If you have never knitted before, here’s how to get started…
Click here for a full step by step guide to knitting
A sneak preview
Casting on
1 Wind the yarn around your left index finger to make a circle as shown above. With a knitting needle, pull a loop of the yarn attached to the ball through the circle.
2 Pull both ends of yarn to tighten the slip-knot on the knitting needle. You are now ready to begin.
Knit…
Knit and purl stitches form the basis of almost all knitted fabrics. The knit stitch is the easiest to learn and is the first stitch you will create. When worked continuously it forms a reversible fabric called garter stitch. You can recognise garter stitch by the horizontal ridges formed at the top of the knitted loops.
1 With the cast-on stitches on the needle in your left hand, insert the right-hand needle from left to right and from front to back through the first cast-on stitch.
2 Take the yarn from the ball on your index finger (the working yarn) around the point of the right-hand needle.
3 Draw the right-hand needle and yarn through the stitch, thus forming a new stitch on the right-hand needle, and at the same time slip the original stitch off the left-hand needle. Repeat these steps until all the stitches from the left-hand needle have been worked. One knit row has now been completed.
& Purl
After the knit stitch you will move on to the purl stitch. If the purl stitch is worked continuously, it forms the same fabric as garter stitch. However, if purl rows and knit rows are worked alternately, they create stocking stitch, which is the most widely used knitted fabric.
1 With the yarn to the front of the work, insert the right-hand needle from the right to the left into the front of the first stitch on the left-hand needle.
2 Then take the yarn from the ball on your index finger (the working yarn) around the point of the right-hand needle.
3 Draw the right-hand needle and the yarn through the stitch, thus forming a new stitch on the right-hand needle, and at the same time slip the original stitch off the left-hand needle. Repeat these steps until all the stitches have been worked. One purl row has now been completed.
Click here for a full step by step guide to knitting
Your Say: Do you knit? Tell us your favourite things to knit below…
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