Learn to knit: beginner

Most knitting patterns for hats are written for knitting in the round, either using double pointed needles (dpn’s), a short circular needle , or two circular needles.

But sometimes you want to make a hat on straight needles by working back and forth instead of knitting in the round. Maybe you don’t have needles for working in the round. Maybe you want to knit intarsia (which you can’t do in the round). Or maybe you want a break from knitting in the round and want to knit flat.

Good news! It’s easy to knit a hat on straight needles.

A scarf is a great first knitting project. I mean, it’s basically a big rectangle, and a knitted rectangle is where most of start. And a scarf is a practical layering item that you’ll actually use, or that you can gift to someone. In this post, I'll tell you how to knit your own scarf.

I wrote a little post about lace blocking, and forgot to mention which lace stitch I used for the sample.

If you look at stockinette stitch from the right side, you will see that it looks the same upside down as it does right side up.

When working in a smallish round, like a hat, you can sometimes use a very short circular needle.

I know I've said it before, but I love what the internet has done for knitting. As web developers, Charles and I have had a bit of a front seat - well, we've had a seat - to watching how the internet has changed so many things: commerce, communication, education, art. For example, the artisan no longer has to rely on the craft fair to sell his or her creations; sites like Etsy create a portal to a huge international audience. Students no longer have to photocopy pages out of academic journals. And the same kind of thing is happening for knitting instructions.

Okay, everyone thinks easy means something different, but if you've mastered the basics you should not have much trouble with these relatively easy knitting stitches.

Here are a few of the basic knitting stitches. These are great for beginners and not a bad reference for even experienced knitters.