Tuesday Learn To Knit Day 14 - The I-Cord

Hello My Dear Students,

I know I didn't really come back and teach you new things the next week like I said I would, I got incredibly busy and these lessons fell by the wayside.  I know.  For Shame.  I apologize profusely and hope to get these back on track. 

This week, we're learning the I-cord.  I was teaching my friend how to knit this the other night and knew that I must show you all! The I-cord is used for a variety of things including straps on bags and various embellishments.  It is also good for knitting jewelry and those sorts of things.

Basically, knitting an I-cord is knitting in the round on a very small scale.

You will need two double pointed needles and whatever yarn you are using.

First, cast on probably 3 or 4 stitches (the more stitches, the thicker the I-cord.  Many patterns call for a specific number, so I'll leave that to them and give you the basics).

Instead of knitting on the side that the last cast on stitch is on, you will slide the stitches to the other end of the needle and knit the first cast on stitch first, instead of the last.

Continue with the rest of the stitches on the needle and when you complete the row, slide the stitches back to the other side of the needle (I hear making the type-writer sound "Ching" while doing this makes it easier ;))

Continue in this fashion until the I-cord is as long as desired and bind off.

If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions, please feel free to let me know :)

Tuesday Learn to Knit Day 12 - Knitting in the Round

Hello knitters! In this week's installment of my knitting lessons, I will be teaching you the fundamentals of knitting in the round. This type of knitting is perfect for hats, socks, bags and other 'round' type things, it creates one uniform piece of fabric so you don't have to sew up the sides later.

There are two ways to do this, with circular needles (circs) and double pointed needles (dpns).

In both cases, the most important thing about knitting in the round is to make sure your stitches don't get twisted. This can take some practice (as does everything with knitting). The way I do this is to make sure that the ridge created when casting on is all facing downward. If the little ridge is twisted or snakes around your needles, you won't get a flat project and you'll have to start over. Unless, of course, your project calls for twisted stitches, but most of the time they don't :)

I find circular needles a bit easier so I will start with those first.

Cast on the desired number of stitches just as you would with straight needles.

Stretch the stitches over the entire length of the needle so that they reach the other point.

Place a stitch marker (the little elephant in the picture) to mark the beginning of a round. A round is equivalent to a row on straight needles.

Knit as you would on straight needles, passing the stitch marker over from left to right as you come to it.

Now onto double pointed needles.

With double pointed needles, usually they come in a set of 4 or 5. Depending on the size of the project, you will have 3 or 4 in constant use (kind of acting as the loose chord holding circulars together) and one for knitting.

Cast on the desired number of stitches evenly over the 3 or 4 needles. this part can be a bit confusing and frustrating at first. To keep the needles from falling out or getting twisted, I hold the ones with stitches on them in my right hand along with the needle currently receiving stitches sticking out a bit farther than the others.

Make a triangle or square with them as shown to orient the stitches so that the first cast on and the last cast on are next to each other.

Place your marker (the elephant in the photo) and knit two or three stitches from the first needle to the 3rd (or 4th).

Now take your empty needle, needle 4 in this demonstration, and knit all of the stitches from needle 1 onto needle 4.

This will leave needle 1 empty, and you will then use needle 1 to knit all of the stitches from needle 2.

Then you will use needle 2 to knit all of the stitches from needle 3, and so on and so forth.

Tuesday Learn to Knit Day 11 - Stitch Patterns

Today we're not learning a new stitch so much as we are learning what cool things we can do with the stitches you already know, namely the knit and purl stitches.

These stitch patterns will let you practice both knitting and purling as well as show you some cool textures you can create with them!

First, stockinette:

This pattern consists of two rows: Knit one row, Purl the next row, simple, no?

Second, ribbing:

This pattern is very useful when making pieces that you would like to be stretchy, its pattern is some variation of the following:

CO 16

K2, P2 across row

You do this for all rows

Third, seed stitch:

This pattern is where you vary your knit and purl stitches, like so:

CO 16

K1, P1 across row

you will do this for all rows with an even number of stitches, for odd amounts, the second row will be to P1, K1 across all the stitches

Tuesday Learn to Knit Day

Hello folks, sorry I have been MIA this week, I am visiting some family members and won't have time to post a new lesson this week.

So take this week to practice other skills and try new things if you haven't made it through all the lessons yet.

As always, let me know if there are any problems!

Tuesday Learn to Knit Day 10 - A Simple Increase

Since I taught you two simple methods for decreasing the number of stitches in your knitting last week, this week I'm going to teach you an easy way to increase. Its called Knitting Through the Front and Back (kfb).

Ok, so you knit to where you would like the increase to take place,

You knit the next stitch (stitch to be increased with) as normal but do not slide the stitch off the left hand needle, instead, insert your right hand needle through the middle of the stitch and through the back

Then wrap the yarn around the right hand needle again and pull the right hand needle back through the center of the stitch, similar to normal knitting, and slide the stitch on the left hand needle off, you will have made two new stitches on the right hand needle.

This is what it looks like in the long run:

Now you know many of the basics of knitting and can start making all kinds of projects! I will continue to show you various knitting techniques, and if you have something specific you'd like to know, don't hesitate to ask! Questions? Comments? I want to hear those too :)

Tuesday Learn to Knit Day 9 - Two Simple Decreases

So by now I'm sure you'd all like to move on from rectangles and squares and maybe do a hat or something with shape! That's why this week I am going to teach you the two simplest decrease methods that are very widely used. I use them in most of my hats, sweaters, socks, etc etc, the list goes on.

Ok the first one I am going to teach you is the Knit 2 Together (K2tog) method.

Basically, it is what it sounds like. You knit to where you'd like to decrease, then insert your right hand needle into both of the next two stitches on the left hand needle as if to knit.

You then complete the stitch as one normal knit stitch. You wrap the yarn around the right hand needle from right to left, back to front, and slip the two old stitches off the left hand needle leaving only your new single stitch on the right hand needle.

Pretty simple no?

The next decrease method is fairly similar in appearance although the "direction" of the decrease goes to the right instead of the left, this will be more obvious once you've seen them both.

Again, knit to where you'd like to decrease, slip the next stitch off the left hand needle onto the right hand needle without knitting it (sl1).

Knit the next stitch on the left hand needle.

Now take the slipped stitch and pass it over the knitted stitch and off the right hand needle (Psso)

What do you think? Which is your preferred method of decreasing?

Tuesday Learn to Knit Day 8 - Help with a Common Issue

One of the most common issues that newbie knitters face (myself included, long long ago when I began) is knitting too tightly.

Karin was having some troubles with the lace knitting I taught you about here because her stitches are too tight. To loosen up your stitches, really you just need a lot of practice knitting, you need to be able to realize that your stitches will not randomly fall off the needle if you loosen up your loops and let the stitches breath some. Its like learning how to drive, once you realize that the road will not jump out from under you, you can relax and enjoy the view a bit more. Knitting is the same way, it takes practice, patience, and the realization that you need to let go some :)

If you find that you continue to knit too tightly and it seems that there is nothing you can do about it (like my mother (hi Mom!)) then I suggest moving up a needle size or two. This will help the yarn breath because, for instance, if you are using a worsted weight yarn and size 8 or 9 needles, moving up to a 10 1/2 will allow the yarn a bit bigger gauge and it won't knit up so tightly naturally and you don't have to do anything about it.

Tuesday Learn to Knit Day 6 - A Simple Lace Pattern

For this week I am teaching you a simple lacy looking pattern that is great for scarves :)

I hope you found some gorgeous, soft yarn that you are looking forward to using because this is our first apparel project!

Ok, here we go. Cast on an odd number of stitches in the width that you want your scarf to be (usually somewhere around 21 stitches if you're still using the needles we used for the washcloths). Cast on more for a thicker scarf and less for a thinner scarf.

Knit the first row as I taught you in this post.

The first stitch of the next row: Insert your right hand needle through the stitch as if to knit but don't wrap and simply slip off the left hand needle onto the rhn (right hand needle) leaving the yarn behind the work. This is called Slipping the Stitch Knitwise or sl or sl st.

Before the next stitch, wrap the yarn around the rhn from back to the left around the front and to the back again as if you are wrapping it around the needle on a knit stitch. This is called a Yarn Over or YO.

Now, insert your rhn into the next TWO stitches on the lhn knitwise. As in, take the right hand needle and insert it through the second stitch as if to knit and then through the first st as if to knit so that you have both sts. Wrap the yarn around the rhn and remove the sts as if you were simply knitting one. this is called Knitting Two Together or K2tog.

For the remainder of the sts on the lhn, continue to YO then K2tog across.

At the beginning for each row, sl the first st knitwise and YO, K2tog to the end :)

When the scarf is the desired length, knit one more row then bind off as shown in this post.

I can't wait to see what you all make!

Tuesday Learn to Knit Day 4 - Purling

Alright, so how did your first projects come along? I would really appreciate some feedback on these lessons so that I know what I can improve in the future :) Also, suggestions for future projects and questions are always welcome!

This week we are going to continue with dishcloths (because I'm teaching you the "other" basic stitch and I don't want you to get bored with a big long scarf or project and also because I'm sure you still have a little bit more of the cotton left). We are going to make a checkerboard patterned cloth this time :)

First, CO (cast on) 24 stitches like I showed you in this post.

Knit the first 4 sts, given the directions in this post.

Now for the purling: With the 4 K (knit) sts in your right hand and the remaining 20 sts in your left, take the yarn from the back of the work between the two needles so that it is now in the front.

Insert the right hand needle from the back to the front of the middle of the stitch (basically, do a knit st backwards). Wrap the yarn around the needle from right, around the back, to the left and back to the front as shown.

While keeping this new loop on the right hand needle, pull the rhn (right hand needle) back through the stitch in the direction you put it in and slide the st off the lhn (left hand needle).

Purl 3 more sts so that you now have eight sts on the rhn.

Continue in this pattern (K4, P4) to the end of the row.

Repeat 4 more rows (5 total) in this pattern.

For the next 5 rows, P4, K4 all across the needle.

Every 5 rows, switch back and forth so that you form a checkered pattern. Continue in pattern as set until desired length and bind off and shown in this post.

Tuesday Learn to Knit Day 3 - Binding Off

Ok, now that you have the body of your washcloth knitted up (congratulations!) you must now finish the piece. You can't simply slide it off your needles and call it good, it will unravel and all your hard work will be lost.

This week I am teaching you how to Bind Off (BO). Again, like the cast on method, there are so many different ways to do this but I am teaching you the easiest, most basic method.

First, position your work as if you are about to knit another row (needle with stitches in left hand, empty needle in right).

Knit the first two stitches as you have been, but try to do so as LOOSELY as possible.

When you have just two stitches on the right hand needle, take your left hand needle, slide it into the first stitch (right-most stitch)

and pass this stitch over the second (left-most) stitch keeping sure to leave the second stitch on the needle.

Continue these steps to the last stitch.

Cut the yarn leaving a few inches for tail and pull the tail through the remaining loop.

You can now weave in the ends and start using your very first knitting project! Yay! Congratulations!

And please feel free to send in your photos so I can show them off to all the other "students" and share your questions, problems, successes. I'll try to answer any questions I can and help you all work out the kinks :)