How’d the first part of your bears go? This week, we’re moving on to the yoke and arms. If you’re observant, you’ll see that the yoke area is reminiscent of a sweater, so it makes for good top-down sweater practice.

You’ll be using a lot of the same techniques as last week, so you may want to hop back and review the videos. This week, you’ll also be dividing for the arms.

This can get a little cumbersome with all of the dpns hanging off. I found that transferring some of the stitches to waste yarn was super helpful. It makes it easier to handle without getting poked, or the other needles getting in the way. You don’t have to replace them all, just one or two, and they’re super easy to slide back on. You’ll notice, I still have two dpns in the body section. The rest of the stitches are on waste yarn.

What has been the trickiest part of the bear so far for you?

Although my poor grandmother tried to teach me to knit when I was nine years old, I had absolutely no patience for fine motor skills at that point, and was much happier playing with her jewelry. I didn’t learn to knit until I was an adult, and I learned very traditionally: straight needles, follow a pattern, make a bottom-up sweater with set-in sleeves and a crew neck. When I started working at Webs shortly after I had gained some mastery of the craft, I was astounded at the variety of designs, techniques, and yarns I encountered. It was overwhelming, but I wanted to try it all. The one thing I stuck to was knitting any sort of tube with double-pointed needles. I honestly tried to use Magic Loop, two circulars, anything but DPNs. However, I don’t love knitting socks ( I have made exactly three socks) and I loved the way my DPNs made hats, baby booties, and sleeves on sweaters look. I’m always on the lookout for really great needles, and I think I have found my DPN mecca: Knitters Pride Karbonz. I recently knit baby sweaters for twins to be born in September, and the pattern was a beautifully easy top-down raglan with the sleeves picked up and knit on DPNs. I did one sweater with my old faithful Dreamz needles, but picked up a set of the Karbonz to try on sweater #2.

Reader, it was heaven.

All kinds’a’Karbonz at Webs!

The Karbonz shaft gripped the yarn just right–it slid easily but didn’t slide off. The tips are sharp and glide-y but they didn’t split the yarn, and there was no discernable bump or glitch at the place where the tip met the body of the needle. Best of all, they look super-badass. Shiny silver tip attached to a matte black needle made me feel a little naughty, even though the project they were attached to was the most adorable peach and lime green baby kimono. Karbonz are available in circulars as well, and we’ve just added interchangeable sets, too. They are well worth the slightly higher price point, and will last until your granddaughters refuse to learn to knit with them.

Kristin from our Customer Service team shared a simple, yet very useful tip with us!

When working on a sock or any knitting project on double pointed needles, there is always an extra needle leftover at the end of a row.

To keep this extra needle in place, and to keep the stitches from falling off the needles, try using your yarn to secure both ends of the needles.

1: Fold your project so the needles lay flat.

2: Then, lay your extra needle alongside the others.

3: Wrap your yarn around both ends of your double points.

This little trick will keep your extra needle together with the rest of your project, and secure it!