Lou has been rediscovering the fun of knitting by working through Modern Daily Knitting’s excellent learn-to-knit book, Skill Set. If you missed her first post and want to catch up on her journey so far, you can find it here!

The next lesson (#4 for those of you keeping track!) was to learn to knit in the round, which basically means I had to swap the straight needles for circular needles. I only ever saw my granny work with straight needles so knitting with circular needles was definitely a new one to me! The lesson/challenge (depending on how you look at it!) was to make ‘A Thing’, which, in this case, was a hat. My first hat! This lesson called for double pointed needles too – DPNs for short. This seemed like a big technical jump from knitting the little swatches in the previous lessons, but I could not wait to crack on with it.

This involved more knitting than I have done in my whole life, including casting on what seemed like an extraordinary number of stitches. After casting them all on (and forgetting how many after about 12) I learnt the technique of joining to work in the round, which essentially is how to knit a tube (like a hat or a sock). I also found out about the importance of joining without twisting stitches, which means being careful not to twist the stitches on the needles otherwise there’ll be an irreversible twist which you do not want. (Side note: we’ve got a tutorial for that!!) After crossing these technical hurdles, however, it was soothing and satisfying to knit row after row knowing that ‘A Thing’ was growing before my eyes. And the beauty of it is, knitting the knit stitch in the round makes stocking stitch, no purling required – who knew?! 18cm of knitting later the body of the hat was complete.

Now came the excitement that I was nearing the end and needed to follow the rest of the pattern to shape the crown. First of all, I had to switch the knitting from the circular needles to the DPNs. Using the DPNs was quite tricky at first and I merrily started off by knitting the first row on the inside rather than the outside which meant the lovely smooth stocking stitch was being interrupted by a row of bumps! Jen came to my rescue and helped to undo the stitches and set me on the right path again. This part was slower initially, as I had to concentrate hard not to let the stitches fall off the ends of the needles, but soon the decreases were shortening the rows and I was left with nine stitches to pull together to finish the crown. ‘A Thing’ was knitted in Something to Knit with Aran in Lawn, and I’m very pleased with it, and myself!

I’ve also made a start on stripes from Lesson #6! But “hey!”, you say, “what about cables – you’ve missed them out!”. I promise I’ll do that part of lesson 5 as soon as I can get a cable needle! I’m a big fan of stripes so I was excited to be able to create my own and to see how colour is worked into a project, row by row. This technique involves trailing the yarn up the side of the work which makes for a neat finish. This lesson also got me to practice stocking stitch, i.e. knit a row, purl a row, and so on, when knitting flat. Whereas knitting the hat in the round magically creates stocking stich, on a flat piece of knitting you need to remember to switch the stitches each row. I’m looking forward to practicing colourwork on a bigger project – another ‘Thing’ perhaps?? Also I’m going to try out another technique that is new to me: blocking. I wonder what will happen to the Aran Lawn green hat?

Inspired by Lou’s journey, or know someone who might be? You can grab a copy of Skill Set for yourself or your knitting curious friend over in the online shop. It pairs wonderfully with MDK’s newest Field Guide, No. 18: Beginnings, which is filled with achievable projects that will empower beginners and delight the more experienced.