Skill level: Enthusiastic Beginner or Intermediate Knitter.

Previous Experience: you should be able to cast on, bind off, do knit and purl stitches, and knit in the round. Or you should be really adventurous and a star pupil in Dr. Google’s class. While the pattern doesn’t show you how to do two-handed stranding, the KnitPicks tutorial is good and will get you going: click here!

If you’ve never done stranding before, don’t panic! You can totally do this. Essentially, you are teaching yourself to knit with the opposite hand than the one you usually use. So if you are a thrower (AKA knit “English” style), you’re going to learn to pick. If you’re a picker (AKA knit “Continental” style), you’re going to learn to throw. You can also use those stranding gizmos, but I recommend learning to do stranding two-handed, that way you can pretty easily add a third color using the gizmos.

It will be awkward and slow at first, which is why this little project is a great thing to learn on: it’s small enough to not feel impossibly daunting but enough of a project that you will learn the technique. Just remember that you’re learning a new skill. It will take some time, but you will develop muscle memory for stranding and it will get easier. You can so totally do this!