How To Start a Knitting Journey?

When you start the knitting journey, you need to learn the three techniques cast on, knit stitch, & cast off. It is the backbone of the knitting craft. To knit, you will need yarn and needles suitable for your project. You get to choose from plastic or wooden knitting needles. You also need to consider the appropriate needle size – thick or thin.

Yarn

For beginners, chunky yarn with an appropriate thick needle is much easy to grip and handle. Choose a worsted-weight or thick yarn. Thin yarns need a little practice. As a beginner, you are prone to make mistakes….it is normal! However, buy cheap acrylic yarns rather than costly artisan yarn.

For beginners, bamboo or wood needles are recommended because it has a natural surface that grips the yarn. It makes knitting less slippery than aluminum or steel needles.

Needle size matters

The size of knitting you will choose will depend on the chosen yarn. The yarn label will have the recommended needle size mentioned in millimeters. For beginners start with the label mentioned needle size. Choosing a size little up or down is not a great deal but the knitting may be too loose or too tight.

The three knitting techniques

Cast on

You are prepared with the knitting needles and yarn. Casting on process turns the yarn loose into neat tiny stitches that perfectly sit on the needle. Drape the yarn tail over the left thumb and working yarn over the left index finger. With other fingers catch yarn length in left palm. Insert needle upward through the thumb loop.

With the needle, grab the working yarn on the index finger and pull through the thumb loop. Remove thumb from the loop. Keep the yarn end secured in the palm and reposition the thumb. Tighten the new switch on the right-hand knitting needle. Repeat the steps until the needed number of stitches are cast on.

Knit stitch

The stitches sit on the needed waiting for the knit stitch. Wrap working yarn around the left index finger and hold it off the left needle. Insert the right needle from the front to back in 1st cast-on stitch to open it. Grab working yarn with the right needle and pull through open stitch.

Now, slip cast-on stitch off left needle but hold a middle finger against 2nd cast-on stitch. It ensures the stitch does not slip off. On the right needle, the new knit stitch sits. Repeat the knit stitch across every cast-on row. After emptying the last stitch on the left needle exchange needles returning needle with stitches on the left hand.

Cast off

You used two needles to transform the loose yarn ball into a little rectangle. When it is time to get the knitted fabric off the knitting needles the project is complete. It is a necessary step that keeps stitches from unraveling after being removed from the circular knitting needles.

Knit two stitches and insert the left needle within the first stitch and lift it over the second stitch and off the knitting needle. Repeat this until every stitch has been cast off. Leave a 6” long tail and cut the yarn and pull the tail securely through the last stitch.