Hi! So I’m not technically a beginner but I’ve made a lilac scarf for my year 6 teacher (first project) and now I’ve started working on a plain baby blue blanket for myself! But I wanna know how to expand my skills! I know knit stich and could literally do it in my sleep 
. But I’m struggling on purl. But what did you do when you first started? And what should I learn first? Also I’m starting to realise that most of the thing I wanna make in the future are crochet 
oops! But what advice would you give to a beginner? Cause as I like to say “every master was once a beginner” so…Advice? (also thank you to everyone who helped me out on my last post hopefully my next project will go well! 
)
You’ve made a terrific beginning already. There are usually more than one way to work stitches and patterns. Look around online for different ways to purl and see if there’s something different to try.
One way to begin once you can knit and purl is to look for a project that features a new skill, shaping, different stitch patterns, hats or sweaters worked bottom up, top down or side to side, colorwork charts. Patchwork squares in different stitches are a fun playground for different techniques.
I’m sure you’ll get lots of good suggestions from forum members. Have fun with knitting and crochet!
When it comes to knitting it’s pretty much all knit and purl, yes, there are different techniques and different things you can make but everything is made from a knit stitch or a purl stitch… and even the purl stitch is just the back of a knit stitch. All the beautiful lace and cables and colour work patterns are just knit and purl.
So my biggest advice is to get to purling, lots, make it as comfortable as knitting, make it so you don’t feel like you want to avoid it. Some knitters do avoid it and some patterns are designed with the purpose of avoiding it, but you would be limiting yourself a great deal.
When I learned to knit I probably only did a row or ten of knit before moving on to purl, it was seen as a necessity and something to do right away.
You could practice by purling every row for a scarf or blanket (it will look the same as knitting every row) or you could work a rib pattern such as k5 p5 repeated, or a knit and purl motif pattern which might give you more interest and motivation to master the purls.
Nothing wrong with learning knitting and crocheting, many people do and the range of skills will be fun to learn.
1 Like