How To Knit With Two Strands Of Yarn Together

In this post, you will learn how to knit with two strands of yarn together.

Sometimes your yarn might be too thin for your project.

In that case, it’s easy to use two strands of yarn knit together to achieve the thickness you want.

By doing this you can add thickness to your project, which can make it warmer.

You can see an example of a cardigan knit with two strands of yarn here.

Adding In More Than One Colour

I often use two strands of yarn together if the yarn is DK (for 4mm / US 6 needles) and I want a chunkier look, I may put two or more together and use bigger knitting needles.

Using more than one strand of yarn is also good if you want to work with more than one coloured yarn at a time.

Combining two yarns of different colours can give your work an interesting look and can make it look more textured.

You can see many examples of this in knitted blankets, dishcloths, sweaters and shawls.

Adding Texture To Your Project

You can also work with two yarns that are of a similar colour but are made from different fibres.

This can give an interesting texture to the work, for example; if you want to work with mohair and wool combined.

I have tried this before and it works really well, especially if you want to add mohair into your work for a little bit of fuzz!

You can see an example of two yarns knit together to give texture in this arm warmer pattern here.

Arm warmers – knit with 1 strand of wool and 1 strand of mohair together

Getting In a Tangle

The problem with working with two yarns together is that they can get really tangled up together because they twist as you knit.

The strands of yarn twist together as you work, which means you have to stop every so often and untangle them. 

One way to solve this problem is to wind the two yarns together before you start.

This is easy enough if you have a yarn swift and ball winder in your arsenal!

Another way to get around this problem is to place each ball into a yarn bowl or Ziploc bag and feed the yarn through a hole.

This will limit the twisting and make it easier for you to knit.

Cardigan – knit with two strands of cotton together

Knitting With Two Strands

When you knit with two strands of yarn together, it is the same as working with only one strand.

Just make sure that you are knitting into both loops and that you do not drop any – as this can cause problems later on.

Each stitch should be worked as if you are knitting into one stitch (even though you have two loops on the needle).

If you do drop a stitch and you try to pick it up later, you will get a long strand of yarn across your project.

You can pick up any dropped stitches in the same way that you normally would, by using a crochet hook.