Learning to Knit

silvergirl

One of the easiest ways to start knitting is to find someone willing to take time to show you. Once someone has shown you how to cast on, cast off and do simple plain (garter) stitch, you could knit yourself a simple sweater using square pieces of knitting. Hopefully I can explain in words!

The sweater is not very sophisticated, a bit like a loose fitting sloppy joe, slash necked with large kimono-like sleeves. But you can knit it fairly quickly without bothering about shaping. You need to know your tension over garter stitch, so do a 20 stitch by 20 row square to check how many stitches it takes to knit an inch, vertically and horizontally. There was a great old book, Creative Knitting by Sherry Wilson, now out of print, but second hand copies are available cheaply on Amazon. It may be old hat and not very funky, but it gives you what you need to know for basic knitting. Once you know those basics, you can let yor creative juices flow!

Here's the idea for the squares sweater. Get about 600grams of double knitting. Wool is preferable, but for a first attempt, don't go into alpaca or cashmere obviously. Needles needed are 3.25mm (10) and 4mm (8).

For a 40 inch width sweater (loose on 36" chest) cast on about 112 stitches with the 10s and knit about 1.5 inches, change to 8s (which are the larger needles) and knit plain without shaping at all for as long as you want from bottom of the garment to the top. Not too long or you'll run out of wool, be realistic, it's a sweater not a tunic. Cast off. Make another square exactly the same. This is the front and back completed.

For the sleeves cast on 110 stitches with 10s. (this may be too wide for your taste, have a look before you go too far, you can always unravel and start again.). Knit plain for 2 inches (sorry to mix Imperial and metric, but I can't be bothered to risk wrong measurements. Change to 8s and knit for about 16 inches, or however long you feel you want the sleeves to be, given the width of the body of the sweater. Cast off. Knit another piece the same. Still with me? Good.

Sew the front and back pieces together at each side of the top edge, remembering that you need to put your head through the hole. Sew the sleeves to the body along the top of the sleeve, you should now have a cross shape with a slash neck in the middle. Sew the sides and the sleeve seams. Wear it. It won't look as great as the next thing you'll knit, but you will have learned how to make a garment, to take care of how you make it, to use measurements and judgement, and you may just have kept your paws out of the choc box, which is how knitting helps me.

Like cooking, the more you practice, the more you will want to take risks and experiment with knitting. I love it, and have made several things which I absolutely love over the past 50-odd years. It's a quiet craft, much underestimated. have fun.

Hardup_Hester

I found hand knitted scarves very popular, I've knit & sell about 50 every year.
I don't make a huge amount of profit, but I knit in the evening whilst watching tv.
Hester

shona_2

Hardup_Hester wrote: »

I found hand knitted scarves very popular, I've knit & sell about 50 every year.
I don't make a huge amount of profit, but I knit in the evening whilst watching tv.
Hester

How do you go about selling them?

thanks

amandada

I knitted loads when I was pregnant and when both my children were young-baby clothes are sooo fast to knit so you really see something taking shape in the space of an evening. i've not done any for a while, but I'd not get rid of my needles (my gran passed hers on to me-how MS is that!) as I know I'll come back to it at some point

Hardup_Hester

I sell my scarves mainly to workmates, & there are only about 100 people where I work, I have thought about getting a stall at one of our local markets, but found the cost to be prohibitive.
Hester

LizD_2

I'd like to take up knitting, but as I find wool and acrylic itchy beyond belief, I'd like to use silk and cotton yarns instead. If a pattern is for DK, could you use a similar weight in silk/cotton yarn. Would you do the normal thing of knitting a tension square, then adjusting needle size accordingly? Also, does anyone have tips for fashionable patterns? A lot seem to be 'old lady' or character-type things?

sairy2005

I would try not to substitute yarns when you are first starting out as they may be the same thickness but cotton etc. weighs heavier so you may end up having to buy more.

Try to get a pattern you like and stick to it to the letter. When you get better at it you can change things. Always do a tension square when you are a novice. I often do mine as I go along just to make sure that the tension is working out OK. Go to a shop like John Lewis or an independent wool shop. You will find the ladies in there really know what they are talking about. Even in John Lewis they will find you some one who is a knitter.

We have a lovely shop in Ely which is like Aladdins cave with very helpful ladies in it. They are only too happy to give you tips. Ask any thing else you want to know and I will try to answer it for you although I am not a great knitter I can muddle through

Pink.

Hi Liz,

These older threads might help:

Learning to Knit

knitting patterns

Pink

lilmoi1985lm

i really want to learn does anyone know of an easy starters website i could get basics from?? thanks! x

Rikki

www.learn2knit.co.uk