Blogtoberfest Day 7: My links for knitting basics for beginners

I am not "a knitter", I count myself as a beginner still, sure I have grand expectations of what I will be able to make, but I have slowly come to enjoy knitting. For an impatient person I actually find it relaxing to be able to pick up something crafty, work for 10mins and then be able to leave it, unlike sewing.

When I got the knitting-bug last year I was determined to teach myself. I borrowed books, read instructions, and ended up with balls of frogged yarn and wrinkles that aged me 10 years. Then I checked out Youtube. I am truly a visual learner. Show me in real-life, give me a project/software program to play around with and I'll figure it out, but give me the manual and I'm snoring in 10 minutes.

There are so many ways to cast on, increase, decrease, cast off it's confusing. Some patterns call for a certain method, others just seem to let you do it "your way". So these are the videos and links that I bookmarked and returned to (regularly) while I taught myself the basics before tackling the fancy-schmancy ways.

Knitting Needle Conversion

Yarn Conversion

The Basic Stitches

Casting on : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4HsUJoqVvw

Knit stitch (k) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8kF5JBkjSs

Purl stitch (p) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAMD_XpybQY

Knit 2 together (k2tog) aka decreasing : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBpbLmgwHFA

Make one (M1) aka increasing : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBl79850Ktc

Cast off (CO or Bind Off BO) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0plhuwVF4j0


Ravelry is my knitty & crochet best friend. I love browsing patterns, being able to search on specific yarn and seeing other peoples projects is great when trying to make decisions on what to make.

Tomorrow on Blogtoberfest: Unicorns, Snails and Wildflowers