This week (2nd March 2017) the new and exclusive Purl&Jane is called the Frankie Mittens.

Like the Millie Mittens they use dpns (abbreviation for double pointed needles) but instead of the 4.5mm needles you need for the Millie Mittens, the Frankie Mittens use 2.5mm needles and sock weight yarn.

There are a few reasons why I designed the Frankie Fingerless Mittens. The first, as usual, is because knitters have been popping into the Purl&Jane Skipton studio and asked for some and I love to design patterns that knitters want to knit! Also, I have yarn left over from knitting socks, which isn’t enough to do another pair of socks but is enough to make these mittens, and like the Millie Mittens, new knitters, or even experienced knitters, wanted to try out dpns.

I love dpns.

This statement can provoke some very different reactions. What are dpns? I love them too. I’ve never tried them. I don’t like them.

Like everything in knitting, you can knit with whatever you want. I say to peeps, once you start on this knitting journey, anyone you ask (or don’t ask) will have a different way of doing something.

I love this. I love the fact that no matter how long you’ve been knitting there is always something new to learn, another way to cast on, another way that someone knits. And sometimes I try out these techniques, and I find them much better or sometimes I try them and find I prefer the way I’ve done it.

However I understand that as a beginner all this can feel overwhelming, so I always recommend trying out one technique until you understand it and then you can always tweak it to how you prefer to work it….or how someone else has shown you. You might also find that you can share your way with them, which might be better….but you might not know that when you first start.

Many knitters are self taught, myself included, but I’ve also spent nearly 20 years talking to knitters from both sides of the Atlantic and it’s only by doing it and talking to other knitters that you learn more.