Blasted DPN - ing

#1

I tried searching for an answer, but to no avail.

In Amy’s lovely vidoe for knitting with DPNs the needles vanish off screen at the crucial moment and come back perfectly formed. When I try to start on my own (I don’t have sound so I rely entirely on the images!) the needles seem to invert themselves.

Would it be possible to have (or be pointed in the direction of) written instructions for the early stages of dpn knitting?

I get slipping stitches purlwise between 3 needles, but then what!? I’ve tried so many times it’s making me sad…

:frog: :wall:

#2

I use DPN’s a lot but I’m not sure I understand the question. Do you have trouble getting started or are you having trouble once you start knitting in the round?

#3

I watched the video and I think I see what you mean about the needles disappearing.

OK, well here is the trick with DPN’s. I’ll try to describe it, although I’m far from an expert!!

You have 3 needles with stitches. You will hold the needles in a triangle, more or less. The needle that has the tail coming off of it will be on the right side. The needle that has the very first cast-on stitch will be on the left side of the triangle. The middle needle will be on the bottom of course.

OK, now forget about maintaining any sort of triangle while you knit the first row, things will be flopping everywhere! You’ll hold the left side of the triangle (the needle with the first cast-on stitch) in your left hand.

Assuming you hold the yarn tail with your left hand normally, go ahead and wrap it around your left hand however you normally would (don’t worry too much about what the needle it’s attached to is doing, it will flop around).

So, in your left hand you should have the yarn and one dpn needle, and they will not be attached to each other in any way.

In your right hand, you want to hold the empty needle.

Insert the empty needle into the first stitch… wrap that floppy yarn tail around it, knit your first stitch and slide it off.

You’ll have stitches on 4 needles now, temporarily. Finish working stitches off of the first needle until there are none left.

At this point, you have stitches on 3 needles again, and the round should be joined, so it should more or less hold its shape.

You can now rotate the triangle and do the same thing with the 2nd needle… insert the empty needle into the first stitch, wrap the tail (which is attached to another needle entirely) around the needle and pull it through.

I hope this helps! The confusing part for me was that the working yarn is coming from the right-hand needle, but you won’t knit onto that needle, you’ll just use the yarn for your stitch.

#4

I am not really sure I understood your question either but the word “inverted” caught my eye.
I am wondering if you ment that your cast on stiches get turned around before you make your join?
If so there is an easy fix.
After you have cast on your stiches and slid them off to your needles lay your needles out in a rough triangle (or square if you are using 5 dpns)
on a table. You should be able to see which needle is twisted. You can then rotate the needle around to the correct position to untwist the yarn between the needles. Also, just before I make my first joining stitch I stretch the cast on stitches out a bit (evenly) over the needles. This brings the cast on stiches closer together needle to needle and holds the triangle (or square) somewhat steady while I make my first round. Oh yeah, the needles flop but not quite so badly as leaving the cast on stiches on the needles compact.
I hope this is clear and makes sense!

#5

My trick for working with dpns is to cast on the stitches with a straight needle and one additional stitch. I then knit the first row on to the dpns. When I get to the end of the first row, I use the last stitch on the straight needle and slip it on to the end of the first dpn. Making sure my work isn’t twisted, I then knit the slipped stitch and the first stitch together as the first stitch of the second row. This makes for a relatively neat join, since any remaining holes can be sewn up later with the yarn tail. I like to knit at least one row straight before joining because having the cast on {I use long tail, so that’s the same as a row} and first row knitted gives a little more “body” to the stitches and it’s easier to tell if they are twisted or not.

#6

These are all awesome tips thank you. Between you, you’ve solved all the problmes I had. I still find it really tricky, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
My problem was that I couldn’t even get the round to join properly, and the stitches would twist the minute I tried to arrange the needles into a “triangle”.

I’m considering that using 2 circs might make me feel a little more in control - but i thought that DPN-ing would be easy. I was wrong.
Ho-hum
Thanks for ROCKING.

#7

I haven’t tried magic loop or the 2 circs method yet. I taught myself how to use the dpns {and probably taught my kids a few choice curse words in the process too}, and now have very little problems with them. I have picked up tips here and there, and have adapted them to my own use with the result that I no longer fear the dpn!

#8

I agree with the notion that dpn’s are “blasted”. I tried them for the first time last night to do some circular knitting, and the thing ended up with a hole in the top, bottom, AND the side… I’m sure I will get better at it, but it still felt like I was trying to knit with three slippery snakes. :wall:

Anyway, my question is, how do you cast off when knitting a circular piece with three DPNs?

#9

You start casting off as normal on the first needle. When there’s one stitch left, transfer it to the next needle and then start casting off on that one. At this point you’ll only have two needles with stitches on them. Do this again when there’s only one stitch left on the second needle and all your stitches will be on the last needle. Then continue casting off until the end.

#10

What would I do without this board?? Thanks, Ingrid!