Lessons Learned: Double-Pointed Needles

Knitting in the round sounds like such a daunting skill to learn. I remember psyching myself up to do my first pair of socks, but I used a circular needle then. I didn't want any of my stitches falling off the needles!

But eventually, I bought a set of double-pointed needles (DPNs, to the knitting crowd) and braced myself for what I was certain was going to be a disaster. It turns out, after casting on, I was able to figure things out just fine, and cast-on was simple after I learned a few tricks.

I started with an extremely simple, small pattern. I wanted something with no new stitches, tiny enough that I could finish it without using extreme amounts of yarn, time, or patience. Knowing I'd probably mess up and frog the whole thing several times, I didn't want to mourn huge amounts of progress lost every time I had to frog again.

My eventual choice was one of the cacti from Lucille Randall's Quick and Easy Cacti. Simple 1x1 rib stitch seemed easy enough, but the in-the-round construction gave me a chance to try out my new needles!

Here are my tips for working with DPNs:

• The easiest mistake to make is to twist up your cast-on between stitches, leaving you with an odd Mobius strip once you're done. My way around this was to cast all the stitches onto one needle. Then I slipped the stitches onto their various needles, evening them out, but I could easily see if I twisted anything before joining in the round. Another way to do the same thing is to cast onto a circular needle of the same size, then slip onto your DPNs. 
• Tighten your stitches after you switch needles. Don't tighten after the first stitch -- it won't hold by itself. Knit two stitches, then tighten the first and the second. The second stitch will hold the tension of the first in place. If you don't watch your tension at the needle changes, there tends to be an odd gap. Sometimes, depending on needle size, there's a gap no matter what you do, in which case blocking helps to even your tension. 
• Knit stitches and purl stitches don't need to be altered each round to achieve stockinette stitch. In other words, one can knit in the round and have a lovely stockinette without ever switching to purl stitch. Reading the pattern, I was very confused when I reached the second round and it didn't start my ribbing with a purl stitch. I ended up re-casting on when I kept trying to start with a purl, getting confused when I ended up with a seed stitch instead! But it turned out I was just not trusting my pattern enough. 

I did end up changing my cactus toward the end; I wanted a more lengthy top, and by this time I was feeling confident, so I did gradual decreases. Here's my little cactus when I finished stuffing it with yarn scraps.

Cute, round, and palm-sized.

I decided he needed a pot to seem quite right, and grabbed a bottle-cap and some twine. After a little super-glue, I had a perfect pincushion!

Pinny is always ready when I need him.