Forgotten Projects

Spring is coming.

At least that’s what my girlfriend keeps saying. I think she might be ahead of herself, willing the weather into some semblance of warmth when in fact the ground outside is blanketed with white. It snowed a few days ago, recent enough that the dog walks are pleasant and not too slippery.

When she was tidying the spare room I began organising my yarn stash. Some of it I had to let go but I’m still left with plenty. There was, deep in that stash, a bag I’d forgotten.

It must have come from England with me but moving to Canada is a blur now. It feels as though I’ve always been here. Looking back, this is the bag I shoved in my suitcase because it was full of half-finished projects and I didn’t want to send that through the mail.

Inside that bag I found this.

This is a half-finished shawlette made from some Handmaiden Sea Silk. I bought this two years ago at Martina’s and it has been languishing ever since. I’ve tried to knit a few things with it but nothing has worked yet.

The colours are sublime but that’s nothing compared to the texture. It’s smooth and cool and light. It’s squishable but slinky. I love it.

Yet… I don’t think this project is right for it. I think I might be ripping it back to try something new once more. Thankfully it seems to be holding up quite well to the abuse, though I won’t rip it back until I find something that it wants to be.

Sometimes yarns don’t listen to you when you tell it what project it should be. I get this a lot, actually. Sometimes I’ll buy a yarn with a project in mind and the yarn will flat out refuse to cooperate. It’s fortunate I don’t have a problem with frogging projects (I’m a process knitter) because otherwise I would be in a constant stream of tears.

This sea silk needs to be something beautiful but more importantly it needs to be something I can use a lot and admire. I’m not the sort of person to put things away to gaze at with distant adoration. I knit to use my knitted goods.

If only I could figure out what this sea silk wants to be.

How to Knit in the Round

When I started knitting I didn’t really get it. Same with crochet. With both of these crafts it finally clicked when I started in the round. It seems to flow much easier and I seem to find it less awkward to keep track of where I am in a pattern. I’m sure there are a lot of people who would much rather knit straight but given the choice, I’ll usually pick something knitted in the round.

There are a few methods of doing this, which I’ll lay out here. I am not comfortable enough with some of the methods to be able to instruct from scratch, so I’ll provide you with the links and resources to learn as quickly as I did.

Double Pointed Needles

These are needles that do not have the stopper at one end. They’re pointed on both sides – hence the name – and they’re usually quite a bit shorter than regular straight needles. They’re used a lot in knitting socks.

This is my preferred method for knitting socks and mittens/gloves. It looks a bit fiddly but once you realise you’re only ever knitting on two of the needles, it becomes much easier. The only problem is trying to avoid the obvious line through the bits where the needles switch, something I haven’t quite got the hang of yet. I learned through YouTube videos such as this one, though if you search for ‘knitting on double pointed needles’ a lot of tips and tutorials come up.

The most important thing with knitting on DPNs is that you don’t get the first stitches twisted. If you do, your sock is going to look more than a little strange and will be rather unwearable!

Circular Needles

These are needles specifically designed for knitting in the round; they’re generally used for larger projects than socks etc. They’re two straight needles attached to a flexible cord which comes in a variety of lengths.

I recently used a 16″ circular to knit my mum a hat, shown in the previous post. I also used the same needle to knit myself a headband using an offcentre rib stitch which I’m sure has a name but I have no idea what that would be! It was entirely improvised. Knitting on circulars is quite useful because you can slip the project down onto the cord when transporting. I’ve never had anything fall of circular needles, unlike DPNs; I have also used circular needles to knit straight just for the portability factor.

Have a look at this tutorial or this video. It’s quite a simple process, possibly the simplest of methods knitting in the round. All you need to bear in mind is picking the right size!

Magic Loop Knitting

This is the newest method for me. It’s where you use one long-cabled circular needle and knit small projects in the round – for example, I’m using this to knit mittens. You split the stitches down the middle with the cable. It’s very clever. I understand a lot of people prefer this to knitting with DPNs.

I only tried it a couple of days ago and for some reason I’d expected it to be a lot more difficult. It wasn’t – it was easy peasy! Me and a friend were watching TV so I didn’t want to watch a video on youtube which is my usual method of learning a tricky new skill in knitting. Turns out I didn’t need to: this tutorial from KnitPicks was more than enough.

It may look complicated and confusing but I promise it’s not. I’m not sure I’m completely sold on it; I still prefer knitting on DPNs but that’s a personal preference. The best thing about knitting is that there are so many ways to achieve the same or similar effects and it’s fun to try each of them out when you’re learning to know your own preferences.

So how do you do it?