crafting101

Hello! Sorry for posting a little later today, had to take the car to the shop this morning. But here we are, on with Day Three!

I hope that you’ve been able to practice casting on and knitting one row. Once you get that down, the rest is easy. Today, we will turn our work and continue knitting row after row.

Once you have all your stitches on the needle in your right hand (double check that you have 25!), it’s time to switch hands. Put the needle with the stitches on it in your left hand and the empty needle in your right hand. Make sure that you have the yarn behind your needle so you don’t accidentally add stitches to your project! When making any project, making sure you have the correct stitch count is vital. There are ways to fix it, but let’s not have to!

Once you have switched your needles, let’s start knitting again. If you need to refresh yourself, look back at Day Two . Continue to knit across to the end of the row. Then turn your work and knit the next row. Go ahead and knit until you have 25 rows total.

When you have 25 rows, it should look like this. These 25 rows should take you roughly 30 minutes to an hour to finish depending on how slow or how quickly you’re moving.

We will finish the project tomorrow and learn how to bind off and finish the project. When done, you’ll have a nice little trinket to show off!

I hope that you’ve had lots of practice with casting on and are ready to move on to knitting! You should have 25 stitches on your needle. If you do, let’s go!

As I mentioned before, I use the Continental method to knit so that’s what I will be showing you. If you find that you’d rather use the English Method, that’s fine, I can place links to a tutorial at the end of the day for you.

Just remember, this is a teaching test project. Try not to make your stitches too tight, they can be loose and it will help you to get the stitches down. Later you can work on having tighter stitches for your projects.

To begin, take the needle with the stitches on it and place it in your left hand. Your empty needle will be in your right hand (if you’re left-handed, do the opposite.) Make sure to keep your yarn in the back at all times. Take your right needle and put it through the stitch on the left needle from the front to the back. You’re going to come up kind of from the bottom. The right needle should be through the yarn and coming up behind the left needle to make a “X”.

Then wrap the yarn around the right needle, grab the yarn with the index finger on your right hand and pull the needle back through the stitch, opposite of what you did at the beginning.

Now with your left hand, push the stitch off the left needle.

You know have knitted a stitch!

Continue in this pattern for one row. Your row should look like the picture when you are done. If you aren’t sure sometimes which is the right side or wrong side of your work, look at where your tail is from casting on. When you are looking at the “right” side, it will be on the right side hanging down.

Tomorrow we will knit more rows, I want you to keep practicing the casting on and knitting the first row. Until tomorrow!

For more information on the English method of knitting, go to knittinghelp.com .

To begin, knitting is quite fun! While it looks intimidating, once you get the hang of it, it gets pretty easy. Don’t feel frustrated by it, just take it one step at a time. I was going to throw the towel in when I first began, but now, I love it!

First off, there’s two different ways of knitting - English and Continental. The English method is where you hold the yarn in your right hand and “throw” the yarn around the needle and the Continental method is where you hold the yarn in your left hand, more like if you’re crocheting. [Left: Continental; Right: English]

After taking a look at the pictures and getting a feel for how the yarn fits in your hands and how it feels comfortable, you’ll determine which is best for you. I learned to crochet first, so it’s easier to use the Continental method for me. But pick what is best for you (Any pictures you see will have me using the Continental method for my knitting.)

To begin, we need to learn to cast on. Casting on is basically looking at how many stitches you need to begin with to make whatever you are making and you have to get that number of stitches on one of your needles before you can begin to actually knit.

First, grab one of your needles and the end of your yarn. For this simple project, we are going to cast on 25 stitches. Take your yarn with one end in one hand and hold your arm out until it’s straight. Hold the yarn against your arm like you’re measuring it. A good rule of thumb is for every twenty stitches, measure out one arm length of yarn. Grab the place where the yarn meets your shoulder and add about two inches of yarn, probably to about where the yarn meets your neck. You want to make sure you have enough yarn or you’ll have to start again if you run out of a tail.

You are now going to make a slip knot to put onto your needle. To make a slip knot, lay the yarn on one of your fingers. Throw one end over the top, you should have a circle now. Grab the shorter end of the yarn and pull it through the circle until the yarn is all the way through.

	You now have a slip knot!

Now to casting on. No matter which way you are holding your yarn, this is how you do a Long Tail Cast On. Hold your needle with the slip knot in your right hand. Let the yarn hang down. Take your thumb and index finger of your left hand and with those two fingers, part the yarn. Grab the two strands of yarn with your three other fingers to hold it tight. I always use my index finger on my right hand to hold the slip knot (and later stitches) on the needle so they don’t slip off.

You should have what looks like a “Y” with your yarn and needle. There is a hole created by where your yarn crosses by your thumb. Take your needle and put it up through the hole (you’re coming up from below). Once you do that, there is a big gap in the yarn by your index finger and the fingers holding the yarn. Put your needle through that one from the front. Now there’s a hole created between your needle and your thumb. Put your needle through that hole through the top. Bow pull your thumb out and pull the yarn tight.

You’ve casted on your first stitch!

Continue with this method until you have twenty-five stitches on your needle. You will count the slip knot as one of your stitches. When you get to reading patterns, look over the pattern because some patterns will not have you counting the slip knot as a stitch. But for everything I show you this month, the slip knot counts as a stitch.

If you have questions, please post them in the comment section. I will check it throughout the day, week and month to see what you all have to say! Thanks for joing me for lesson one!

List of materials for the May 2008 class:

One pair of size 7 or 8 needles
Five balls of cotton yarn, solid colors are best
Pair of scissors
Tapestry needle

Each week we’ll be working on a small project, something just to get your feet wet with learning the stitches. If you choose not to have some much yarn, you can reuse the yarn for the first couple of weeks, but when it’s time for the KAL (knit-along), you’ll need one ball to complete the project. Trust me, you won’t want to undo all you’ve done! With all the practicing, you’ll end up using one ball a week and more than likely will have some yarn leftover each week. I recommend keeping scraps in one place to use for other projects.

For the week in review, I’ll post a couple of patterns you can make yourself with all the new stitches that you’ve learned. I’ll remind you of what you’ve learned, what the pattern entails and just to have fun!

Please feel free to post comments about all you’re hard work, include links to pictures or post them on your blog for me and others to look at. See you Monday!

That’s right, we have a schedule!

The main idea of this blog is to teach you new crafts so having a schedule so you know what’s happening and when you should tune in is very important.  I have a detailed, week-by-week schedule for the month of May (which includes the last few days of April) and then an overview of June - October.

May: Knitting Know-Hows
April 28 - May 2 –> Knitting 101: Learn the basics of the knit stitch including how to cast on.
May 5  - 9 –> Purling 101: Learn the basics of the purl stitch.
May 12 - 16 –> Knitting - 5 new stitches: Learn five different stitches to knit with
May 19 - 23 –> Knit-Along #1: In five days you will have a completed project with just a few lines a day
May 26 - 30 –> Week in Review

June: Crochet
July: Sewing Basics
August: Knick-Knacks
September: Bags, Purses and Totes
October: Christmas!

That’s a very important question to ask. Why should a person take up something called ‘crafting’? First off, let’s define what ‘crafting’ is. In my own words, crafting is taking some sort of object and manipulating it into something else. For example, you gather together some piping, construction paper and glue and create a flower from it. But why should you take up this art? Yes, I do call it an art. Creating anything out of nothing is art. Here are a few reasons to take up crafting.

1. For starters, it can be a stress reliever. Picking up some needles to knit a simple dishcloth can be very relaxing. Whatever craft you pick actually takes you away from the reality of life. You can sit on the back porch overlooking the backyard and relax while you’re knitting. Some let out their stress through sewing. They can relax while quilting. It’s a distraction from the everyday hum-drum of life.
2. You’re recycling! Yes, you can benefit the earth by making a craft! How is that possible? In future lessons, you’ll see how you can take plastic and crochet, knit or sew with it. You can use brown paper sacks for various art projects instead of throwing them out. Instead of throwing your scraps of fabric or yarn out, you can create a new project with them. Anything to help the planet is a good reason!
3. The satisfaction of compleing a project is a great feeling for people. There are some people who are excited and thrilled to have finished a project and if they’ve given them to people as gifts or made something for their child, they are so excited to see the looks on their faces when they receive the gift. But to know you’ve finished something, it’s worth celebrating since there are people who never get to finish anything in their lives.
4. Finally, it’s fun! You get to meet new people! I can’t tell you have many I have met that do various crafts. It’s fun to discuss what you’re doing, get advice and just show your work off to others that get pleasure in the same thing as you. Why wouldn’t you want to have fun?

I hope that these reasons have helped to get you interested in starting a new craft. There are plenty of other reasons why you should get started, but no need to post every reason in the world, just the most important ones to get you an idea of what you can accomplish and how you can use crafting to your benefit. See you soon!

Hello good people! 

I’m glad you’ve found your way to my brand new blog! As the title states, it’s all about crafts and learning new and interesting things related to crafting. I’ll have pictures, tutorials, videos, instructions and more about how to knit, crochet, sew and more. The possibilities are endless! Please enjoy your stay here and I welcome comments and suggestions and of course - new topics!