Double-stitch on first 4 rows of baby sweater

#1

I am going to make a baby sweater that starts with the double-stitch.

Directions for this sweater say to:

  1. cast on xxx stitches
  2. double stitch for 4 rows
  3. continue in K1P1 fashion until 1.25 inches have been knitted.

I have found directions on how to perform the Double Stitch.

My question is this:
Do I start the double-stitch on the first row? It seems impossible to perform the double-stitch on the cast-on stitches. Or do I need a “foundation row” of k1,p1 directly on the cast-on row?

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

#2

I’m sorry I can’t help. :frowning: But what is double stitch? Can you link the directions you found?

#3

I found directions in this book by Montse Stanley:
http://tinyurl.com/5er3s
Reader’s Digest Knitting Handbook.
Basically, you knit in the stitch BELOW the knit stitch and let the “current” stitch drop off. But you can’t do this on every stitch, or else they’d all fall off on the next row.

I don’t see how you can do this onto your cast-on row.

#4

I’ve heard of knitting into the stitch below, it creates a decorative hole right? I never knew it was called double stitch though :oops:

And I agree. It seems literally impossible. :?

#5

It sounds like they have another meaning for the term double stitch. What’s it supposed to look like? I think if you scan an up-close part of the picture, it should be okay copyright-wise. Or if it’s online, you can link to the pic.

Amy

#6

I’m looking right now at the book Laura T. is mentioning (just happened to have taken it out of the library last weekend!)
I says that this needs a preparatory row, usually a purl row on the wrong side.
Also, as I look at the diagram in the book (not a photo but a drawing), it looks to me as though when the right needle is inserted into the row below, it must also sort of be going through the bottom of the actual stitch on the left needle; in other words, the bottom of the first stitch on the left needle as well as the top part of the row-below stitch, the one that is actually being knit into.
This can only be worked in alternate stitches in order to avoid the previous row unraveling.

Aaacck. I don’t feel like I clarified this at all. Sorry :oops:

#7

Yvonne, is this the same as “k-b” in the abbreviations explained page of this site? It sounds like it.

Amy

#8

I looked at the k-b video just now, Amy. I think the double knit stitch is similar to that, but not exactly the same. I can’t tell in the video if your needle is being inserted through both of the stitches or not. It sort of looks like it’s inserted wholly in the stitch in the row below rather than through both that one and the stitch on the needle as they say to do in the book.
It really looks to me as if the needle is inserted such that it is going through both, somehow. If you picture a vertical chain (which knitting really is, in a way), imagine the needle not going through one link in the chain or the one next to it, but in that place where the two chains are linked.
I wonder if I can take a photo of the diagram in the book and post it here, or whether that would violate some copyright rule?

#9

Also, as I look at the diagram in the book (not a photo but a drawing), it looks to me as though when the right needle is inserted into the row below, it must also sort of be going through the bottom of the actual stitch on the left needle; in other words, the bottom of the first stitch on the left needle as well as the top part of the row-below stitch, the one that is actually being knit into.

Well, if that’s true, then why did she state that the stitches would fall off? If you stitch through both the current stitch and the one below it, then that would, effectively secure the stitches and prevent them from falling off.

I must have an earlier version of the book than you do; my borrowed copy as a picture of the author on the cover. The illustration definately shows the needle going through only the lower stitch. I’ll look again to see if it says anything about a foundation row.

The author does, however, state that this stitch is often used in fisherman’s sweaters. It deceptively looks like ribbing, but is not and is more tedious to do than ribbing.

The pattern is from an Italian knitting magazine. Filatura di Crosa #29. The double-stitch is the first four rows after casting on and then ribbing follows it.

I’ll put in a foundation row on a test swatch (knit or purl) and see how it turns out. Thanks for your input!

#10

Laura,
That’s a good question, why she mentions the previous row unraveling if done on more than every other stitch. I don’t get it either.
The version of the book I’m looking at is published in 1993. The front cover shows a vase of knitting needles, a drawing of a stitch diagram, the back side of some apparent Fair-Isle knitting, and a blonde lady modeling a shawl.
The directions I am looking at are on page 149 under a heading called
"All Sorts." The drawing where it looks to me that the needle is going through both stitches is 2.241 on that same page. The quote says, “Double because it is drawn through two stitches–the one in the row being taken off the left needle and the one immediately below it.”

It is later on in the subsequent paragraphs, when she is talking about brioche knitting, that she discusses the need for a preparatory row.

My disclaimer here is that I have not done this kind of knitting, so this is all just brainstorming and throwing ideas around. Could be you do just insert the needle into only the row-below stitch just like in Amy’s y-b video and I am all mixed up and trying to read too much into this drawing I’m seeing, and not understanding the corresponding text.

The big question is, how does it look when you knit it? Does it look like the pattern photo? If so, you’ve got it made, whatever you’re doing. :smiley:

#11

maybe I overlooked something. I’ll go home and look again. I do have a friend in her 80’s who has knitted a lot and she’s from England so maybe she’s familar with that type stitch.

Thanks ever so much for your input, Yvonne and others!

#12

Could be you do just insert the needle into only the row-below stitch just like in Amy’s y-b video

Which video are you referring to? I didn’t find it.

Laura

#13

Laura, it’s in the videos under “abbreviations explained.”

By the way, my curiosity was killing me so I knit a little swatch of this double stitch. It’s cool! It looks like thick, squishy ribbing but it really isn’t ribbing; no stitches are purled.
Here’s what I did:
Cast on.
Purl one row.
Next row: Slip first st (selvedge), K1, DS1, K1 DS1 aross the row, ending with K1

Continue as row 3.

Pretty soon you start seeing this neat pattern emerging, looks like ribbing, but is thicker. It looks the same on both sides.
One hint is that make sure you only DS in a stitch that was merely knit on the previous row, don’t DS directly over a previous DS.

Try it and see what happens

#14

Yvonne, I re-read my instructions. They are the same as yours. I had read the part about doing the foundation purl row in the Brioche section last night, but just didn’t connect the two sets of instructions.

I had been trying to do it this way:
ds1, purl1

yuck. that won’t work.

I’ll do a test in the morning based on what you’ve described. My Nyquil is starting to kick in now - no telling what it would look like if I did it now!

Thanks for hanging in there with me, Yvonne!
:smiley:

#15

Good luck Laura! BTW, the video is called “k-b” in the abbreviations explained.

Yvonne, I do knit into both stitches, ultimately, in that video. Is this what you do? To knit just in the row below, you’d have to knit into the side or back of the stitch in the row below. Knitting into the core/center of it, also catches the yarn above it.

Sounds cool. I haven’t used that stitch really, just for demonstration purposes.

Amy

#16

Yes Amy, I do believe so. Inserting the needle this way actually does catch both stitches; at a point it looks like both stitches are being knit together.

Laura, you’re smart not to mix NyQuil and knitting. :wink:

#17

BTW, the video is called “k-b” in the abbreviations explained.

yes, that’s it amy & Yvonne. Thanks very much. I guess there are many names for the same stitch.