Knitting Basics – Beginners Guide with Videos

Knitting is a life time craft. Once you get started, it draws you in and gets you hooked. It is that addictive. It’s a calming escape from daily stress and helps you express your individual self. Once you get the hang of it, you wouldn’t want to stop. Regardless of whether you want to stay warm in cold weather, find a hobby to kill some time, or want to help the needy, knitting fits the budget. Let’s cut the small talk and get down to business!

Material Requirements

1. Knitting needles – They come in different sizes, materials, types, and are chosen according to the desired pattern gauge and weight of yarn.

a.  Needle size – Gauge (number of rows and stitches per inch) is determined by diameter or size of knitting needles. Size of the needle varies according to the brand.

b.  Needle style or type – Style or type of needle too determines how the knitted piece will turn out to be.

c. Needle material–Needle material determines how easy it will be to knit. Aluminum needles are heavier than bamboo needles and are more slippery. The ones made out of bamboo have a warm touch. Though metal ones are heavier, they make lovely clicking sounds when you knit. And then there are plastic needles that are durable and flexible.

2. Knitting yarns – Commercially available yarns are plied as 4-ply up to 14-ply. Number of plies determine a knitted garments size (or thickness) and weight. Thickness varies from being fine, super fine, medium, light, super bulky and bulky.

3. Scissors

Knitting Patterns or Various Stitch Types

Number of knits and purls together create a design known as stitch pattern. Different knitting or stitch patterns include basic stockinette stitch, rice stitch and the complex seven sisters’ stitch. Warp knitting and weft knitting are the two basic knitting types. Weft knitting includes knitting done by hands as well as machines, but in warp knitting, only machines are used.

A weft-knitted piece would be more elastic. Weft knitted fabrics with parallel horizontal sequences need only single yarn. It is a width-wise knitting technique and the yarn is developed back and forth. In every course (or cycle), a row of stitches is made. Each row can have many stitches. It depends on how wide your fabric needs to be. A new row is built by interlinking with previous row’s stitches.

Here are some types of weft knitting stitches:

1. Plain-knit stitch – This type of stitch can be made as circular, tubular, or just flat knit. In this stitch, every loop is put through other loops to the right side. The loops form upright rows (or wales) on the front, and crosswise rows (or courses) on the backside. Plain knit stitch creates a lightweight fabric.
2. Purl stitch – Also known as links stitch, it is made using needles that have hooks on ends. Purl stitch method is relatively slow and costly. In this technique, hooks consecutively pull loops to face of fabric in a single course, and towards the backside in next course. Fabrics knit with purl stitches look alike on both sides. Mostly kid’s wear is made using this stitch type since it has crosswise stretch and superb lengthwise stretch.
3. Rib stitch – It has rows of purl and plain knit stitches, stitched alternatively and made in a way that both sides of fabric look the same.

Now that you know about the materials required and the basic stitches, let’s talk about some terms that I will use in this article:•Cast on- Creating a row of primary stitches on your needle is known as casting on. It is the way you start your project.

• Knit – Basic knitting stitch is called the knit stitch.
• Purl – The opposite of knit stitch is known as purl stitch. It can be combined with knit stitches.
• Right side – It is the side of fabric that shows when worn.
• Wrong side - It is the inner side of fabric.
• Right hand side - It is the side of knitted piece closer to right hand while you are knitting.
• Left hand side – It is the side of knitted piece closer to left hand while you are knitting.

Now let’s begin knitting a simple scarf.

1. Start by casting on 24 stitches. Hold the knitting needle with your left hand. Insert the tip of right needle into first stitch, move yarn from front moving towards back and under left needle.
2. Now using right index finger, move the loose yarn string under and over right needle’s tip.
3. Now using right needle tip, pass the yarn through the topmost stitch.
4. Slip up left needle‘s first loop, creating a new stitch on right needle.

This completes your first knit stitch!
Repeat the above four steps until you are done with every stitch on your left needle. When you are done with all stitches on left one, a row is created. Now hold the right needle in left hand and create another similar row using the free needle. Create ten more such rows. The pattern that you will see is known as garter stitch.

Learn How to Purl

Purl stitch, as mentioned before, is opposite of knit stitch. In this, you insert using right needle point moving right to left.

1. Continuing with the ten rows you created, start by inserting right needle into first stitch and in front of left knitting needle.
2. Hold yarn in front of fabric and bring it around right knitting needle counter clockwise.
3. Now pull yarn back, using right needle through the stitch.
4. Slip stitch off the left needle, creating a new stitch on the right one.

This completes a purl stitch. Repeat these steps for every stitch row. Then knit each stitch in the row. When you reach the end of row, hold the needle with stitches in your left hand and purl every stitch. Again knit next row and then purl a row. These alternate stitches create what is known as the stockinette stitch.

A basic scarf that can be made using these two different stitches is the ribbed scarf.

Instructions are as follows:-

1. Cast on a total of 38 stitches.
2. For Row 1, first knit two stitches and then purl two stitches. When you reach end of row, knit two stitches. Turn the fabric so that stitches are on left side now.
3. For Row 2, start by creating two purl stitches and end row by purling two again.
4. Repeat these 2 rows until desired length of scarf is reached.
5. At the end, bind the stitches and weave in the ends.

And you are done!