Sharon learns to double knit, and doesn’t like it.

I named myself Sharondoubknit on Ravelry three years ago. Basically I knew that doubleknitting is what English people call 8 ply, and I was doing most of my knitting in 8 ply at the time. I vaguely knew that there is a knitting technique called double knitting, but I didn’t actually know what it was. Mainly I thought the name sounded good. Yesterday I cast on for a knitting project that used the double knitting technique. I have 40 stitches on the needles, and for each row you slip every second stitch, with yarn forward. So it’s slow like ribbing, and twice as slow because every stitch is moved twice to make a single round. After progressing with painful slowness for a couple of hours I had a good look at what I was doing – I was creating a double layer of reversible fabric. And then I realised I could do that by simply knitting in the round. I was working on a long circular anyway, switched to stocking stitch in the round and now the project is flying. Double knitting may have some application I’m not aware of, but right now Sharondoubleknit says no to double knitting. I’m considering changing my name.