How often life just gets in the way of all my plans - I had meant to come and post on here with a follow up to my previous post within days of writing the last one. Luckily for me i have been up to my eyes in orders and been very busy too with the new website. Its becoming apparent to me that i just can't do all the things i want to, no matter how hard i try, so this post will share links to several other sources of really good information. There are hundreds of blogs with tutorials to choose from but here are some of my favourites:
For casting on and starting to knit for the first time I would highly recommend having a look at Heidi Bears Tutorial. She explains the process so well and has extremely clear photos to follow. She also uses the thumb cast on method that i would use myself. For me to write a tutorial on this topic would be silly when such a brilliant resource already exists.
Once you have managed to cast on and start knitting i would highly recommend you simply keep going - you will probably find your stitches to be all sorts of shapes and sizes and this is quite normal when starting off. You will need to simply practice. If you find your stitches are hard to get off the needle and even if they start squeaking at you your knitting is too tight - try to not pull the wool so tight when going around the needle and give the stitches a little wiggle now and then to loosen them off a bit. If you continue to find your knitting to be tight you can try moving up to a larger sized needle. If you find the stitches are loopy and falling off the needle then your knitting is too loose - you need to try and tighten them up a bit more by pulling the wool a bit tighter when going round the needle. You can also try going down a needle size to a smaller one. Just so you know when reading a book or pattern on the topic - the tightness or looseness of stitches in knitting is called tension.
Once you get your knitting to look quite regular in appearance you are well on your way to making your first item. My first one was a blanket made of squares. I imagine there are hundreds if not thousands of these blankets out there, and this is certainly no coincidence. Knitting squares is probably the best practice you can have when starting out........
To knit squares i would suggest casting on about 20 or 25 stitches, and if your knitting is nice and regular you will probably need to knit about 20 or 25 rows to make a square. Its not always exact but should be roughly the same number of stitches and rows.
To knit a square you will also need to be able to finish off the square properly, and so you need to know how to cast off your stitches. As you already know how to knit though this is very easy :)
To cast off you simply knit the first two stitches as usual then, taking the tip of the left needle insert this through the loop of the first stitch you knitted (the one closest to your right hand on the needle) and carefully lift it up and over the other stitch and right off the needle (see video below for demo). You need to be careful the other stitch stays on there! One you have done this you now knit another stitch as usual so you have two stitches again on your right needle. Again take the tip of your left needle and lift the stitch closest to your right hand up and over the stitch and off the needle. Keep following this pattern of taking a stitch off until you get to the point when you only have one stitch left. You now cut the knitting away from the ball leaving about 6 inches of a tail on your knitting side. Gently pull the last stitch to make it bigger but keep it on the needle, and pass the long tail through the stitch. Remove the needle and pull the tail to make it tighten the stitch right down to the knitting edge. Congratulations you have now finished casting off! :)
I hope you have found this useful - next time i will cover how to do a purl stitch! Hope you get plenty of squares done!
For casting on and starting to knit for the first time I would highly recommend having a look at Heidi Bears Tutorial. She explains the process so well and has extremely clear photos to follow. She also uses the thumb cast on method that i would use myself. For me to write a tutorial on this topic would be silly when such a brilliant resource already exists.
Once you have managed to cast on and start knitting i would highly recommend you simply keep going - you will probably find your stitches to be all sorts of shapes and sizes and this is quite normal when starting off. You will need to simply practice. If you find your stitches are hard to get off the needle and even if they start squeaking at you your knitting is too tight - try to not pull the wool so tight when going around the needle and give the stitches a little wiggle now and then to loosen them off a bit. If you continue to find your knitting to be tight you can try moving up to a larger sized needle. If you find the stitches are loopy and falling off the needle then your knitting is too loose - you need to try and tighten them up a bit more by pulling the wool a bit tighter when going round the needle. You can also try going down a needle size to a smaller one. Just so you know when reading a book or pattern on the topic - the tightness or looseness of stitches in knitting is called tension.
Once you get your knitting to look quite regular in appearance you are well on your way to making your first item. My first one was a blanket made of squares. I imagine there are hundreds if not thousands of these blankets out there, and this is certainly no coincidence. Knitting squares is probably the best practice you can have when starting out........
To knit squares i would suggest casting on about 20 or 25 stitches, and if your knitting is nice and regular you will probably need to knit about 20 or 25 rows to make a square. Its not always exact but should be roughly the same number of stitches and rows.
To knit a square you will also need to be able to finish off the square properly, and so you need to know how to cast off your stitches. As you already know how to knit though this is very easy :)
To cast off you simply knit the first two stitches as usual then, taking the tip of the left needle insert this through the loop of the first stitch you knitted (the one closest to your right hand on the needle) and carefully lift it up and over the other stitch and right off the needle (see video below for demo). You need to be careful the other stitch stays on there! One you have done this you now knit another stitch as usual so you have two stitches again on your right needle. Again take the tip of your left needle and lift the stitch closest to your right hand up and over the stitch and off the needle. Keep following this pattern of taking a stitch off until you get to the point when you only have one stitch left. You now cut the knitting away from the ball leaving about 6 inches of a tail on your knitting side. Gently pull the last stitch to make it bigger but keep it on the needle, and pass the long tail through the stitch. Remove the needle and pull the tail to make it tighten the stitch right down to the knitting edge. Congratulations you have now finished casting off! :)
I hope you have found this useful - next time i will cover how to do a purl stitch! Hope you get plenty of squares done!
