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    Basic Knitting: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started
    Basic Knitting: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started
    Basic Knitting: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started
    Ebook388 pages1 hour

    Basic Knitting: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started

    By Leigh Ann Chow, Anita J. Tosten, Missy Burns and Alan Wycheck

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    About this ebook

    Fully illustrated descriptions introduce knitting needles, yarn, and accessories. Detailed, step-by-step sequences illustrate basic stitches and skills. In-depth skill workshops teach techniques needed to complete 10 attractive projects.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStackpole Books
    Release dateJan 1, 2004
    ISBN9780811746090
    Basic Knitting: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started

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      Book preview

      Basic Knitting - Leigh Ann Chow

      Contents

      Acknowledgments

      Introduction

      Part I: Basic Tools and Skills

      1. Tools and Materials

      Yarn

      Needles

      Other Equipment

      2. Basic Skills

      Holding Yarn and Needles

      Making a Slip Knot

      Casting On

      Knit

      Purl

      Stockinette Stitch

      Gauge

      Shaping: Increases and Decreases

      Joining New Yarn

      Picking Up Dropped Stitches

      Taking Out Stitches

      Binding Off

      Knitting from a Pattern

      Part II: Projects

      1. Teddy Bear Sweater

      Skill Workshop: Finishing

      2. Bay Side Scarf

      Skill Workshop: Creating Lace Patterns

      3. Biscayne Bay Shell

      Skill Workshop: Picking Up Stitches

      Skill Workshop: The 3-Needle Bind Off

      4. Northwest Ridge Hat

      Skill Workshop: Knitting in the Round on Circular Needles

      Skill Workshop: Making I-Cord

      5. 2 x 2 Socks

      Skill Workshop: Knitting in the Round on Double Pointed Needles

      Skill Workshop: Kitchener Stitch

      Project in Progress: Working the Heel, Turning the Heel, and Creating the Gusset

      6. Northwest Ridge Mittens

      Project in Progress: Creating the Thumb Gusset and Working the Thumb

      7. Seattle Bound Vest

      Skill Workshop: Knitting Cables

      8. Bamboo Forest Sweater

      Skill Workshop: Slip Stitch Knitting

      9. Honeybee Tea Cozy

      Skill Workshop: Felting

      10. Comfort in Diamonds Throw

      Skill Workshop: Knitting with Two Skeins of Yarn

      Skill Workshop: Finishing with a Slip Stitch Chain Edge

      Appendices

      Knitting Abbreviations Master List

      Skill Levels for Knitting

      Standard Body Measurements/Sizing

      Standard Yarn Weight System

      Resources

      Yarn Information

      Introduction

      Knitting is a craft that is presently enjoying a renaissance of sorts. Around the world, people young and old are discovering—or rediscovering—the joy of working with needles and yarn. First practiced in ancient times, hand knitting has evolved from a necessary means of producing socks and stockings into a craft that is limited only by a knitter’s creativity.

      This book is intended to serve as a comprehensive introduction to the basic skills you will need to master in order to become a knitter. The focus of the first half of the book is on detailed, step-by-step text and photo sequences that will teach you how to execute the basic stitches and techniques of knitting. The second half of the book will show you how to apply these basic skills when completing actual projects. The skill workshops that accompany each project will teach you skills and techniques that are relevant to a particular piece or garment. A few of the projects also include Project in Progress sections, which show you the more complex stages of the project in step-by step detail.

      We recommend that you spend your first hours with this book in the Basic Skills section, learning and mastering the fundamental stitches and techniques. Then, once you are comfortable working with needles and yarn, you can move on to try one of the ten projects included in the second half of the book. The first project, the Teddy Bear Sweater, offers a good first project to put these skills to use, and we suggest that you attempt this project first before moving on to any of the others. Working a sweater in miniature allows you to practice the same techniques you will need to use in later projects. The Skill Workshops that accompany this project also teach finishing techniques that will be required for other garments later in the book.

      So pick up your needles and yarn and get ready to learn how to knit!

      TOOLS AND MATERIALS

      YARN

      COLOR

      Yarn comes in as many colors as the rainbow: reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, indigos, and violets and every shade in between. Variegated yarns combine several complementary colors into one multi-hued skein.

      Most yarn is dyed commercially in batches, or lots. The color of these batches can vary from one to another and the differences in color will become obvious when switching from one skein to another in a knitted garment. To avoid any potential color discrepancies, make sure to purchase enough yarn to complete your project all at once, making sure to check the skeins’ labels to ensure that the dye lot number is the same.

      Your local knitting store offers yarn in as many colors, weights, and textures as you can imagine.

      The CYCA’s 6 yarn weight categories (from top to bottom): Super Fine, Fine, Light, Medium, Bulky, and Super Bulky.

      WEIGHT

      Yarn also comes in a range of different weights. From the super fine yarn that is perfect for knitting soft, delicate baby blankets up to the super bulky wool used to knit thick, heavy sweaters, a yarn’s weight has a great impact on the finished knitted product. Typically, when you knit a project from a pattern, it will specify the type of yarn to be used. In order to complete the project as the designer intended, it is important to conform to the suggested yarn weight or, if making a substitution, to come as close as possible to the recommended knit gauge. If, however, you are designing your own garment, a knowledge of the various yarn weights will help you to select a yarn that is most appropriate to the finished garment you are preparing to knit.

      In order to provide a measure of consistency in yarn labeling, the Craft Yarn Council of America (CYCA) has issued a set of standards dealing with yarn weight. The guidelines organize yarn into 6 main weight categories ranging from Super Fine (1) up to Super Bulky (6). In between are Fine (2), Light (3), Medium (4), and Bulky (5). See the appendix on page 118 for all the details on this relatively new organizational structure.

      COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE

      The vast majority of knitting yarn is created by spinning fibers together. Fibers can be natural, such as wool, mohair, silk, or cotton; man-made, such as acrylic, nylon, or polyester; or a blend of the two. Each fiber has its own distinctive characteristics and properties, some of which are desirable and others which are less so. Wool, for example, is extremely warm, but is not as strong as other fibers. Acrylic, on the other hand, is extremely durable but does not breathe well. Sometimes a blend of the two materials maximizes the advantages of each. For example, a sock yarn made of a 92% wool and 8% acrylic blend provides the warmth and comfort of natural wool with the added strength and resilience of synthetic fiber.

      The way in which the yarn’s fibers are spun together determines its structure. There are a variety of different yarn structures:

      Spiral: A thinner yarn twisted around a thicker yarn.

      Chenille: A velvety pile, wrapped with two thin, twisted threads. Can be either long-pile or short-pile.

      Boucle: Two strands twisted at varying tensions, held together with a thin binding thread to produce loops of yarn.

      Nubby: Two strands twisted so that one overlaps another to produce a bumpy texture.

      Slubby: A strand that is alternately thick and thin, twisted with either a smooth or a slubby second strand.

      Tape: Yarn made of knitted threads and woven into a narrow, flat band.

      Novelty Yarns: Most common types combine metallic threads or feature long eyelash textures.

      Z AND S TWIST

      A yarn with a Z twist (left) has twists turning upward and to the right while an S twist (right) has twists turning upward and to the left.

      Knitting Needle Sizes*

      *From the Craft Yarn Council of America’s Standards and Guidelines for Crochet and Knitting

      NEEDLES

      Aside from yarn, the knitting needle is the knitter’s fundamental tool. Needles come in three main varieties: straight, circular, or double pointed. They range in both length and size from a 2.25 mm size 1 needle up to a 25 mm size 50 needle.

      Needles come in a range of different materials: aluminum, steel, plastic, bamboo, or wood. The last two materials are typically more expensive but can be more pleasurable to knit with.

      STRAIGHT NEEDLES

      Most knitters start off using straight needles; they are the simplest and most straightforward tool a knitter has to get the job done. Typically, straight needles are used to knit back and forth across a flat piece of knitting. Straight needles come in lengths ranging from 8 to 16 inches. Most small beginning projects such as scarves or children’s garments are best completed on 10-inch needles, but larger projects such as adult sweaters require a 16-inch needle to accommodate all the stitches.

      CIRCULAR NEEDLES

      Circular needles are typically used when knitting in the round. Knitting on circular needles produces a seamless, tubular piece of knitting, perfect when creating a hat

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