34 hard 34 yarn or filament as used herein are well known in the art examples of suitable 34 elastic 34 yarns including shirring elastic and various elastane fibers particularly those sold under the tradename lycra a 34 hard 34 yarn is a non contractible yarn and there is a wide range of such yarns that can be used in this invention both natural and synthetic the 34 hard 34 yarn s or filament s used will be selected primarily for the visual appearance and feel of the final fabric suitable natural spun yarns are cotton linen wool cashmere alpaca silk mohair and blends of any of them suitable synthetic spun yarns include polyester polyamide and viscose the synthetic yarns can also be blended with natural yarns such as cotton polyester or wool polyester a filament is typically a continuous filament yarn of a synthetic polymer such as a polyester or a polyamide the double knit fabric of the present invention can be knitted on any of the conventional circular knitting machines used for double knits these machines and constructions are well known to those skilled in the art as shown in the drawing in the first third and fifth courses an elastic yarn 1 is fed independently to the cylinder only of a circular knitting machine the yarn is fed under tension with a hard yarn 2 and plaited with it in the second fourth and sixth courses a second elastic yarn 3 is fed under tension to the dial only of.