11 Essential KNITTING TIPS for NEW KNITTERS

hey guys today i'll show you 11 essential tips for new knitters these are tips that i wish that i had when i was a new knitter i had to go through a lot of trial and error anxiety tears bad purchases to get to where i am today young grasshopper i want to spare you those hard lessons so let's hop to it [Music] a really common mistake that new knitters make is accidentally adding in new stitches this is done by creating a yarn over and a yarn over is exactly what it sounds like it happens when you carry the yarn in front of the needle as if to purl but then instead of purling you knit into the next stitch so the yarn that's carried over creates a new stitch these little boogers can slip in very easily and they're unsightly because they create a really big hole in your knitting the best way to avoid creating accidental yarn overs is by paying attention to your knitting if you're knitting make sure that your working yarn is in the back not in the front if you make a yarn over you do have a chance to fix it once you get to the back of the rope so on the back of the work look for the yarn over it looks like a lonely strand of yarn with no stitches underneath so instead of knitting into the yarn over just slide it off the needle just like that and then knit into the next stitch by doing that you've gotten rid of the yarn over hurrah so here's another yarn over so i'm gonna bump it off the needle and then knit into the next stitch so if you knit into the yarn over it's like you're cementing it into your work and you end up adding an extra stitch so you have a chance at a do over here you've just gotta notice the yarn over on the back side of your knitting and then bump it off the needle instead of knitting into it crisis averted as you get better at knitting and your knits and pearls become second nature you're less likely to make the mistake of an accidental yarn over while knitting isn't a language per se it has its own vocabulary with symbols and meaning when you've been knitting for a while you can look down at your work and recognize the stitches it's like the stitches are speaking to you i'm a pearl i'm a knit stitch reading your knitting is really beneficial because it means that you can follow your pattern just by looking at the stitches you can figure out where you are in the pattern repeat and you know what comes next in the pattern because you can read what stitches came before reading your stitches starts with recognizing what stitches look like so here's a quick primer knits look like little v's and pearls look like little bumps as you work new stitch patterns notice what the stitches look like what does that knit two together look like or that yarn over we covered that earlier bring your observational skills to knitting and soon you'll be reading your knitting like a pro i've said it before and i'll say it again wood and bamboo needles are the best knitting needles for new knitters that's because there's a natural surface tension to wood and bamboo they sort of grip the yarn this makes the stitches less slippery and easy to work with which is exactly what you want when you're a new knitter knitting needles come in different flavors you've got straight needles double pointed needles and circular needles circular and double pointed needles are for knitting things in the round whereas straight needles are for knitting things back and forth in my view circular needles are the best of both worlds because you can knit things in the round and also back and forth how to knit on circular needles just cast on a number of stitches onto one end of the needle then grab the other end of the circular needle right here and knit into the stitches on your left needle so you're not joining in the round you're just knitting your stitches flat using the two needles as if they were two straight needles and ignoring the cable in the middle when you get to the end of your first row turn your needle around and your bare naked needle is in your right hand and then continue knitting i find that circular needles are more comfortable to knit with because the knitting can slide onto the cable which takes the pressure and tension off of your hands and wrists on flat needles you kind of need to carry your stitches which are sitting on your needle which you are holding if you have a lot of stitches on your straight needle they can get kind of bunched up and add to the weight of the needle not comfortable the circular needles are more flexible you can knit with them in the round or back and forth they're also more comfortable to knit with that's why i knit pretty much everything on circular needles these days interchangeable needles are an amazing invention and i need to tell you about them interchangeables are basically a cable with two screws on each end onto which a needle of any size can be screwed on to either end of the cable if you buy an interchangeable set with different cable lengths and multiple needle sizes that you can screw on then you're basically set when it comes to knitting needles like you could possibly never need to buy another pair of needles ever again before i bought my interchangeable set i had so many fixed circular needles a fixed circular needle is just a circular needle with a fixed cable length and needle size when i finally discovered interchangeable needles i was kicking myself i wish i discovered them ages ago interchangeable sets allow you to have a whole collection of knitting needles at your fingertips okay so even though i've been singing their praises i'm not suggesting that you go out right away and buy a set if you're a very new knitter work on mastering the basics of knitting first get a couple patterns under your belt and then determine if knitting is a craft that you want to stick with and invest in then and only then would i recommend that you invest in a set of interchangeable needles i've included links in the description to my favorite interchangeable sets for those of you who are ready for them when you first get into knitting it's like discovering a whole new world there's new techniques new patterns new tools a new community and most importantly new yarn yarn is beautiful and soft and colorful it speaks to you in rhythm and poetry it's full of magic and wonder the world of fiber is rich and glorious and worth exploring in full however my advice is don't splurge on fancy yarn until you're a confident knitter make sure you have a handle on the pattern first before buying a really fancy yarn the reason is that if you have a lot of trouble with your pattern you may end up having to unravel it many times and when you do that the yarn can get kind of pilled and raggedy and it just doesn't look very nice second of all if you have trouble with the pattern you may just end up abandoning it because it's too hard and that would be a waste of the yarn and your hard earned money i get it i really do but sometimes your eyes are bigger than your needles so for the reasons i mentioned avoid buying a really expensive yarn until you're confident that you can complete your project stitch patterns are knit differently when they're knit flat versus when they're knit in the round huh yeah when you're knitting flat you're knitting on both the front side and the back side of your knitting however when you're knitting in the round you never knit on the back side of your work you're always on the front side of your work going around and around so when you're knitting in the round you only knit on one side of your knitting for this reason almost all stitch patterns have two sets of instructions one for knitting in the round and one for knitting flat for example to knit garter stitch flat you knit all of your stitches and all of your rows but to knit garter stitch in the round you knit one round and then purl one round and you repeat those rows alternating between one round of knit and one round of pearl stockinette stitch knit flat is knitting one row and purling the next row but stockinette stitch in the round is just knitting all of your rounds it sounds weird but it's true if you don't believe me grab your needles and give it a try there are several ways to join new yarn into your work some of which i've covered in other videos but the easiest way is to grab your new yarn and knit it together with your old yarn into four or five stitches you would take the new yarn lay it on top of the old yarn then pick up your work like this then you're gonna hold the two yarn strands together here and then just knit with the two yarn strands into the next stitch okay so we're gonna knit into one two [Music] three at this point i'm going to drop the old yarn and continue knitting with the new yarn when you turn your knitting around and you start working the back side of your work once you get to those three or four stitches where you join the two strands of yarn together all you would do is just knit or purl into them as normal okay so make sure that you are purling or knitting into those two strands of yarn as if they were one so if you look at the front of your work you'll see that the join is practically undetectable later on use a tapestry needle to weave in the ends of the old yarn and that's the easiest and quickest way to join new yarn to your knitting ravelry is a magical online place for knitters with over 8 million users it's like a library pattern shop swap meet message board all rolled into one it's like facebook reddit amazon and google for knitters it's amazing and it's free to join i know i'm not sponsored by ravelry i just happen to think it's a great resource and i've been on there for possibly over 10 years like i'm an og member so check them out and you'll have like 90 of your knitting needs met if you're following a pattern read the pattern all the way through before you begin that way you can prepare for new techniques and you're not caught off guard when you get to them if you want to be super prepared and set yourself up for success then you can swatch these new techniques before you even start your real project knowing that you can handle upcoming things in the pattern will give you a real sense of confidence before you even cast on for your real project last but not least you gotta knit on a solid foundation start with the basics and then build on top of those get really good at casting on and then work hard to master the knit stitch once you've mastered the knit stitch then work on the purl stitch once you have the knit and purl under your belt then you can really start to knit some interesting things seed stitch rib stitch stockinette stitch these are all within reach but it all starts with those two stitches the knit stitch and the purl stitch all right folks these are my favorite tips for beginner knitters which ones are you gonna use are you already signing up for ravelry as we speak or maybe browsing interchangeable needles on amazon if i missed a beginner tip that you use then please share it down below in the comments let's make this a fun open community where we share knitting tips with each other yeah yeah like this video if you liked it and subscribe for more videos like this one i'm davina from sheepandstitch.com thanks for watching happy knitting and i'll see you next time bye [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Sheep & Stitch

Views: 196,217

Rating: 4.9671865 out of 5

Keywords: how to knit, knitting, how to, hobby, DIY, yarn, craft, knitting tutorials, knitting for beginners, knitting instructions, sheepandstitch, knitting video, knitting tips, knit tips, tips for beginner knitters, beginner knitting tips, tips for knitters, easy knitting

Id: wwDN5qt-Bvs

Length: 11min 27sec (687 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 09 2020