As all knitters know, they can have one, two, three or any number of projects on the go, all at once! The great thing about knitting is that you can pick it up and put it down whenever you feel like it. Just make sure that, if you are following a pattern, you can remember where you have got to.

Here we will be showing you some easy ideas and projects, mostly for beginners, as well as showing you where you can find ideas and what the weird language of those knitting patterns means.

 

Adventures in Knitting

We’ve been knitting for hundreds of years.  It’s a skill that had evolved and developed worldwide in all forms and guises.  In times gone by, lots of us learnt at the knee of our relatives, with the stitches that we were taught being passed through the generations.  In more recent times though knitting has been seen as something a bit old fashioned and too traditional.  But times are changing…

I was taught to knit by my grandmother as a very tiny girl.  I didn’t carry on though.  It was in the days of scratchy acrylics and plastic needles.  All of that worrying about the tension and wondering if I’d knitted it the right way or the wrong way (and was that knot supposed to be there?) just made the whole experience very frustrating.  Knitting had no appeal to me, especially as I had also been given my grandmother’s second hand sewing machine!  I don’t remember there being any contest.

Then one day, in my forties, my 9 year old son found a set of knitting needles and a ball of wool and demanded that I sit down with him to teach him how to use them.  What happened next is another story, for another time.  However, it was from that moment until now that I found myself having to learn to knit again.

What I found was that knitting has come a long way.  It has transformed from being the preserve of only an older generation.  Even the needles have changed!  There are endless types of gorgeous yarns to dream about.  Knitting is the new Yoga – or so it was sold to me.

There is loads of information out there but there is also still an assumption that you already know the basics.  On that fateful Sunday when my irritated little boy presented me with those knitting needles and said the words ‘I want to know how to use them’, I had forgotten everything that I ever thought I knew about what knit stitch was.

With that in mind, I have produced a guide – ‘From Beginner to Knitter’- devised for anyone, who like me, hadn’t any idea of what to do with those needles.  It starts with the first loop that you make to finishing your first attempt.  It’s written as if you don’t know one end of a needle from the other but have always been tempted to have a go.

Before you begin, a word of warning: knitting can be time consuming, frustrating, complicated and thoroughly confusing.  There will be times when you have to watch a YouTube video 20 times before you get the hang of one stitch.  Do not be put off!  Persevere, everyone takes time.  Once you have the basics you won’t want to put your needles away and will be intrigued by all of the fancy patterns.  Anyone can knit.  So can you.  And once you have, it will be addictive.