it is still worked stitch by stitch and the chart will tell you if it’s knit or purl and in what color.
Using the chart I posted a couple of weeks ago, here is what the words looked like after knitting. The angel was a separate chart that I left being a mirror image. Creating a non-reversible DK chart is a very tedious process (it took me several hours for two words), but the time spent making it saves you from a lot of frogging.
So worth it! Lovely to see this very pretty double knitting.
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So finished the hat, sadly it was way too big and the decrease directions were not helpful meaning that I decreased way to sharply. I’m going to post a new thread on getting help with that but I wanted you guys to see that the letters came out beautifully.
Thanks for the help.
Oh, wow! This is so beautifully knit and the letters are excellent. You’ve gotten the difficult part down perfectly. I love it.
Yes, the directions for the decreases are just a bit sketchy. Usually hats decrease in one round and then work a round even (without decreases) until near the end. That helps the crown not to slope too quickly.
Awesome job! The letters are amazing.
Wow a great job. This is something i wouldn’t do because I could never wrap my brain around it but you did a really good job. Congrats !!!
