knit a scarf

How I did it: My wife and some of our friends do craft night. We hosted at our house so I figured why not learn to knit. I learned to knit first, so started on a scarf in garter stitch (knit every row). I learned Continental style which is a bit faster once you get the hang of it. I just plugged away at it, obsessing about the scarf I'd be wearing soon.

Lessons & tips:

1. For beginners: use chunky yarn and big needles, size 10. You can shrink your needles and yarn as you get better.  
2. Start with a scarf and garter stitch. This is where you knit every stitch of every row. It's simple, and the stitch allows you to go fast so you see results and finish the project quicker. 
3. Don't make a wide scarf; with sz 10 yarn, do about 20 stitches.  This will also make the project go much faster.  You'll really be energized when inch after inch flies forth from your needles!
4. Don't be afraid to do a few practice runs of 10 or 20 rows and rip it all out if you goof up. Pretty soon you'll see where you're prone to making errors and you'll be able to knit many rows error free.
5. Try to avoid knitting too tight. And be careful at the end and beginning of rows.
6. Learn to unknit while you're practicing (reverse the steps of knitting). Then you can unknit a row to get to an error that you missed a couple rows ago.
7. If you goof up and discover it a bunch of rows later, if it isn't too bad, who cares, keep going. :)
8. Once you've gotten that first garter stitch scarf, now you can learn to purl. I suggest seed or rib. For seed, cast on an odd number of stitches. For rib, cast on an even number of stitches. The pattern for both is knit-purl-knit-purl-... for each row. Since every row is the same it's less error prone. As above, keep to big yarn & needles and 20 stitches. It'll go slower than garter but it won't be too bad.  It'll go faster as you get the hang of purling. Knitting too tight will slow you down.

Mar 02, 10:06AM PST | 2 comments | 3 cheers