I just started to learn to knit last night and I am soooo lost. Knitting is like a different language it seems, lol. Anyway, I am not really going to make anything yet, I just want to learn how to cast on, etc… I just cast- on about 16 stitches and i want to bring the stitching down, How do i do that? And what do i do after casting-on?
Please help…lost and confused first time knitter. Thank you!!
Go to the Tips page under Videos and click on Demo of a Small Project. That shows you casting on, knitting and purling a few rows and binding off - how you put all the different parts together. After your cast on, practice the knit stitch for a while, which results in garter stitch (shown under Basic stitches on the Tips page too). Then you can try purling a row and if you alternate a knit row with a purl row, you get ‘stockinette’ which is what we see in most plain stitch sweaters.
Welcome to Knitting Help, Heather! :yay:
Knitting IS like a new language! Fortunately a lot of it is written in english so it’s not so hard to decipher once you get the hang of it. If you need more than the video help I have links that can help.
Thank you. I just watched the video and I am confused because I have 2 tails left after i cast-on, one tail is connected to the yarn roll and the other tail is all by itself. But in the video, it shows 2 tails and none of them are connected to a ball of yarn, they are just hanging. So when i tryed to copy what se was doing, it wasnt working. I am not supposed to cut the yarn from the yarn ball when i am done casting on right?
Thank you! I am so happy i found this awesome site. I cant wait to learn how to knit. I would love links that can help me out. =) Thank you.
It could be you couldn’t see the longer tail, you do knit the first row with the yarn that’s connected to the ball. If you’re not going to reuse the yarn, you can cut the tail off that you don’t use, or just wind it up a little to get it out of the way.
there are almost half as many cast ons as knitters in the world.
If you want to learn how to cast on, look in that section of the videos. There are several ones you can try.
to make small projects, it really does not matter all that much, which one you use.
of pretty edges, stretchy edges and so on… then it matters. But start knitting first, then worry about that.
so cast on any way you like, then go back to the video about the small project and work from “right after cast on”. however the stitches got onto the needle there is really no matter.
and: no, for casting on (regularly) you do not cut your yarn. For none of your practice pieces as a beginner you do that - until you finish something and want to keep it. Then cut off, start the next thing.
If one yarn tail is shorter and one is attached to the skein that is normal. If the short tail end is too long you can cut it to about 6 inches.
Our videos are good, but if you need more here’s another link that has still photos as well as videos.
http://www.knitpicks.com/tutorials/Beginner_Tutorials__L1001.html