Knitting Help
Techniques
Note: When it comes to knitting, there are two main ways of doing the motions depending on which hand you hold the yarn in while working. Holding it in the right hand is called English or “throwing,” and holding it in the left hand is called Continental or “picking.” The following tutorials are for right hand/English style. I recommended that you learn these techniques in the same order I have them listed below.
1: Casting on
It is necessary to put stitches on your needles somehow. My preferred method is the “long-tail cast on.” It is relatively simple and medium-stretchy, which makes it a popular and indeed near-universal technique. Unless you read a pattern that tells you to cast on using a different method, use this one. If you are worried about estimating how much of a tail you need to leave, there are a couple of different ways you can estimate the distance, but most of the time guessing and checking is an acceptable solution.
The first option, if you know how wide you want your item to be, is to simply multiply the width by 3, and then measure out that much yarn, plus a hand-length or two to spare.
The second option is to start simply wrapping the yarn around your needle, starting from the tail end, and wrap as many times as you need to cast on stitches. Don’t forget to give yourself a bit of extra room, same as the first option.
Written guide | Video
2. Knitting and Garter Stitch
Knitting is the most basic way of creating fabric in this craft. I have linked an excellent step-by-step guide with photos published on the website Stitch Clinic. It has detailed instructions and a lot of personality! If you get stuck, try the video tutorial.
Once you knit across all of the stitches on your needle, turn your work and do the same thing again. As you work back and forth, knitting in both directions, you will create a somewhat bumpy fabric, unlike the smooth product you see in the tutorial photos. But have no fear! For now you are making a type of fabric called garter stitch. It is nice for flat things like scarves, because it does not curl up at the edges. I recommend that you finish a square of garter stitch (see next section for casting off) before you practice purling, which will allow you to make that classic smooth fabric we think of when we think “knitting.”
Knitting written guide | Knitting video
3: Casting off
Once you’re satisfied with the size of your garter stitch item, whether it is a square or a rectangle or whatever, you will want to know how to get it off of your needles. Like casting on, there are many ways to do this, with varying degrees of difficulty and stretchiness. I have linked written and video guides to the simplest form, which is perfect for now.
Written guide | Video
4: Purling and Stockinette Stitch
You have by now hopefully gained some confidence with your knitting through repetition, and completion of your garter stitch square. Purling can be intimidating, since it is a new set of motions in addition to knitting, but if you have learned to knit, you can learn to purl! It is, quite literally, just the reverse side of knitting. Please see the Stitch Clinic guide for many helpful tips.
When teaching yourself to purl, I recommend that you cast on and knit the first row just like you did last time. This will give you a nice foundation to work into, and also set you up to start creating that smooth-looking fabric known as stockinette stitch. Once you have managed to purl an entire row of stitches, when you turn your work again, knit the next row. After that, switch back to purling. If you continue to alternate in this fashion, knitting on odd rows and purling on even ones, a fabric will emerge that has smooth rows of V shapes on one side (we usually call this the right side, and dense rows of bumps on the other side (we usually call this the wrong side).
You may notice that your stockinette fabric has a desire to curl up at the edges. This is normal, and in fact an inherent structural quality of stockinette. You can read about why it does that in this great article by TECHknitting.
Finally, I would like to note that if you do not alternate knit and purl rows, and just purl every row, you will get the same garter stitch as you did when you were knitting every row.
Purling written guide | Purling video 1 / Purling video 2
5: Reading
When I talk about “reading” one’s work, I mean being able to tell the difference between a knit and a purl stitch, and the ability to count how many rows you have worked. See the link below for a guide that covers the basics, with diagrams. It’s good to familiarize yourself with the concepts before moving on to the next section, where things will get more complicated.
6: Ribbing
Now that you have both foundational stitches, the world has opened up for you a lot. You have learned how to switch between knitting and purling per each row, but you can also switch between them multiple times within the same row! Try ribbing at least before moving on to the next step. You can keep working on your stockinette piece, or make a new one, whatever you like.
When knitting ribbing, you will alternate knits and purls in a repeated pattern. On the even rows (aka wrong side), you will knit the inverse of your front side repetition. For example, if you knit 1, purl 1, and repeated this all the way across your first row, when it came time to flip your work and do the second row, you would need to purl 1, knit 1, repeat. Some common types of ribbing include:
- knit 1, purl 1 (aka K1P1 or 1x1 rib)
- knit 2, purl 1 (aka K2P1 or 2x1 rib)
- knit 2, purl 2 (aka K2P2 or 2x2 rib)
Before you attempt this on your own, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.
The first thing is that the number of stitches you have matters when it comes to ribbing, especially when you are knitting in the round (which we will get to next). You want the number of stitches on your needle to be divisible by the number of stitches in your ribbing pattern. So, for K1P1, you want an even number of stitches, for K2P1 you want a multiple of 3, and for K2P2 you want a multiple of 4.
The other thing to keep in mind is the trick to switching back and forth. You will have noticed by now that when knitting, the yarn is carried behind your needles, and when purling, the yarn is carried in front of them. Before you attempt to purl after knitting, or vice versa, you must bring the yarn around to the correct side of the work. For either direction, make sure the yarn travels between the points of your needles. You can also think of this as the yarn traveling under, not over the back of, your right hand needle.
7: Knitting in the Round
Up until now, we have been discussing how to knit a flat piece of fabric, by flipping the work around each time we reach the end and knitting (or purling) back and forth. Knitting “in the round” will allow us to create a seamless tube shape, which we can use to make socks, gloves, hats, sweaters… you name it. Most things you can wear on your body are some variation of a tube.
(To be continued…)
8: Increasing and Decreasing
The last thing you need to be unstoppable are the skills to shape your work into something other than a perfect rectangle or straight tube. We do this by either increasing or decreasing the number of stitches on our needles.
As with many things in this guide, there is no single method you’ll use in every situation. I recommend familiarizing yourself with these, as they are the ones i see most frequently. The decreases are a little easier to pull off than the increases.
Increase written guide (shows 3 different types) Decrease written guide (k2tog) Decrease written guide (SSK)
Other Useful Things
Here is a list of video tutorials that cover basic skills, though they demonstrate a different cast on method. The one I prefer is called a “long tail cast on,” but I am having trouble finding a youtube tutorial that I like…
Here are some ways redditors hold their yarn…
How to Fix Mistakes
Video on how to tink or “un-knit,” for fixing mistakes that you catch more or less in the same row. It also demonstrates how to tink purls.
Here is a PDF that contains techniques for fixing various things. It comes with pictures of how to fix mistakes, but doesn’t have many photos or illustrations of what issues look like in the wild in order to diagnose them, so your mileage may vary.
Advanced Techniques
Some things I have been experimenting with lately!
Double Knitting
Knitting two sides of stockinette at the same time. Stitches are alternated on the needles. It can be used for colorwork, producing inverted colors on both sides, or it can even be used to knit two socks at the same time.
Colorwork
I learned how-to by following this guide written on the Ravelry forums, by Margaret MacInnis. The instructions are clear, and there are a few photos but not many.
Double knitting written guide pt.1 / Double knitting written guide pt. 2 / Double knitting pattern link
Socks
Even if you have no interest in attempting to knit two socks at once, I still recommend you read this hilarious and informational article by Kory Stamper. There are step by step instructions and plenty of photos.