Knits Of The Living Dead

Recently, on one of the knitting blogs/communities I read, someone posed a question to the members about helping people learn how to knit. She asked what book, pattern, yarn and needles we recommend to people just starting to learn how to knit. Whenever I teach, or help someone learn, how to knit I always recommend they have four things before they start.

-Stitch N Bitch and Knitting For Dummies. When I first started knitting, I had a "kit" from Michaels that described what to do but didn't show you exactly how to do it. I remember there were illustrations, but it wasn't clear at all how I was supposed to make each stitch. After much frustration, I ended up purchasing both of these books and they helped me immensely. I owe my skills completely to them.

-A basic idea for a scarf. I try to steer beginners away from grabbing a pattern their first time out. When you're just starting the best thing to do is focus on learning how to make the stitches. The benefit to a scarf project is two fold: 1) it gives them plenty of room to make errors, even if they never wear the scarf they will have something to work their stitches out on and 2) if they excel at basic knitting, they can always try out new stitches at various points in the scarf or keep it as a WIP to work out various stitches before committing them to a nicer yarn.

-Caron's Simply Soft (or the Simply Soft Thick & Quick Yarn). I prefer beginners buy this above any other type of yarn. It requires a minimal investment, it's easy to work with, it comes in a wide array of colors so they're sure to find a nice, brighter color to work with that they enjoy. And, finally, it's SOFT. I have a sweater made entirely out of Simply Soft and it's one of my favorite sweaters (save for the neckline WHICH I will be fixing soon enough. Can we say steeking?? I'm totally going to redo the neckline into a V neck because the neckline does not thrill me at all)

-I usually then lend them the size 8 needles I learned on so that they can find a similar pair in a store. (I have a ton of needles, so I won't miss one pair). It's hard to describe them, but they're not metal and they aren't quite plastic. They have some sort of coating on them that makes them a little grippier than regular plastic needles, and they're heavier than regular plastic needles, but they aren't metal. I love them. I found them to be the easiest to work with when I started knitting.

The post also got me thinking about all the funny errors people I know have made while learning how to knit. I find them amusing because they are usually the same mistakes I made when I first started.

The most common mistake I've noticed is picking a yarn that is deceptively hard to work with. These yarns, most notably boucle, are soft and lovely when knitted or crocheted but they're not good for beginners since they're designed to mimic a homespun style of yarn on crack. They usually end up causing more trouble than is worth it for beginners. Especially when they pick a deceptive yarn in a dark color. I have run across many deceptive yarns in my time knitting and each time that I find a new one, I always get angry and eventually give up on it.

My biggest nemesis was the daisy yarn that Moda Dea produced. I'm not sure of the name of it, but it was this novelty yarn that, when knitted up, produced 'flowers' due to the design of the yarn. I should also mention that the flowers hedged on this thin, flimsy thread that was twisted around the yarn, which caused the 'flower' originating bumps which, when knitted into a stitch, would create a daisy on the fabric. If you broke that itty bitty thread, you would not get any flowers until you got to a new part of the yarn where the thread was still in tact. I also was not a fan of the fact that it took 3 balls of the yarn to make one hat. Yea. Wasn't thrilled. It wasn't cheap yarn. Quality wise it was, but price wise it wasn't.


Another friend of mine, who wanted to knit, actually wound up buying herself a big, bright skein of inexpensive yarn and needles and set about teaching herself. She got stumped on how to figure out how to determine the width of the scarf she was knitting so she came over to my mom's house to ask me. She had the needle FILLED with stitches, which wouldn't have been too bad had they not been super huge, long needles. Yipes! I then explained to her about gauge and how the wrapper on the yarn helps you determine the gauge (approximately) and showed her how to knit up a gauge swatch.

I had a similar issue with gauge and such when I knitted my first non-scarf project. I knitted a pair of wrist warmers in purple and black (one was purple with a black stripe and one was black with a purple stripe). I knitted one wrist warmer when I first started, and finished the second one when I had been knitting a while. Obviously, the first warmer ended up being bigger than the second one because I was still making my stitches loose, even though I was following the suggested gauge on the yarn wrapper. Now I live and die by the gauge swatch when making anything wearable beyond basic scarves.

These seem to be the only two that I can think of....but I'm going to blame that on my imminent cold which was been a day in the making and the lack of concentration I possess while I'm sick.