I am a beginner, what are my steps?
Welcome to the world of knitting!
Learning a new skill could be challenging sometime specially if there is not enough useful resources to rely on them. Many websites, tutorials and even books became useless as it comes to beginners tutorials since they mostly rely on intermediate and experienced lessons. Here I decided to tour you through my step by step guide on knitting for beginners to help you find what would be your steps to become a master in knitting. So if you are totally beginners to the world of knitting don’t worry at all you are in a right place.
Step 1) Decide what you want to knit
For your first project keep it simple to learn and practice without feeling overwhelmed. Your very first project can be as simple as a small flat rectangle or a flat square that you can keep it for years and look at it later and see how your knitting skill has changed over years. Then when you feel that you are comfortable to do basics, then go further and plan for a real usable project.
Step 2) Pick up materials
After you make your mind about what you plane to make you need to pick up the materials. The primary materials that you will need are as simple as yarn and needle. The secondary materials that you probably will find in your home will be scissors and measuring tape.
What sizes I need to pick up for my materials?
For picking up needle and yarn you need to consider some factors. The first factor is to consider what you are planning to knit? Depending on the project you plan to make your choices for yarn and consequently for needles will change. I want to highlight that you need to pick up the yarns first and then find the matching needle for that yarn.
Always the best way to get an idea is to search online to see what kind of projects attract you. Though you need to keep it simple for the first project. Let say you plan to knit a scarf. There are different type of scarf you can make, but to keep it simple let say you want to make a classic kind of scarf. Depending on what is your own taste pick up the yarn of your choice in color and thickness, however my suggesting is to choose a medium or bulky yarn for now. Then look at the label on the yarn. The label on the yarn gives lots of information about that yarn. For now you need to find the sections that suggest the needle size. (see what other information a label carries?) The picture below shows an example of the section on yarn label that suggest the needle size. 
However, you may want to use an old yarn sitting at your home without any label on it, then what you need to do?
If there is not any label to refer to it, you would go any size closer to the thickness of that yarn. For example if you have a bulky yarn you need to choose thicker needles for that yarn. The size of the needle should be at least at the same thickness of the yarn because when you insert the needle through the loop to grab the yarn and knit it, you need to pass the folded yarn through the loop and pull it thorough, therefore you need enough space to pass and pull easily.
Step 3) Start knitting
Cast on: The first step of knitting is casting on. Casting on means making the base row of loops that will allow us to make a knit fabric by connecting new loops in following rows. Click here to learn how to cast on.
Do basic stitches: There are two main/basic stitches that almost all other kind of stitches are made by them, these two stitches are called Knit Stitch and Purl Stitch. A stitch is a loop that is created by motion of inserting tip of needle in the right hand into the loops in the left hand, which have been created by casting on, and grabbing the strand of yarn connected to that loop and pulling it through the loop. Click here to learn Knit stitch and Purl stitch. The fabric that you will get by repeating these basic stitches, i.e. doing one row of knit stitches and one row of purl stitches is called stockinette stitch. These are many other kind of stitches that you can make only by knowing these basic stitches. Here are couple of them which I have tutorials in my YouTube channel and in this website:
Stitch 7- Two to one Rib Stitch
Stitch 12 – Tilt stripe stitch
Beside these stitches, there are plenty of other stitches that require a little bit more of extra techniques to be learnt, two of these extra techniques are: Yarn over and Increasing/decreasing methods.
Cast off/bind off: After you knit couple of rows and your piece measures your desired length, you need to block the knitting and finish your projects. Click here to see how to block in knitting.
My name is Fariba. Knitting is my passion since I was a little kid.
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