Knitting

[fenchurch]

Learning to knit was one of my goals for this year and with only three weeks left, I figured I'd better get a move on.

I've discovered, though, that I'm definitely going to have to find someone locally who can give me some pointers. Because even with pictures, written instructions and a video I can't seem to get the hang of casting on. I've tried it both left- and right-handed, I've tried both English and Continental and I'm still completely flummoxed by the process... although I strongly suspect that it's probably much, much easier than it's appearing to be.

And now I'm really wishing I'd taken the time to pick the brains of either knitress or tomte when I had the chance!

Comments

[ayinhara.livejournal.com]

All the advice given in previous comments is excellent, especially the last bit about finding somebody at church who knits.

There are several different ways of casting on stitches, which are useful for different things. My favorite method, which my mother taught me, is illustrated here:

http://www.theyarnco.com/instruction.php

I recommend getting Knitting for Dummies as a general reference book. It never hurts to have something to read.

This site has short videos that might be useful:

http://www.stitchguide.com/stitches/knitting/index.html

The best video I have found is located at the following site:

http://www.knittinghelp.com/

Try what she calls the double cast on aka long tail cast-on. That is the same method that the yarnco people illustrated in diagrams.

To confuse the issue of knitting there are two main methods for knitting: the continental and the English method. Most Americans seem to use the English method. I learned to knit from my mother, who was born in Russia, so I use the continental method.

I recently returned to knitting after a long, long hiatus. I like to make baby sweaters. I stopped knitting about 15 years ago when the opportunity to make baby sweaters for friends and family decreased to almost nothing. Then last year, when the daughter of one of my closest friends was expecting her first child I returned to knitting. This past summer I knit 4 baby and toddler sweaters. I still have two more on the queue, plus two hats and another sweater for my daughter.