How to Double Knit a Colorwork Design with the Same Colors on Both Faces

In standard two-color double knitting, stitches alternate between the two layers on one needle. You knit a stitch for the face toward you, then purl its partner for the face away from you. A conventional chart square represents that pair: a knit in the charted color and a purl in the other color. That arrangement produces opposite colors on the two faces. Brooklyn Tweed’s colorwork tutorial describes this structure.

For matching colors, change the color assignment while preserving the knit–purl sequence. A blue stitch can have a blue partner; a cream stitch can have a cream partner. Designer Shannon Paugh’s two-sided chart documentation explicitly uses pairs whose two stitches may share a color. “2012” Two-Sided Chart for Double-Knitting.

Two separate decisions determine the result: which color appears on each face, and which direction the image faces. A symmetrical block design simplifies the second decision, making it a useful first exercise.

You should already be able to cast on, knit, purl, and bind off. For the exercise below, choose two clearly contrasting yarns of similar thickness, suitable needles, a tapestry needle, and a removable marker. Call the yarns A and B; these labels always mean the actual yarn colors.

Double knitting requires two live stitches for each visible column: one for each face. Thus, six visible columns require twelve stitches on the needle. Check gauge separately before adapting the technique to a full project; double knitting can require a different needle size from your usual stockinette fabric. Jennifer Kent’s “Double Knitting,” published by The Knitting Guild Association.

Use the marker to identify Face 1. After turning, the other face becomes the one toward you, but your yarn labels stay unchanged. This helps prevent an automatic color reversal on return rows.

For stockinette on both faces, retain the ordinary double-knitting yarn movement: both strands go behind the needles for a knit stitch and in front for a purl stitch. Wrap only the yarn needed for that stitch. Brooklyn Tweed’s written double-knitting steps establish this movement.

Work a same-color A pair as follows:

1. Put both strands behind the needles.
2. Knit the next stitch with A only.
3. Bring both strands forward between the needle tips.
4. Purl the next stitch with A only, leaving B unused in front.
5. Return both strands between the tips to the back, ready for the next pair.

For a B pair, follow the same sequence using B for both stitches. Do not knit both stitches simply because they share a color: the first stitch belongs to the near layer, and the second belongs to the far layer.

The practical check is the location of the unused yarn. It belongs behind the near layer and in front of the far layer, concealed inside the fabric. Nimble Needles explains this underlying yarn-position rule in its discussion of more complex double knitting. How to double knit for beginners.

The following is an illustrative exercise derived from the stitch-pair method, rather than a reproduced designer pattern. Its six-column design is horizontally symmetrical, so matching each pair’s colors also gives matching appearances when you turn it over. This is a technique sample, not a gauge swatch.

Cast on 12 individual stitches in A using an ordinary long-tail cast-on, counting the initial slipknot as one stitch. Introduce B at the beginning of Row 1, leaving a tail for weaving in. Each letter in the table means one complete pair: A means knit one A, purl one A; B means knit one B, purl one B. Move both yarns as described above.

Row, in working order	Six pairs to work
1	A A B B A A
2	A A B B A A
3	B B A A B B
4	B B A A B B
5	A A B B A A
6	A A B B A A
7	B B A A B B
8	B B A A B B

Turn after every row. Work all twelve stitches each time; there are no additional edge stitches. At each row beginning, cross the two yarns once to connect the edge, then resume the normal pair sequence. Crossing yarns at the row boundary is an established way to join double-knitted selvedges. Brooklyn Tweed’s guidance for working flat.

For example, Row 1 is: knit A, purl A; knit A, purl A; knit B, purl B; knit B, purl B; knit A, purl A; knit A, purl A. Row 2 uses the same sequence. Follow the new row’s instructions even where the existing loops are a different color.

After eight rows, inspect both faces with the cast-on edge at the bottom. Both should show the same colored blocks. The single-color cast-on and yarn crossings may produce a visible border detail; judge the colorwork inside those edges.

If you simply place the same color on both stitches of every pair, an asymmetric image will appear horizontally reflected on the reverse. To make it face the same direction from either side, plan each face separately and horizontally reflect the back-face drawing before aligning it with the front drawing. TECHknitting demonstrates this overlay approach for reversible lettering. Reversible legible words in double knitting.

Label each combined chart cell with two colors in Face 1/Face 2 order. The resulting four possibilities give you this working key:

Chart cell	With Face 1 toward you	With Face 2 toward you
A/A	Knit A, purl A	Knit A, purl A
A/B	Knit A, purl B	Knit B, purl A
B/A	Knit B, purl A	Knit A, purl B
B/B	Knit B, purl B	Knit B, purl B

For a chart drawn as viewed from Face 1, with Row 1 worked facing Face 1, read odd rows right to left and even rows left to right. On even rows, use the Face 2 column of the key. Paugh’s designer notes confirm the alternating chart direction and the need to allow same-color pairs. Two-sided chart instructions.

As a planning example, suppose a five-cell stripe is A B A A A when viewed from either face. In Face 1 coordinates, the back drawing becomes A A A B A. The combined cells, left to right, are A/A, B/A, A/A, A/B, A/A. This shows why an identical-looking asymmetric design can require both matching-color and opposite-color pairs.

Same-color pairs change how the yarn travels. While one yarn makes both stitches, the other strands between the faces. TECHknitting explicitly describes this internal stranding in uncoupled double knitting. Same-color partners and the unused strand.

The practice swatch limits each uninterrupted color run to two pairs. Before switching colors, gently spread the recently worked stitches along the right needle so the unused strand has room to span them. Avoid pulling that strand tight across the blocks.

For a larger design, include its longest same-color run in your sample. Check whether the internal strand restricts the width or changes the surface. Do not assume a broad matching-color background behaves like ordinary opposite-color double knitting, where both yarns are used in every pair.

Check both faces after every row. Use the visible symptom to decide what to inspect:

• The reverse has opposite colors: check whether you automatically used the other yarn for each purl stitch.
• The image faces the wrong direction: check the horizontal reflection of the back-face chart.
• A strand crosses the outside: check the unused yarn’s position during the knit-to-purl transition.
• The fabric draws inward: check the length of the internal unused strand.
• The stitch count has increased: check for yarnovers made while moving strands over a needle instead of between the tips.

Nimble Needles’ yarn-position explanation is particularly useful for tracing exposed strands: the unused color must remain inside the two layers. Double-knitting yarn placement.

For a simple joined finish, hold A and B together and knit the first two stitches together as one pair. Knit the next pair together, then pass the previous resulting loop over the new one. Continue across all six pairs. Cut both yarns and draw them through the final loop. This creates a visible two-color edge, following the basic paired bind-off described by TKGA. Weave in the tails between the layers. TKGA’s binding-off and finishing guidance.

Once the practice blocks match on both faces, transfer the method to your chosen motif: assign both colors explicitly, check orientation before knitting, and sample the longest internal strand. Those three decisions turn the same-color pair into a usable design method.

• How To Knit: Colorwork in Double Knitting — Brooklyn Tweed
• “Double Knitting,” Jennifer Kent, Stitch Anatomy, Spring 2024 — The Knitting Guild Association
• “2012” Two-Sided Chart for Double-Knitting — Shannon Paugh
• Reversible legible words in double knitting: Uncoupling stitches via the “Ping Pong” technique — TECHknitting
• How to double knit for beginners — Nimble Needles