HOW TO KNIT

 Thumb method - using one needle

To cast on make a slip loop in the yarn about a Metre from the end. (This length varies with the number of stitches to be cast on - 1 Metre will cast on about one hundred stitches. A guide to the length required is - the width of the piece of knitting to be cast on, multiplied by three)

1. Slip loop on to needle which should be held in the right hand.

2. Working with the short length of yarn in the left hand, pass this round the left thumb.

3. Insert the point of the needle under the loop on the thumb, and hook forward the long end of yarn from the ball.

4. Wind yarn under and over the needle and draw through loop, leaving stitch on needle.

5. Tighten stitch on needle, noting that yarn is round thumb ready for next stitch. 

6. Repeat action 3 to 5 for required number of stitches.

  Top

1. Take the needle with the cast-on stitches in your left hand, and the other needle in your right hand. Insert the right-hand needle point through the first stitch on the left-hand needle from front to back.

Keeping the yarn away from you behind the needles, pass the yarn round the point of the right-hand needle so that you form a loop.

2. Draw this loop through the stitch on the left-hand needle, so forming a new loop on the right-hand needle.

3. Allow the stitch on the left-hand needle to slip off.
Repeat this action until you have drawn loops through all the stitches on the left hand to the right-hand needle.
You have now knitted one row. To work the next row, change the needle holding the stitches to your left hand and the free needle to your right hand, and work this row exactly the same way as the first one.

    Top 

Purl

1. Take the needle with the cast- on stitches in your left hand, and the other needle in your right hand. Insert the right-hand needle point through the first stitch on the left-hand needle from back to front.

2. Draw this loop through the stitch on the left-hand needle, thus forming a new loop on the right-hand needle.

3. Allow the stitch on the left-hand needle to slip off.
Repeat this action, with the next stitch, until you have drawn loops through all the stitches on the left-hand needle and passed them on to the right-hand needle.
You have now purled one row. Change the needles, and work other rows in the same way. If you practice knitting and purling, you will find that you become faster and your work becomes much more even.

     Top

Casting off

Work into the first two stitches in the usual way then with the point of the left-hand needle lift the first of these stitches over the second. Work the next stitch and continue in the same manner lifting one stitch over the other until one stitch remains. Break off the wool and pull the end through the last stitch.

An understanding of these basic principles will provide sufficient knowledge to produce the majority of simple fabrics

 Top 

You may print and distribute this page but please leave it intact (including the copyright)