New Year, New Knitting Skills: What Do You Want to Learn This Year?
Every January, knitters everywhere make the same declaration:
“This is the year I’m finally knitting a sweater.”
Of course, that’s a wonderful goal, and we have many sweater classes for you to explore. And while I love a good sweater as much as anyone, I want to offer you a different way to think about your knitting goals this year. What if this year isn’t about what you knit, but what you learn? Finished projects are wonderful, but skills are what stay with you. When you focus on building skills, every project you touch—big or small—gets better.
Here are a few skill-based goals, along with resources to help you learn more productively (and with less pressure) this year:
Skill-Based Knitting Goals (That Aren’t “Knit a Sweater”)
If “knit a sweater” feels like too much pressure right now, try one of these instead. These are the kinds of goals that build confidence and momentum, even if you don’t have time (or desire) to commit to a massive project right now.
Learning to read your knitting so mistakes don’t derail you.
- Class suggestion: How to Read Your Knit Stitches & Master the Pattern
Stop ripping back and start fixing mistakes with confidence!
- Class suggestion: Knitting ER: How to Fix Your Mistakes
Knit and purl backwards so you don’t have to turn your work.
- Class suggestion: Stop Turning: Knitting & Purling Backwards
Learn how sweaters really fit, understand ease, and build confidence in your projects.
- Class suggestion: Easy Does It: Unraveling The Mystery of Ease and Sweater Construction
Tackling techniques you’ve always avoided—hello, brioche!
- Class suggestion: Intro to Brioche Knitting class
A Year of Skill Building with Patty Lyons’ Knitting Bag of Tricks Workbook
One of the reasons I created Patty Lyons’ Knitting Bag of Tricks: The Official Workbook was to help knitters focus on learning, not perfection. This hands-on workbook brings my classroom into your home with:
- Guided swatching exercises
- Step-by-step technique practice
- Space for notes, samples, and reflection
- A focus on understanding the why behind knitting techniques
If you’re a visual planner, I also have the Official Workbook: Project Planner Poster: a simple, low-pressure way to map out a year of skill building. After all the exercises (and the experimenting, and the knitting with friends, or just you and your needles), you can use this 16 1/2″(42cm) x 23 1/2″ (60 cm) project planning poster to kick off your 12 months of 12 skill-building projects!
The poster designed to help you:
- Choose one skill-focused project per month
- See your progress at a glance
- Stay motivated without overcommitting
To make getting started a little easier, I’m offering a couple of New Year skill-building discounts (valid through the end of Feb):
- 15% off the Official Workbook (Use coupon code NewYearWorkbook26 at checkout)
- 50% off the Skill-Building Project Planner Poster (Use coupon NewYearPoster26 at checkout)
Try techniques at your own pace, and remember—you don’t need a massive project to grow as a knitter. With the workbook, the project planner poster, and classes like Easy Does It, you have everything you need to make this year all about skill, confidence, and fun.
Here’s to a year of smarter, more joyful knitting—one skill at a time!
Dear Patty: I am tackling two color garter stitch intarsia in the round. Is there a course or technique you have already published for me to get tips? There is one particular issue I cannot seem to find the answer to – how to do an intarsia join when the working yarn and a waiting yarn are both on the right side of your knitting? In this case you are knitting past the “waiting yarn” then stopping with the working yarn, slipping stitches from RHN to LHN back to the waiting yarn which then becomes the working yarn (if that makes sense). Doing nothing (i.e., knitting on past that waiting yarn with no yarn join/cross) leaves a gap. Crossing it either way and pulling it snug makes a weird spot at the join – not exactly a gap but not a smooth continuation of the garter stitch).
Thanks in advance,
Malinda Conger
Oak Ridge, TN
That’s the same technique as used in Helix. Sounds like just need to practice your tension.
Thank you!