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bamse n. (bahm-sa) :: teddy bear



This little guy is being "double knit" on circular needles because I only own two sets of straight needles and one of each set is missing. (I have a feeling that at least one of them is upstairs in the girl's rooms with half finished doll blanket hanging off of it.)

I first read about double knitting in Homespun, Handknit and then again in EZ's Knitter's Almanac. I have looked through Beverly Royce's book called Notes on Double Knitting and though it's fascinating, it has always intimidated me.

Double knitting is "circular knitting worked back and forth on two needles." Why? you might ask. Good question. For glove fingers and other small things that are a bit of a pain to knit on double-points. To try something new & novel is my reason. To make Anna Makarovna's secret stockings from Tolstoy's War and Peace - it's a party trick... she knit two stockings, one inside the other, then pulled them apart when she was done.

This pattern for double knit bears is fascinating to work and not difficult, though could definitely be frustrating if you're just learning to knit. What happens in double-knitting, in the case of these bears anyway, is that you knit one stitch and slip the next across the row, thus working one half of a round. On the next row you slip the stitches you just knit and knit the slipped stiches, completing the round. It's necessary that you are able to really "see" which stitches need to be worked and which need to be slipped; otherwise, the space in the middle will be stuck together in bits. Very annoying. But it's incredibly fascinating to watch a teddy bear take shape on 2 needles.