Two Points are Better than One

Feel like being hard on yourself? Then skip that whole in-the-round hoopla and give knitting on double-pointed needles a shot. Okay, okay, some people really love these things, but they’re definitely not something you want to attempt when you’re just getting started in knitting. Many people used to use double-pointed needles for round things like socks and hats, but now you can find circular needles small enough to handle both. It’s really a matter of style. If you find circular needles difficult or awkward to use, you may want to give double-pointed needles a shot. You’re going to need to have at least one in your knitting toolbox anyway – these bad boys are what you’ll use to close the top of a circular piece.

Cast onto one of your double-pointed needles. Don’t go too crazy and cast 200 for this example, you want to cast just enough to give you a good trial, not so many that you go insane before you really get started. Shoot for something like 90. You’re going to use either four or five needles during projects, so let’s stick with four for this example. This means that three needles will carry stitches and the fourth will be empty. To figure out how many stitches will be on each needle, just divide the number you cast by the number of active needles. In this case, you’ll have 30 stitches on each needle (90 cast stitches, 3 active needles).

Slide 30 stitches each onto your other two needles – you can do this easily by placing one in front of and one behind your original casting needle – and arrange all three into a triangle. The corner in which the two needles that aren’t linked by the stitches are located is the top of the triangle. Once again, the yarn that’s on the skein should be coming from the right top needle.

Now, closely check your triangle and the stitches on the needles. Are they all facing inward? Are any of them twisted? They should all be facing the center of the triangle and be nice and straight, otherwise you’ll end up with a funky twisty thing when you’re finished. Okay, rip it all off and start again! Hey, quit the groaning. Practice makes perfect, you know. Just try it one more time so you have the hang of it before you get started.

Once you’ve practiced casting enough, go ahead and use your empty needle to knit the first stitch from your left top needle. Pull it a little bit tighter than you normally would since this is the stitch that’ll join the knitting round into a circle. Keep going down that left needle and soon enough that’ll be the empty one and your first spare needle will be chock-full of stitches. The empty one goes in your right hand and you keep going around the circle. Voila! Instant roundness. Well, maybe not instant, but it’s still pretty cool. Just remember to make each of those first stitches on the spare needles a little bit tighter so your tube doesn’t unravel.


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