Knitting Wool & Crochet Creations

Slip a stitch, they say! Join in a new ball of knitting wool, they say! Alternate colours, they say! Knitting patterns seem simple at first glance, with their neatly coded actions. However, once you start trying to knit them you'll discover that there is actually quite a lot of assumed knowledge that goes into them. Today we help fill in the gaps for those new to knitting, with the essential techniques for your knitting wool.

Buy Wool for Beginning Knitters
Buying wool that suits your skill level will make the knitting journey so much easier. If you're a beginner, you should buy wool that:
• Is medium to heavy weight
• Is plain and smooth textured
• Has some give in it - many exotic yarns have details built around a central cotton strand which makes it difficult to get the tension correct.

Joining a New Ball of Knitting Wool
Unless your project is in a single colour and small enough to use up only a single ball of wool, every knitter will have to join in a new ball at some stage. Here's how:
• Join your new knitting wool at the end of a row
• Tie the new yarn around the old, leaving a 15cm tail
• Slide the knot right up to the stitch
• When the piece is complete, undo the knot and use a tapestry needle to weave the extra thread into the main pattern.

Change Knitting Wool Colour Every Row
For stripey patterns, it is a right royal pain to cut the wool and thread in the tail for EVERY ROW! Instead, if you can knit your pattern on circular knitting needles, simply knit colour A, then slide the stitches back to the other end and knit colour B.

Tell If Your Tension is Uneven
As you learn to judge your tension, you'll create some very funny looking pieces! To tell if you've knitted with uneven tension before you try on a piece of clothing, though, you can:
• Take a closeup photo of your work and compare to an expertly knitted photo on the internet.
• Or, work up two (rows – should be swatches?) of garter stitch with the exact same stitch count. One swatch should be worked all purl, the other as all knit. If one swatch is larger, you have looser tension in that stitch and can consciously adjust it.

Slip a Stitch
Slipping a stitch simply means that you move it across to the other needle without knitting it. To slip knitwise, put your right needle from the front of the left to the back. To slip purlwise, put your right needle from the back of the left needle to the front.

Sewing up your Knitting

To sew two pieces of knitting together, use a tapestry needle and ensure that your stitches pass around the stitch without splitting the yarn. Use a figure 8 stitch and loop each stitch through your previous seaming stitch.

This isn't an exhaustive list of every knitting technique you need to know, but it is a good start to be able to work on practice pieces!