knitting pattern tips

Hi all

This thread is for posting videos about how to knit - there's loads of stuff on youtube showing how to do all the various stitches and styles. I don't know about you, but I can never keep them all in my head so am always looking stuff up on the internet. Seems a good idea to keep it all together somewhere, so thanks Badger for the suggestion.

I'll post up a few to kick things off...

Nancy

This video also has a nice illustration of how to make a slip knot for your first stitch.

Continental style cast on gives quite a stretchy edge, so good for hats and cuffs and things like that.

Cable style is a bit stiffer along the edge - less stretch and is really neat looking, so better for blankets or other non-clothing items perhaps - water bottle covers and coffee cosies would look nice with this on the edge.

For anyone new to knitting, this is your basic knitting pattern and is made up of alternate rows of knit stitches and pearl stitches. It's good for making just about anything!

Nice and stretchy for cuffs and collars. You can get a really good rhythm going with this one..

The last of the basic how-to-knit things you'd need to know - casting off.

A brilliant start, thank you BB

Thank you for these BB, they are really really great

Ok I'm buying some needles next time I'm in Intermache if I can't find my ignored and lost ones!
Thank you budburst!

Hey, no worries! Glad these are looking useful.

And yeah - go for it Zoe! It gets kind of addictive, especially in winter when all you feel like doing is cosying up on the sofa..

When I was first learning to knit, I found the biggest hindrance was not knowing how to follow the patterns, so thought it would be good to start a thread with tips on how to do that.

Please add your own tips if you've got any more to add. And also if you've got any questions about following knitting patterns, post them up here.

First thing I'll do is go through some of the abbreviations that get used in knitting patterns. Easy when you know what they mean, but a pain if you don't! Some of these have videos to show you how to do this in our knitting tutorial videos thread. I'll try and get more up there when I get a chance.

BASIC STUFF
k - knit
k20 - knit 20 stitches
p - purl
CO - cast on
BO - cast off (= bind off)
st - stitch

KNITTING STYLES
st st - stocking stitch (also called stockinette, this is knit one row, purl one row, repeat)
g st - garter stitch (knit every stitch and every row)

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
alt - alternative
beg - beginning
bet - between
cont - continue
foll - following
in(s) - inches
incl - include
LH - left hand
rem - remaining
rep - repeat
RH - right hand
RS - right side (i.e. front)
rnds - rounds (i.e. rows)
tog - together
WS - wrong side

TYPES OF NEEDLE
CN - cable needle
dpn - double pointed needle

FANCY STUFF
dec - decrease
inc - increase (see k1b, kfb and M1)
k1b - knit into stitch in row below
k2tog - knit the next two stitches together by putting needle through both of them and then knitting as usual
kfb - knit front and back - knit first into the front of the next stitch (as usual) then before slipping it of the needle as you normally would, knit into the back of it too. This increases the width by one stitch.
ktbl - knit through back of loop
kwise - knitwise (usually combined with 'slipping' a stitch onto the active needle - done by inserting the needle as though about to knit a stitch, but you don't knit it, you just slip it over and take out the old needle.
M1 - make one stitch (kfb and k1b both do this too, but another method is to pull the needles slightly apart to reveal a kind of ladder of threads between the two needles. Take up the top rung, twist once and knit it.)
p2tog - purl 2 together as for k2tog above
pfb - pearl front and back (see kfb above)
pwise - pearl wise (see kwise above)
skpo - slip the next stitch onto the active needle, knit the following stitch, pass slipped stitch back over knitted one and off the needle. (this is equivalent to k2tog, but backwards)
sl - slip (insert active needle into next stitch and remove it from old needle without knitting it)
ssk - slip one stitch, slip the next stitch and then knit the slipped stitches together
wyb - with yarn at back
wyf - with yarn at the front
yb - yarn back
yf - yarn forward/front
yfwd - yarn forward
yo - yarn over needle (makes a little hole - useful for lace knitting)
yo2 - yarn over twice

Knitting tension/gauge

There is always somewhere in the pattern where it mentions knitting tension - usually right near the beginning. It's really worth paying attention to this to make sure you get your item in the size you want it. This will tend to be at the beginning of your pattern.

It might say something like 'Gauge: 18sts/25 rows = 4" in St st'

This basically means that the person who made the pattern measured a 4 inch square in her stocking stitch knitting and this was 18 stitches wide and 25 rows high. This is your key to converting your knitting style into her pattern to give an item that measure exactly the same.

You need to knit a square larger than this - give it a good few stitches extra all around and then measure a 4 inch square in the middle (not right up to the edge as you need a good even knit to measure and you might not get that at the edges) and count the stitches wide and number of rows.

You may get the exact same number of stitches and rows, but you may well not. It doesn't really matter if you don't - you will just then need to adjust the pattern to take into account the fact that you knit more tightly or loosely than the pattern maker. If you get 20 stitches wide instead of 18 then for every 18 stitches of width in the pattern, you need to add 2 stitches in. Same obviously goes for rows.

If you really hate maths and don't want the hassle of changing the stitch count in the pattern to match your knitting style, you can make your knitting looser by using larger needles or tighter by using smaller needles. I tend to always use smaller needles as I know my knitting is a bit loose.

Make 1 (M1)