Advice for new knitters from new knitters

quirky · 02-13-2006, 04:53 PM

New knitters unite! You have spent your hours learning this wonderful craft. Every time you pick up the needles you are learning little bits that make knitting easier. What have YOU learned?

Knitting does not have to be daunting. Hearing comments from other new knitters can make the process easier for anyone just starting out.
Share your tips. Or just tell your story. Just because you arent an expert does not mean you are not "experienced"!

My personal tip:
Fuzzy/ bumpy yarn hides mistakes. Yep its true. Miss a stitch or purl when you should have knitted? Bumpy yarn hides the flaw. No one will ever know.
On the other hand: Fuzzy / bumpy yarn HIDES mistakes! Its really hard to correct mistakes you cant see. Suddenly 3 or 4 rows later that mistake can come back to bite you in the butt. You dropped a stitch back in row 16 but could not see it. Now its row 20 and you notice that your scarf is just a bit narrower than before.

My own advice for new knitters - dont use fluffy, fuzzy, bumpy yarn right away. Because it IS so difficult to see your errors you can knit yourself right into frustration. Smooth yarn makes it possible to see a dropped stitch and to see the difference between knit and purl.
Seeing what you do will allow you to correct your mistakes before they become problems. You want your project to be sucessful right?

ecuzzacrea · 02-13-2006, 06:00 PM

do not attempt your first pair of socks on size 1 DPNs with fingering weight yarn! it takes too long and it's too frustrating IMO.

i did this and left the 1/2 finished sock sitting there.

i picked up some worsted weight yarn and tried the socks on size 2 DPNs - what a breeze!!

momwolf · 02-13-2006, 07:40 PM

I have just figured out my k2 p2 ribbing on (circular ) my 25 or so hats didn't look as good as my flat knitting

I was so busy on circulars that I wasn't practicing on flat,and didn't know how my flat ribbing was suppose to look. So practice different things on swatches to see how things should look before you try a project. Besides that it's not as frustrating doing a small swatch. I found out all I had to do was pull my purl stitch tighter :XX:

Julie