Hi everyone. I’m new here & quite excited to have discovered a knitting forum!
I’m Lisa & I’m a 31 y/o single mum from Ireland. My mum & grandmother taught me to knit when I was young. I only ever mastered the knit & purl stitch before getting bored I guess.
Since giving birth to my son in March I decided that I wanted to do something for me, something to relax in the evenings when I’ve put him to bed. Knitting it is! 
I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction of some simple patterns for myself? I have knitted a few items recently with varying success.
Also, my little 10 y/o cousin has started learning to knit since she seen me doing it. She is sick of “knitting boring squares” so I was wondering if there are any very basic, simple patterns out there that she could follow & have an end product to show?
Thanks in advance! x
Welcome to Knitting Help!
Welcome back to knitting to both you and your cousin. There are many simple patterns out there if you Google “simple knitting patterns” or “beginner knitting patterns”. Ravelry (free to join) also has simple patterns for whatever interests you.
Any idea about what you’d like to make?
I have a blog at:
http://stitchedupknitwit.blogspot.com
Its not so much a blog to gain followers as its a blog to help me chart my progress (or lack of it as could well be the case!). Plus, I’m hoping people will eventually find me & critique, advise etc.
I am currently on a second attempt of a winter hat for my baby. After that I will make a simple scarf which I’m pretty confident about. Can I really mess that up? 
After that I would really like to make some mittens for him but I fear that’s just too advanced for me.
I would like to make some baby/novelty gifts that I could give to friends with children & give to my son also. I’d like to make some dishcloths as well for my new house (I’m currently sale agreed on a house & hoping to successfully exchange contracts soon). I just want to make things!!! lol
All good projects. I wouldn’t hold back on mittens if you’d really like to make them. If you can increase and decrease, they won’t be a problem and if you have questions about the pattern, come right here and ask. There are even patterns for baby mitten without thumbs so they’re not so different from shaping a hat.
The hat I’m knitting is very simplistic. Simple knit stitch all the way through, fold it, sew a seam & then thread around the top & pull tight to close.
If you’re not ready to knit in the round you can almost certainly find a knit flat baby mittens pattern that you like. A search at www.ravelry.com (free to join) for free patterns for baby mittens knit flat: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/search#photo=yes&craft=knitting&view=captioned_thumbs&availability=free&fit=baby&pa=worked-flat&sort=best&query=mittens. You just might want to consider working in the round and avoiding seaming. It’s easier than it seems and lots of us prefer it.
It looks so complicated GG which is what I have found quite daunting. x
When you haven’t done something before, it always looks complicated. You’ll find that with most knitting techniques (actually life is like that too), once you try them and practice a bit, they’re not complicated at all. There are plenty of patterns to knit back and forth (knit flat) until you decide to try knitting in the round.
We’re always happy to have questions or discuss problems here.
Hi Lisa!!!
I’m Cindy (called knitcindy here) and I’m a 50-ish mom of 4 from the USA. I have ALWAYS wanted to visit Ireland since my dad’s parents were both born there.
I want to recommend a book to get for your cousin. It’s called “Knitting: Learn to Knit Six Great Projects” by Klutz publishers. It explains how to knit VERY simply and then has 6 projects for her to try.
A dvd she could watch is: “The Art of Knitting 4 Kids”. I’ve gotten both the dvd and the book at the local library. VERY simple to understand and helpful. This has some easy projects as well.
Welcome!!
knitcindy
What salmonmac said. It looks harder and more complicated than it is. Whatever you decide to knit you can always find help here. Videos are helpful and this site has a lot of good free videos and youtube has more than you could imagine.
I attempted knitting a flower today. Pretty proud of it, even though its far from perfect.
That’s really pretty. I think you did great! 
It’s wonderful. Well done and quite intricate.