A Beginner s Guide to Knitting! Woo! 1 Other great crafting resources: Brought to you by: Craft and Tea Society Most diagrams and instructions from http://www.learn2knit.co.uk/ ravelry.com - online crafting community; GREAT resource for finding patterns, looking at pretty yarn, and asking questions! youtube - there are videos out there for pretty much every stitch knitpicks.com - order pretty yarn and nice needles online from here michael s and ac moore for cheap yarn and supplies and of course your weekly CATS meetings! What you need to get started: approx size 8 or 9 knitting needles simple worsted weight yarn (nothing too fancy, thick, or thin!) patience
1. Make a slip knot 2 2. Hold the needles correctly Right hand: (like a pencil) Left hand: (use the thumb and index finger to control the tip) 3. Cast on the stitches (to create the first row of stitches) 1. Make a slip knot and place it on the left needle. 2. Insert the right hand needle through the slipknot and pass the yarn over the right needle. 3. Pull a loop through. 4. Place this loop on the left hand needle. Repeat until the required number of stitches are cast on.
4. Knit stitch (k) 3 1. With the yarn at the back of the work, insert the right hand needle from left to right through the front of the first stitch on the left hand needle. 2. Wind the yarn over the right hand needle. 3. Pull through a loop. 4. Slip the original stitch off the left hand needle. Repeat until all the stitches have been transferred from the left to the right hand needle. 5. Purl stitch (p) 1. With the yarn at the front of the work, insert the right hand needle from right to left through the front of the first stitch on the left hand needle. 2. Wind the yarn round the right hand needle. 3. Draw a loop through to the back. 4. Slip the original stitch off the left hand needle. Repeat until all the stitches have been transferred from the left to the right hand needle.
6. Combining knitting and purling 4 GARTER STITCH: Formed by working every row as a knit row, the first row usually being the right side. This is the simplest stitch. Both sides of the work will look the same. STOCKINETTE STITCH: Made up of one row of knit stitches followed by one row of purl stitches, starting with a knit row, which is the right side of the work. The wrong side of the work will look very similar to the garter stitch. This is the most common stitch (if you look closely, your t-shirt is probably made from stockinette stitch). RIB STITCH: The two most usual types are 1x1 rib, which is formed by alternating 1 knit stitch and 1 purl stitch (Fig.41) and 2x2 rib which is formed by alternating 2 knit stitches and 2 purl stitches (Fig.42). Care must be taken to purl the stitches which were knitted on the previous row and vice versa. This is often used for edgings (i.e. the cuff on a sleeve) and is slightly elastic.
7. Casting off (to end your project!) 5 Always cast off in pattern, i.e. when working on stocking stitch cast off knitwise on a knit row and purlwise on a purl row and when casting off ribbing, do so as if you were continuing to rib. Most pattern stitches can be followed when casting off. Casting off knitwise Knit the first two stitches. * Using the left hand needle, lift the first stitch over the second and drop it off the needle. Knit the next stitch and repeat from *. Casting off purlwise Purl the first two stitches. *Using the left hand needle, lift the first stitch over the second and drop it off the needle. Purl the next stitch and repeat from *. 8. Oops you made a mistake! Maybe you dropped the stitch? This is when a stitch falls off your needle and into oblivion act fast or your whole project could unravel. If a stitch drops off the needle, the first thing to do is to prevent it from running further by securing it with a safety pin. It is usually quite easy to pick up a dropped stitch, even if it has slipped through to the row below. Simply pick up the stitch and the strand above it on the right hand needle. Insert the left hand needle through the stitch and pull the strand through the stitch using the right hand needle to form the stitch once more in its correct place. However, if a stitch drops unnoticed it could easily form a ladder running down several rows. In this case the stitch must be reformed all the way up the ladder, using a crochet hook. Always work from the front.
edited slightly, source: http://www.knitonthenet.com/issue4/patterns/plainandsimple/ 6 Plain and Simple Scarf Materials 1-2 balls of yarn in your Main Color (M) 1 ball of yarn in your Contrast Color (C) 1 pair US #8 needles Pattern Cast on 24 sts using 6.5mm (US #10.5) needles and yarn C. Work 26 rows in garter stitch (every row knit) Change to yarn M and continue in garter stitch until you have used all of yarn M. Change to yarn C and work 26 rows in garter stitch. Cast off. Finishing Up Darn in all ends. Make tassles by cutting 54 pieces of yarn C approx 14 cm (5.5 inches) long. Group into threes. Fold a group of three in half, creating a loop, and using a crochet hook draw the loop through the first cast on stitch of your scarf, pull the six ends through the loop and pull to tighten. Repeat this process until you have attached 9 tassles to each end of the scarf. Trim ends of tassles.