Hi all you aspiring knitters!
With the actual mitten cast on to happen Sunday, I think we'll start off
this project very slowly for those of you who have never knit. I want
you to start by just knitting back and forth on 2 needles for a bit, to
get used to doing the knit stitch. There's a neat site that shows great
pictures for casting on and knitting...
OK...take 2 of your double pointed needles and your yarn. Measure off
12" of yarn, make a slip knot, and cast on 10 sts as per these EXCELLENT
instructions:
http://www.wonderful-things.com/knit.htm
If you have any trouble doing this---e-mail Claudia
or send a note to the list and I will respond there.
Hold the needle with the 10 sts on it in your left hand, and an empty
needle in your right hand. Loop the connected yarn over and under the
fingers of your left hand until you can grasp it and keep it still while
you are working the two needles.
There are some fun rhymes out there for learning to knit. The knit
stitch is basically a 4 step process where you:
- GO IN THROUGH THE FRONT DOOR (the point of your empty needle (in your
right hand) pokes into the first loop on the needle in your left hand
- GO ONCE AROUND THE BACK (wrap the yarn in your left hand around the
point of the right needle Counterclockwise)
- PEEK THROUGH THE WINDOW(pull the point of the right needle, with the
looped yarn around it, under the top loop of the stitch on the left
needle and out through to the front of your work
- THEN OFF JUMPS JACK (holding the needle with the pulled-through loop
(the new stitch!!!) secure in your right hand [use your thumb to hang
onto the newly formed stitch if you have to] pull the ENTIRE OLD LOOP
(that first stitch on the left needle that you poked into) up and off
the left needle...you will see that your newly knit stitch will survive
intact on your right needle.)
Work this way across all 10 stitches. You have finished Row 1! Then
stop...put the right needle (which now has 10 knit stitches on it) in
your LEFT hand, and the newly emptied needle from your left hand into
your RIGHT hand, and work across the 10 stitches again....this will be
row 2.
Do this until your little square of knitting (called a swatch) measures
about 3" from the needle. Now measure it ACROSS and write down the
measurement in your new notebook. Post what it is here and we'll figure
out your GAUGE, which is how many stitches fit into an inch of your
knitting. This number will help you determine how big your mittens will
come out.
This material ©1999 Claudia Krisniski
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