Get Started and Learn to Knit

• Casting-on
• The Knit Stitch
• The Purl Stitch
• Increases
• Decreases
• Casting Off / Binding Off
• Knitting Tips
• Advanced Knitting Techniques
• Knitting Terms & Abbreviations (Glossary)
  

To watch a video, click on the blue and pink video icons that appear within the description of the technique.

Why do we have two video types?

Pink video icons demonstrate methods in the Continental knitting style. Blue video icons show methods in the English style. These two common methods create the same exact end product, but appear quite different, so our basic videos are demonstrated in both methods. A third video icon shows both pink and blue, and is meant to be viewed by both types of knitters.

Which kind of knitter are you?  The most obvious difference between the methods is that the yarn is held in the left hand for Continental and the right hand for English. To learn more about the two methods, and other methods, see the description of them on the Knit and Purl pages, and try them out for yourself.

Some videos don't have sound?

That's right, it's not your computer. Our shortest videos were shot intentionally without sound, to be simply followed by watching.

More Knitting  Basics (no videos on these)  

• A word about yarn tension...Different weather conditions, different yarns, sweaty or dry hands, all affect how easily the yarn slides through your fingers, and may require adjustment of how you hold the yarn.  If you find the yarn sliding through your fingers too easily, and the yarn is becoming too loose in the fingers to control, try an additional wrap of the yarn around your pinkie.  If it slides reluctantly, this will make your knitting tight and those stitches will be hard to work the next row: try eliminating any wraps around your pinkie. Instead weave the yarn in and out of a few fingers, which will give control with less resistance.   

• If you make a scarf in stockinette stitch (alternating a knit row with a purl row), the side edges will curl in.  You will have a rolled-up tube of a scarf!  Use garter stitch instead (all knit stitches, back and forth for every row), or some pattern of alternating knit and purl stitches across the row, to get a flat scarf that doesn't curl in. If you've already started a scarf in stockinette, you can back it with fleece to keep it from rolling, or you can turn it into a bag (fold it in half, and sew up the sides) or other object. Felting will also eliminate rolling, although be aware that it changes the knitting dramatically.

• Felting can be fun, and also a great thing to do with first projects. Felting works for 100% wool or alpaca yarn, unless they say "superwash".  Superwashed yarns have been treated so they won't felt.  Also, the white and pale colors can sometimes resist felting, due to the bleaching process they've been through.  Berkshire yarn from yarn.com, or Wool of the Andes from Knitpicks.com both felt very well, in any color, even their whites. These yarns usually use around a size 8 needle, but if you know you'll be felting, you can use a size 10 1/2 needle. Then your project will knit much faster, and when it shrinks it won't be depressing.  Felting does shrinks the garment.  Note: The knitting shrinks more height-wise than width-wise.
• How to felt?  Put your item in a zippered pillow case to keep outside lint from adhering to your project, then throw it in a top-loading washing machine with your laundry.  You might need to put it into several loads of laundry. The key to the felting is agitation.   Any water temperature will work: drastic temperature changes will help, but aren't necessary.  You can do this with or without laundry soap. It may take several runs of the wash.  Use a heavy-duty cycle to get a lot of agitation.  If you don't want to wear out your regular laundry with too much agitation (smart), you can just put a couple of old towels, or pairs of jeans, and continually agitate that load until your item is felted.   If you have a washer with a dial, just interrupt and re-position the dial to begin agitation again.  Keep checking your item. It may only take 5 minutes of agitation, or it may take half an hour.  When felted thoroughly, your stitches will become obscured and blurred (knit and purl stitch become hard to distinguish), and the knitting will shrink.   

• If you're in love with a thin yarn, and determined to make something big with it, you can always double up the yarn, so it's two-strands thick, and then use bigger needles, for a faster project. Or just use big needles, for a lacy effect.  

• For projects where the size and fit of the object has to be precise, wait until you've had some practice knitting and purling. It can take some time before your knitting has a regular, reliable tension. When it does, you can then knit a little sample swatch, and measure your gauge (how many stitches wide, per inch, you knit --with the yarn and needles you are using). Gauge is crucial for patterns like hats, sweaters, socks, and other fitted items! There's a nice little article on About.com (click here), on how and why to knit a gauge swatch.

Intermediate Projects

Once you're comfortable with knitting and purling, and have done enough knitting to have a fairly consistent tension, don't be afraid to try an Intermediate project! These projects might employ a couple of decreases and increases, and will require you to work to a specific gauge. And fun textures that are made with alternating knit and purl stitches. Go find a pattern for something you're interested in, and go for it! If you get lost in reading the pattern, you can look up the abbreviations on the Abbreviations Explained page. ...If you're still lost, post to the forum!

More beginner tips on this page.

Happy Knitting!

~Amy & Sheldon