A bright fresh new year dawns in just a few days’ time, making this the perfect time to challenge yourself with a new technique. If you haven’t tackled it before, why not try knitting in the round?

This technique is essential for seam-free, comfy socks, and so useful for hats and other projects, including Amanda Crawford's cowl neck jumper, featured in Simply Knitting issue 89 - in shops now. It’s not as scary as it looks, we promise. Once you get started you’ll never look back!

We also vote for making 2012 the year you go to a fibre festival or a workshop.

There are masses of events to choose from: just keep an eye on our Out and About section in the magazine and the  Knitting Events section on the website.

Meeting the animals who produce your yarn (from irresistible sleepy-faced alpacas to countless varieties of sheep) as well a the people spinning and dyeing it, not to mention encounters with likeminded knitters all adds up to a golden opportunity to revel in the joys of your craft – and maybe learn something new into the bargain!

“My New Year’s resolution is to buy more buttons,” says Simply Knitting’s Production Editor Miriam McDonald. “I actually made one to buy more brooches in 2011 – never more than £10. I found some vintage bargains, learned lots about brooch styles and have many more accessories to experiment with as a result. Now I've got a big Roses chocolates tin (empty!) and plan to do something similar this year, but with buttons. Any time I go to a vintage fair, or am in an interesting shop, I'm going to have a good look at their button selection and see if there's anything interesting I fancy stashing away. I am planning to knit more cardigans, so it'll be great to have a selection of really nice buttons to hand.”

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