A Stitching Odyssey: Knitting for beginners #s 5 & 6

Firstly, I want  to apologise if this blog is getting too knitting-heavy for some...I realise the irony considering what name I chose! In all honesty though, the lead up to Christmas is always so busy for me and it leaves very little time for sewing - so if I wasn't doing this eight-week knitting course, I think my blogging would be pretty sparse! In any case, as a reassurance to those who were wondering, I have many personal sewing plans for the near future...including some Christmas-gift-sewing along the way!

Anyway, onto business - it appears that in my excitement to share my snood last week, I forgot to post about my actual knitting lessons! Ooops, what a show off!

I think we’ve learned everything that our little beginner brains can handle for now, so for the last two lessons (7 & 8) we will get to work on a project of our choice. I’ve seen a really smart circular scarf thing that I’m itching to start next week, but right now, I’m working on my third snood (the second was identical to the one you’ve already seen). I’m using the same pattern, but this time I’m going for a more dramatic effect with moss stitch. I blame you entirely for this obsession by the way Karen!

I’m pretty pleased with how it’s looking so far! And look at all the delicious yarns that arrived in the post the other day – ordered for a bargain from here

Also, I’ve done a round-up of the skills I’ve learned over the last six weeks, as they might be helpful for any other beginner knitters out there. I’ve linked to tutorials from Knitting Help where possible, because I found this website really helpful! I’m still perplexed as to why there is a continental and an English way of knitting, but just so you know, I’ve linked to the English tutorials because this is the way I’ve been taught.

Basic Skills

Cable Cast On - a good basic way to get any beginner project started.

Basic cast off - again an easy way for beginners to finish off projects.

More advanced patterns which need shaping will require you to decrease:

• I’ve been taught to knit two stitches together through the back at the start of a row and just to knit two stitches together normally at the end of a row.
• The snood pattern I’ve been using asks you to decrease at the start of your row using the slip slip knit method  - which is also easy.

Decreasing looks quite neat!

Similar patterns may also require you to increase:

• I’ve been taught to Bar Increase which works for both the start and end of your rows.

A bit of moss stitch, followed by stockinette increase, followed by stockinette decrease

Types of Stitches

Knit Stitch - there’s a long tutorial and a short tutorial for this.

Purl Stitch – again, there’s a long tutorial and a short tutorial.

Garter Stitch – this stitch is achieved by knitting every row or purling every row and looks like this:

Stocking / Stockinette Stitch – this is achieved by alternating between knitting and purling rows (knit one row, purl the next) and looks like this:

Ribbed Stitch - this is achieved by alternating between knitting two stitches (or however many a pattern asks you to) and purling the same or a different amount (again, the pattern will specify this). A key thing to remember is that when you're knitting stitches you need to bring your yarn to the back of your needle and when you're purling you need to bring the yarn to the front of the needle.

Moss / Seed Stitch - for this stitch you literally just alternate between knit and purl stitches. When you start a new row, you've got to make sure that your stitches are the opposite to the ones directly below. For example if the first stitch of the last row is a purl, you've got to start your new row with a knit stitch. Again, you need to remember to bring your yarn to the back of your needle on a knit stitch and to the front of the needle on a purl stitch.

In case you hadn't realised, I couldn't be enjoying learning knitting more! Like sewing, it's such a brilliantly creative skill to develop, but I also like the un-sewing-like freedom it provides...you can pretty much take it anywhere with you if you just ignore the weird looks! 

Anyway, I hope this helps some people or is at least of a little interest to others!