I was knitting with 3 DPNs the peak of the hat I’m working on (I [I]was[/I] going to use 4 needles, but a friend lost one of them:sad:), and when I got to round 6, I noticed how awful the edges between the needles looked (I believe they’re called “ladders”?). They were about an inch apart. After suffering for a while, I decided to rip off the knitting I had done with the 3 needles and wait for my friend to get me a new set of 5.0mm DPNs (I’d get one myself, but it turns out NO ONE sells them here, so I have to wait for a relative of my friend to arrive to my city).
How do I tighten the strands between the needles? And does using 3 DPNs give the same result as using 4?
Are you saying that you are working in the round with 3 dpns holding your stitches (and knit with a 4th) but had wanted to use 4 to hold the stitches (and knit with a 5th)? Or are you trying to knit with only 2 needles holding your stitches and are knitting with a 3rd needle? If you are trying to do the latter I can see where you would have problems. It is hard to do a circle with only 2 holding needles. But if you mean 3 holding needles, that is common and should not be a problem as long as the needles are long enough to comfortably hold your stitches without them wanting to fall off. Three or four holding needles should both give a good result if the stitches fit on the needles comfortably.
When I work with dpns I try to pull the needle I’m starting the next stitches on up close to the needle I’m leaving behind with the first stitch. I usually make that first stitch and the next one quite tightly and that takes care of ladders pretty well. If you don’t have at least 3 needles holding the stitches you put a lot of stress on the change places and it would be hard to avoid ladders.
I’m wondering the same thing. It would leave those huge ladders if you only have the work on two needles. If you are using a total of 4 and the stitches are on 3 needles that is normal. That’s the way I usually do it. Make sure the first stitch on each needle is a knit stitch and when you do that stitch pull the two needles close together and then knit it. I kind of hold them together with my fingers while am knitting at least the first several stitches.
I thought that it was pretty logical to use 3 DPNs (2 holding the stitches, 1 for knitting). I guess I was pretty wrong XD. I’ll just wait for my friend’s uncle to arrive then.
That method works if you just have a few sts, like to cast on a round blanket or top of a hat, but more than 15 sts or so, can stress the sts at the ends of the needles so they stretch out. Do you have a set that’s just up or down a size? Using just one needle of a different size shouldn’t matter for a hat. Or if you have a circ the same size, you can use that instead of the missing needle.