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Now I’m going to show you how to do the herringbone stitch in knitting. This is one of knitting’s most complicated fabrics to make, but it is one of the most rewarding also. As you can see it looks almost intricately woven. It’s a very, very thick and squishy fabric. I’ll be showing you on a size 13 with bulky yarn. This is normally a much bigger needle size than I would use to make fabric with this yarn. I would normally use a size 10 and this is herringbone on a size 10 with the same yarn. It’s just way too packed in and way too dense.

So when you’re working herringbone, go up a few needle sizes. A few things to know about herringbone before we get started is that it’s definitely a two row pattern, so you need to work the front and work the back in order to see what its going to look like. And you have to knit in for a couple inches before you can actually see a result. So here’s what we’re going to do. To begin you have to slip two stitches as if to knit.

You’re going to slip as if to knit and slip as if to knit, then you’re going to insert the tip of your left hand needle into the front of both stitches and watch carefully first. You’re going to wrap the yarn around and bring up a loop and then you’re only going to drop off that first stitch. Leave the second one there. Then you’re going to slip as if to purl and slip as if to knit, and then do the same thing. Insert the tip of the left needle into the front of both stitches and pull up a new loop.

From them on out it’s exactly the same thing. Drop one off, slip as if to knit, slip as if to purl, knit into the front of both stitches and only drop off the first loop. So don’t forget that when you start a row, you have to slip as if to knit, slip as if to knit, but from then on out, slip as if to purl, slip as if to knit. This is not TV knitting, at least not at first. This is definitely something you have to pay attention to and keep your eyes on. Slip as if to purl, slip as if to knit, knit into the front of these stitches, and only take the first loop off.

So here I am nearing the end of my row, I’m going to slip as if to purl, slip as if to knit. Knit two through the front, drop one off. Slip as if to purl, slip as if to knit, knit through the front with the left hand needle, drop the first one off, and there’s one stitch left. You’re going to knit it through the back loop. Then when you’re on the back, you’re going to purl two together, but only drop the first loop off. You might need your fingertips for that. Then repeat across the row. Purl two together, drop only the first loop off. Purl two together, drop only the first loop off.

Continue going across the row that way and when you get to the very end, you’ll have only one stitch left, and you will purl it. And that is how you get the beautiful herringbone stitch. Good luck and pay attention to it at first.

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I’m going to teach you how to make the linen stitch, which is a really beautiful fabric that ends up looking like it’s a little bit more woven than it is knitted. It’s essentially stockinet. You’re always going to be working the stitches knit-wise on the front and purl-wise on the back, but there’s something special that you do.

You’re going to start by knitting one, and then you’re going to move your yarn to the front as if to purl, but you’re not going to purl that stitch, you’re just going to slip it, and then move the yearn to the back. The yarn actually crosses in front of your knit stitch. You always want the yarn to cross the stitch on the front of your work. This is the front of our piece, no matter if we’re knitting this side, or that side. We’re going to do it again, we’re going to knit one, move the yarn to the front, slip a stitch, move the yarn to the back. Knit, move the yarn, slip, move the yarn. Knit, move the yarn, slip, move the yarn.

You’re making a work-the-stitch, and then make-a-dash; the dash is the yarn going across the front. Work-a-stitch and make-a-dash. Just don’t forget to move that yarn. It feels a lot like knit one purl one, because you’re knitting one, and moving the yarn; doing something and moving the yarn. On the back, remember that it’s like stockinet, so that on the back we have to do purls. You can tell that this one is a little bit farther down, which means this is the one that needs to be worked. I’m going to slip this to make a nice slip stitch edge. I’m going to purl this stitch, and then I’m going to move the yarn to the back as if to knit, but instead, I’m going to slip it. Move the yarn and purl, move the yarn and slip. Move the yarn and purl, move the yarn and slip. What I’m doing I’m ending up slipping the yarn in front of the stitches that got knit on the last row so that the slip stitches are alternating like a checkerboard.

On the front, we knitted a stitch, and then we moved the yard to the front and slipped one over. Then we moved the yarn back so that that yarn is in front of the slip stitch. On the back, we purled one, and then we moved the yarn to the front of the work, and slipped one over so that the yarn is always in front.

For a 2-color linen stitch which actually looks really, really nice, you’re going to be alternating rows of color, so that I just finished going back-and-forth with the tan yarn. Now I’m going to be going back and forth with the color yarn, and I’ll just show you a little bit of that just so that you can see what it looks like. I’m going to move the yarn to the front and slip the stitch. Move the yarn to the back and knit the stitch so that every other stitch is turning into color Number 2, because I’m only working every other stitch. You can see that I’ve got my slip stitch; it doesn’t count yet because we’re working on the back; tan, brown, tan, brown, tan, brown. We would continue that all the way across.

Here we are nearing the end of our first row. It’s time to work the back. It’s really easy to see which stitches need to be purled, because they’re still tan. I’m going to slip this one from my slip stitch edge, purl this stitch, move the yarn to the back, because in linen stitch we always want this yarn wrap to be showing on the front. Slip it, move the yarn to the front, and purl it. Move the yarn and slip, move the yarn and purl; which is now turning every stitch brown on my needle, whereas the first row turned every other stitch brown.

Linen stitch really looks great alternating every other row with a different color. That is how to work linen stitch. A little complicated, but it has a great rhythm once you practice for a little while.

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So one of the secrets of finishing your garments really well is to weave in your ends so beautifully and secretly that not even the best knitter could tell where they are if they were to turn your garment inside out. And the reason we leave long ends in the first place is because in knitting, there are no knots. It’s just a series of loops coming up through loops. And anywhere where you were to tie a knot and trim would therefore be the weakest point in your knitting, and if it’s going to unravel anywhere over years of use, it will be there at that knot.

So we’re not going to tie a knot. Instead, we’re going to take that long tail that you’ve left either from your cast-on or bind-off edge or from a color change and we’re going to put it on to a tapestry needle or a blunt-tipped giant sewing needle. And the first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to take that yarn to the inside of the garment. So now I’m going to flip this mitten inside out. This mitten doesn’t have a really discernible inside or outside, but for this sake, let’s say this is now the inside.

And what I’m going to do, I’ve knit this in garter stitch. So I’ve got all these wonderful little garter ridges in which to hide an end. So I’m going to take the needle under this pearl bump here, and then down the next one, up the following. And see how when I do it this way, it’s just sort of mirroring this garter ridge? And if I don’t pull too tight, which would be weird, because I worked to keep this knitting loosely, and I don’t leave it too loose so that there are little loops sticking up, I’m just replicating the fabric that I made.

And I’m getting this end far away from where it actually is coming from. Two inches will usually suffice. With a more slippery yarn like a cotton or a silk, you might want to be a little trickier, like go up this ridge and then down this ridge. But as long as you’re alternating, going up one stitch and down the other and you’re making sure not to let the tails show on the surface of the knitting, you’re doing great.

So once you’ve gotten pretty far away from your original site, you can take your scissors and trim really close to the surface of the work, flip it back right side up, and now hopefully no one will ever, ever, ever be able to see where that’s coming from or unravel it. So then I would do the same thing with the tail sticking out here. I would thread it on to a tapestry needle, push it to the inside of the work, flip it inside out, and weave my end in.

When you’re doing a Fair Isle garment that has lots and lots and lots of color changes, you’re going to have lots and lots of ends to weave in. So put on a good TV show or movie or sit down with the telephone, turn your work inside out, and weave in all your ends before you trim them.

Good luck.

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I’m going to show you how to make an Icord.

For this you’re going to need double pointed needles. So, I’ve got four stitches cast on to this double pointed needle.

For the first row, I’m going to knit them like normal, one, two, three, four, now if I were going to knit this in rows I would then turn it around and do something on the back.

However, do not turn it around, what you’re going to do is, you’re going to slide it with the same face facing you to the other end of the same needle and insert this needle and knit the four again. But, this time, your yarn is going to be coming from the fourth stitch instead of the first stitch where it should have been coming from had you worked at the back.

So, again, knit one, two, three, four, do not turn, do not do anything just slide it down, switch the blank needle to your right hand and knit the four again.

So, when you pull the yarn from that fourth stitch around to knit the first, what you’re doing is sort of, making a little tube. That’s why it’s called a cord. And, here it is again, there’s the yarn coming from that fourth side, you’re going to pull it tight here when you knit the first stitch, which then sort of pulls the back together and makes it round.

And the I in Icord, short for idiot, which is no longer really proved terminology, but the idea behind idiot cord was that this was so simple that anyone could learn it. So, if it’s confusing you, don’t worry, just practice you will get it. Finish the row, slide it down, I’m showing you on bulky yarn but you could use any size yarn and really any number of stitches up to a point. Smaller numbers of stitches are what we usually see.

That’s an Icord, there’s the back, there’s the front, it’s nice and round. But, an Icord by itself is only so useful, there’s a way to do an attached Icord. I’m going to show you here on this piece of garter stitch. So we’ve got garter stitch in the middle with attached Icords on the side which is a little more complicated.

So, here I am working across one side of my garter stitch and I’ve got a three stitch Icord on both sides. So, because I want the yarn to be coming from here, when I knit that stitch on the other side, I’m going to pass the yarn to the front and slip these three stitches over.

Then when I turn it around I’m ready to knit this first stitch with the yarn that’s coming from over here. So, I’m going to knit nice and tightly, two, three and that sort of pulls these three stitches around to make an attached Icord. Let’s just shoot over to the other side and see if we can do it over there.

You can do attached Icords on the bottom brim of hats, on the cuffs and necklines of sweaters, you can do them hanging down from earflaps as low tassel holders. So here we are.

Now this time, what we’re going to do is we’re going to leave the yarn in the back and we’re going to slip these three stitches over and we’re going to purl these stitches so that we can maintain the stockinette stitch of our Icord and the yarn is coming from here which is good, that means it’s going to pull this closed.

So this time, we’re going to purl three with the yarn coming from all the way over here, but working the first stitch. And then I’m going to move the yarn and continue to knit my garter stitch. I’m just going to pull this stockinette tube shut and I’ll be working this one as illustrated before.

So that is how to do an attached Icord.

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So once you’ve finished the scarf a really fun way to make it a little more exciting at the end is to add some fringe. So here’s my little scarf sample and I’ve decided that I want one, two, three, four, five little bundles of fringe and I think I’m going to want each one to be two pieces of yarn wide, because the yarn I’m using is pretty thick. So I want 10 pieces of yarn that are all the same length.

So the way I like to do this is, I like to measure a piece of cardboard to be as long or slightly longer than the fringe that I want. So I’m going to wrap 10 times, because I want 10 pieces of fringe. Remember there’s one on the front and on on the back, so that’s two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 and now, what I’m going to do is just cut along the bottom. I want the top loops to remain.

So now what I’m going to do is, I’m going to take a crochet hook and I’m going to insert it into where I want the fringe to be hanging from, and then I’m going to use the crochet hook to pull the top loop of that fringe through. I’m going to be doing what’s called a lark’s head knot. So I’m going to reach my fingers through the loop and pull the tails through and then when I pull, I don’t have to pull very tightly. This will stay on really, really well. That’s called a lark’s head knot.

Another way to do fringe is, instead of tying a lark’s head knot we can do an overhand knot. So I’m going to use the crochet hook to pull through, where I want the fringe to go and by the way, I’m just going through my scarf, sort of at the bottom of a stitch. So any place that you see that looks like it would be a great place to add some fringe, you can.

So for this one I went ahead and pulled two of the ends all the way through, so that the bottom edge of my scarf is holding it up in the middle. Now I’m going to tie an overhand knot, which just means making a loop with all my threads and pulling the tail ends through, and then really working with your own hands to try to get that knot, up towards the top of your scarf. So there we have a lark’s head knot and an overhand knot, two different ways of making fringe hang down from your scarf.

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If a pattern asks you to slip a stitch, there are two different ways that you might do that. The first one is to slip as if to knit and the second is to slip as if to purl. It’s very easy. If you are going to knit a stitch, you would be inserting your right needle into the left side of the stitch. So to slip a stitch as if to knit means to slip it that way. So you don’t knit it at all, you just pass it over to the right needle.

If you were going to purl a stitch, you would be inserting your right needle into the right side of the loop. So to slip a stitch as if to purl, you’re going to slip it that way. It’s a small thing, but it really does make a difference in how the stitches are mounted on the needle. So here’s a slip as if to knit. Here’s a slip as if to purl. Slip as if to knit comes from the left side. Slip as if to purl comes from the right side. That’s how to slip a stitch.

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If you’d like to make a scarf, but you don’t want to use a pattern or you like to come up with your own, there are a few different things that you need to keep in mind. One is that a scarf has a right side and a wrong side and so a reversible fabric would really be great. And two, you get to decide how wide your scarf is and how long. So before you cast on for your actual scarf, you should do a swatch and find out how many stitches it takes to make your pattern and how many more you’d like to cast on for the actual thing.

So I’m going to show you some examples of some reversible fabrics that are easy for beginners to do and that would make great scarves. So the first one is just a basic garter stitch, which is knitting on the front and knitting on the back. You can leave the edges plain or you could work an attached eye cord, like I show here or just a simple slip stitch edge. The next would be some ribbing. Here is a 1 x 1 knit one, purl one, which is the same on both sides and a 2 x 2, knit two, purl two which is also reversible.

Next up is seed stitch, which is just knit one, purl one and switch that on every row, totally reversible and has a great texture. Here’s seed stitch with a color changing yarn, something that’s variegated that adds just a little more interest to that texture. Here is double seed stitch or moss stitch, equally as beautiful with a little more depth, and here’s basket weave. All of these are just examples of fabrics that are the same on the front as they are on the back.

But you don’t have to limit your scarf to completely reversible fabrics. In fact, there are some stitch patterns that are meant to have a right side and a wrong side, but the wrong side looks pretty cool. For example, here we have the linen stitch knit in two colors. This is the front and this is the back, which doesn’t look like a wrong side at all.

Here is herringbone, which is one of the most beautiful and complicated stitches. This is the right side and this is the wrong side, which looks completely different, but wouldn’t at all be out of place showing if your scarf were to flip over in the breeze. Here’s a lace stitch, which even though it has stockinette on the front and reverse stockinette on the back, if you block it out, its so cool that no one would probably guess that there was a right side and a wrong side.

But probably everyone’s favorite stitch for a scarf is just that 1 x 1 ribbing in a yarn that does really cool things by itself, like this noro yarn that’s striped and has no right side and no wrong side. So these are just a few suggestions of some great stitches to use for your first scarf.

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I’m going to show you how to work a chevron stitch, which is just little mountains of reverse stockinette, set against mountains of stockinette. So here on my sample you can see that I’ve got this row, which is stockinette on the front and reverse stockinette on the back. Then we have the opposite, the rows of purl bumps here, for the reverse stockinette chevrons that sort of intertwine. I’m going to show you how to set that up.

I’ve paused here on a row where I’m going to start my next row of triangles. I kind of cheat by saying okay, this is five stitches wide, so my chevrons start with one, then they go to three, then they go to five. This one here is the center stitch in the middle of this little triangle of five. One, two, three, four, five purl bumps, which means this one here in the middle is going to be the one that changes to start the peak of my stockinette. So that’s going to be one knit stitch here.

Here I go I’m going to slip my first stitch and I’m going to purl five to get over there. One, two, three, four, five purls. Now here I am on the stitch that’s going to start the peak of my next stockinette chevron. So I’m going to move the yarn to the back and knit this one, and then continue to purl five. One, two, three, four, five, move the yarn and knit one. There it is lining up again, right in the middle of my peak. Continue that across the row.

You could do this in the round. You could do this as wide or as short as you want. Five, lift the yarn and knit one. Now we’re going to finish out the row and I’ll show you what it looks like on the other side. This is a great stitch, because it is reversible. Whatever is stockinette on this side is going to be reverse stockinette on the other side, making it completely reversible.

So here you can see the little purl bumps here that are going to begin on this side reverse stockinette chevrons. Now where there was one there needs to be three, so I’m going to knit over to there and do three purl bumps and continue across the row.

So you’re building up these little chevrons of one, then three, then five. Here comes our three, one, two, three. Now I’m going to complete this across the row. On the other side, remember these three purl bumps are going to look like three Vs, three knit stitches. So on the back we’re going to be turning those three knit stitches into five knit stitches.

Here we are two, three, finish that row with purls. Now we’re going to look on the back and we can see the beginnings of these chevrons building up. Started with one, then three, and when I continue I would then do five, and there would only be one knit stitch in between. Then you would be reversing the process again. Once you’ve got five in a row of something, the center stitch is going to become the opposite pattern for the next chevron.

You can also do the same thing, but shorter triangles and you can decide which version you like or you can chart your own triangles. They could be seven wide at the base or nine, as long as you have an odd number, so that you always have a center of a peak of a triangle. Good luck with your chevrons.

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So sometimes when you’re finishing your knitting, the regular bind-off is just a little too tight and you need something stretchy. So instead of the regular bind-off you can work it this way. You’re going to knit two stitches together, which gives you one and then you’re going to put that one back on your left-hand needle and then you’re going to knit two stitches together again.

Then you’re going to put that one back on your left-hand needle, and continue on as such, knitting two together and slipping it back onto the left-hand needle, which essentially means you’re knitting every stitch twice, which gives you a much stretchier bind-off. This is great for toe-up socks, where the bind-off needs to fit over your heal, and the necks of sweaters for people with big heads, like toddlers. So that is how to work a stretchy bind-off.

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All right. So, it happens to all of us. You’re knitting along, you’re having a great time, you’re talking to your friends and all of the sudden you realize you have dropped a stitch a couple of rows below. Didn’t realize it. Or maybe you’re coming along to a stitch and all of a sudden it drops and it falls all the way down just like a run in your stockings. Because that’s basically what it is. When you have a run in stockings, you get this ladder going down your leg and when you drop a loop down, it creates ladders above the loop and what those ladders are are just stitches that have come out of their looped form, because they have nothing to hold them there.

So here’s my little dropped stitch down here. I’m going to show you one technique on how to pick it up with a crochet hook, which is fast and easy.

So try to find the loop wherever it maybe hanging out, and you’re going to insert the crochet hook into the loop from front to back. And now you’re going to use the hooked part of the crochet hook to go under the first ladder, that is the ladder that’s closest to the loop itself. And then you’re going to use that hook to pull the ladder through the loop. And there’s one row of knitting saved. You’re going to do it again. Take the head of the crochet hook under the ladder, and pull it through the loop, making loops coming up through loops, which is what we do in when we’re knitting except these loops have fallen all the way down.

So repeat that as many rows as you need to until you get the loop all the way up to where it needs to be and then you’re going to put it on to the left hand needle and make sure that you mount it with the right side of the loop in front, not the left side of the loop in front. That’s something that happens a lot when we pick up dropped stitches, is we sort of get them mounted incorrectly. And then give your fabric a little tug to even things out. Then you knit it as normal.

But that’s also a way to fix a mistake. If you have a mistake down here that you want to fix, you can on purpose ladder down, which means undoing that knit. You can drop the stitch all the way down until you get to the mistake and then you can fix it by picking back up again.

But that’s just how to do it in stockinet. What if you have a drop stitch in garter? So here’s a garter stitch sample and I’m going to drop this stitch. So on garter stitch we’re going to need to go in from a couple of different directions. I’m going to drop a few down here. So I’m going to catch my stitch and if I ladder all the way back up, the way I did in stockinet knit, I would have a column of only knit stitches running all the way up in the middle of my garter stitch, which is not what I want.

So we’re going to have to be smart and alternate. I just picked up one from this side that was in the right in the direction and now I need to sort of reverse things and go to the other side of my knitting and try not to lose that loop. There’s my loop and I’m going to pick one up from this side, grab the ladder and pull one up. Then I’m going to go back to the other side, find my loop and grab one from this side. Go back to the other side. We’re just turning. Grab my loop from this side and now I’ve managed to ladder back up in garter stitch, which is basically a knit and a purl, a knit and a purl, a knit and a purl. I can put it back in my needle, making sure that this stitch in mounted correctly, with the right leg in front and I can continue on.

So that’s how to pick up a dropped stitched or to drop a stitch on purpose to ladder down to fix a mistake.

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Here’s how to do the basic bind-off in knitting. You need to get two stitches on your right needle, so you’re going to knit two. One, two and then the name of this game is to pass the bottom stitch up over the top stitch and off the tip of the needle. So I like to grab it with my left hand needle and just scoop it up and off and drop. That leaves me with one stitch, so I need another one. So I’m going to come collect one more.

I’m going to use the tip of the left hand needle to grab the bottom stitch, bring it up and over the top stitch, and continue on as such. Knit one, bring this one up and over the top and drop it. Knit one, bring this one up and over the top and drop it. What you’re getting is this nice chained edge that does have a tendency to be a little unyielding. So if you are going to do this, go up a needle size. I knit my swatch on 10’s and I am binding off on 13’s or just keep in mind that you have to make these bind-off stitches really loose. So that is the basic bind-off in knitting.

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Hi, my name is Jessica Kaufman and I love to teach people how to do crafts. I really love to teach people how to knit because it is so empowering to be able make everything for yourself, to make your own clothes and garments. And what I really love is helping people when they get to the point where they want to try something and their minds can wrap around but their hands can’t yet. So really just help you through that zone where you know what you want to do, but you can’t actually do it yet.

I love pointing out that, hey, an hour ago you were really frustrated and your body was tense, you didn’t know what to do and now you can look at me while you do it with your hands. I have taught kids and grown-ups a variety of crafts and what I really hope that people get when they work with me is that sense of, ‘I really can do this! And not only can I do it, think about all the different ways in which I can take what I have learned now and just really break the mold and go out there and try things that I didn’t think I could try before.’

I am available for private lessons and for teaching workshops, in a variety of different craft genres. You can find me at happygocrafty.com and I hope that when you watch this series, you’ll feel empowered to be able to do these skills at home, to teach them to friends and to make lots of wonderful things for yourself and for all your friends and family.

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Almost every pattern talks about getting the right gauge. It’s really important to understand what ‘gauge’ means, so in this video I’m going to tell you a little bit about what gauge is and then actually show you how to find it yourself using a few simple tools.

Depending on what size yarn and what size needle you are getting, you’re making different sized loops and the number of stitches per inch that you are making is your gauge. So, if you are using a really fine yarn like this fingering weight yarn, I’m getting somewhere around seven and a half or eight stitches to the inch on this I think. Whereas a huge bulky yarn like this, I’m getting about two stitches to the inch. There’s a huge difference in, if a pattern says to cast on 30 stitches, with this yarn you would get something much different, than if you cast on 30 stitches with this yarn.

That seems like a really obvious example but when you get down to the finer things, like fractions of stitches per inch, it really does make a difference in how your garment fits.

So, you’re going to use this little thing called a ‘knit check’. This is one example of something you can use to measure gauge. In a pinch, you could just use a ruler but lots of different companies make different versions of this. However, I find this one to be the more readily available and the cheaper version, just this little metal one.

It has a window here to measure your stitch gauge and your row gauge. I’m going to be showing you how to measure your stitch gauge because that is the most important thing I do. This is the most important measurement to get, before you worry about getting this.

So what you are going to do is you are going to have your knitted sample. For example, if I wanted to make this hat, the responsible thing to do to get a great fitting hat would be to knit a little swatch first. So I would use the stitch pattern that’s called for in the hat and I would make a tiny sample and I would measure that.

So here I am placing the knit check with the little window over a clear row of stitches the first thing I am going to do is I’m going to line up this left hand row with the edge of one row of stitches. You can see I’m pushing it down to highlight that this little column here is one column of stitches. So that’s a great use for this left hand side, is to line up with the stitch.

Now I’m going to be looking down here. I’m going to count the number of stitches that I can see in this two inch window. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. It’s just a touch under eight. So I’m going to say that I – I’m going to estimate and say that I’m getting four stitches to the inch with this yarn. So that would help me know if I wanted to cast on a child’s hat that was 20 inches around. If I was getting four stitches to the inch, then I would want to cast on 80 stitches to fit that child’s head.

So that’s just an example of how to find your gauge and do a simple gauge calculation to find out how many stitches per inch you need to get for the yarn that you are using. And when you start using a different yarn or a different needle combination, always make a swatch and check your gauge again, because it can change.

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Hey. I’m going to show you how to sew up the seam from the cast-on edge and the cast-off edge of an item, such as these garter stitch mitts. I’ll be showing how to sew this seam here, and this seam here.

I’ve got it started here for you. I have loaded the tail onto a tapestry needle with a blunt tip. Basically what I’m going to be doing is I’m going to be coming under 2 pieces of yarn. There’s 1, there’s 2; I’m going to stick the needle under there. I’m going to pull not too tightly because I want to try to replicate with the sewing yarn the same tension that I was getting with my knitting needles.

I’m going to come back under the side that’s closer to me, under 2 pieces of yarn. I’m going to pull tight, but not too tightly. If you leave it too loose, you’ll be able to see your skin between the 2 edges. If you leave it too tight, it’s going to be stiff and immobile, and feel strange. I’m coming underneath every time, so from the inside of the mitten out, catching 2. Like a shoelace, zigzagging under, catching 2 from this side, catching 2 from this side. Every once in a while, just giving it a little test stretch, just to make sure that I’m getting the tension right. Coming under 2.

The reason why we want to come under 2 pieces of yarn instead of 1 is because if we come under just one piece yarn of yarn, because knitting is a loop, it’s going to pull the other part of the loop out of alignment, and you’re going to get this big, gaping hole. We don’t want any holes in our sewing seams. We’re going to go instead under 2 pieces of yarn, and that renders a much quicker seam.

When I’ve gone as far as I need to go, I’m going to reverse the process to tuck in the end and make this a really strong stop. I just came out of this side; I’ve been zigzagging and shoelacing all the way up. What I’m going to do is I’m going to duck under from the top this time, and come out. Before I pull that loop really right, I’m going to stick my needle down into it, and pull, so that I’ve made a little . . . it’s a knot, but it’s just a little hitch.

What I’m going to do is I’m going to stick my needle into the inside of the fabric, and I’m going to flip it inside-out and weave that end under a piece of yarn from the top, and then from the bottom, and the top. This is just hiding my end, so that if anything were to happen to the top of that seam, the end wouldn’t be right there ready to unravel. There’s no way that this is going to unravel.

Now that I’ve woven it in an inch or so from the site of the reversal, it’s safe for me to trim close to the surface of the knitting. That’s sewing the seam. Coming up to where I want it to, stop, reversing it, tucking it into that little half-hitch, and then hiding the seam on the inside. Then I would do the same thing. I would use one of these tails up here, going from underneath 2 to underneath 2, all the way down to where I wanted it to stop on this side. Reversing it with that half-hitch, and weaving in the ends. Then you get this nice seam that is flexible, feels like part of your knitting, and holds your ends securely in place. Good luck with your mitts.

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So one really easy way to make a beautiful beginner’s scarf that looks more complicated than it is, is to work a gather. So I’m going to show you how to work a gather now. You can do them as often or as infrequently as you want to change the look of your scarf. So I’ve been knitting this fabric, stockinette, knitting on the front and purling on the back on a size 13 needle, but now I’m going to come in with a size 8 needle, and do a drastic decrease row, which means I’m going to decrease across the entire row.

And I’m knitting two together, which is a right leaning decrease, but you could work any decrease you want, as long as it’s drastically reducing the number of stitches. So I’m reducing the number of stitches by 50% and I’m going way down on my needle size. Now I am working my gather in garter stitch, as you can see just two rows. So now I’m going to knit across the back, because I’m working garter. I’m going to slip the first stitch. Now I have half as many stitches to work on.

So that made one garter stitch row and I’ve been working two, but you can do as many as you want. When you are ready to go back to your big needle what you’re going to do is, you’re going to increase across first, because it’s really hard to stick the giant 13 needle into these size 8 loops. So before I’m ready to work with my bigger needle, again when I’m coming out of my gather, I’m going to increase into every single stitch.

And I really like knit one front and back, so I’m going to work those increases, but you could work any increase you feel like; M1 would be an invisible increase; a yarn over would add a little lacy eyelet row to your increased row. That would make a really cool gather. I’m going to do knit one front and back to get back to my original number of stitches.

So here we are finishing our increase row and now we’re going to use the bigger needle to start stockinette again. So remember stockinette is purling on the back, so I’m going to purl every stitch on this row and then I would knit every stitch on the front, and my fabric would balloon back out again.

So to work a gather all you do is decrease drastically and use a much smaller needle for as long as you want. Then when you’re done with your gather, you increase every single stitch and start working your stitch pattern, again with your bigger needle. That is how to make a gathered scarf.

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So I’m going to show you how to block your knitting. And I think blocking your knitting is essential for taking your piece from homemade to really looking hand made.

One of the wonderful qualities of wool is that when you put it in a tepid bath, not hot or cold, the fibers relax and become really pliable and let you even them out and shape them. So in this water bath I have a little bit of Eucolon. There’s lot of different wonderful wool washes available. This just happens to be the one that I have with me today. I like it because it has lanolin in it and it adds a little bit of natural softness back to your wool.

So I’ve had my lace sample soaking in here and just to remind you that when you first knit lace, it tends to bunch up and you can’t really see its openness. So I’m going to now pull the silk sample out and I’m going to gently, gently press the water out. We don’t want to ring it or really scrub at it because then it may start to felt.

So I have here a thirsty towel that I tied many years ago, so I’m just going to press as much water out of it as I can. This really cuts down on drying time. You can see how sort of puny and crumpled up it is. But what I want to do is I want to block this piece to 4 1/2″ tall and 6″ wide. So I have here a few tools. I have these rust-free T-pins so called because they’re shaped lie a T and I have my measuring tape.

So first I’m going to get the corner set. I want this to be about 6 inches wide. I’m going to pin here. I’m going to pin at 6 inches. And really it’s wonderful. I couldn’t have done this when the wool was dry but thanks to it having a nice, long soak I can and now I’m going to measure 4-1/2 inches tall. So now I blocked out the corners, 6 inches, 6 inches, 4-1/2, 4-1/2. And now what I’m going to do is I’m going to start trimming all of the edges on all of the sides up to where we want them to be. And this is where you get to decide if you want your piece to have straight edges, or if you want them to have little scallops or points. I’m going to try to get mine as straight as possible. I’m trying to make a rectangle and I’ll just start in the center and work out picking this from there.

And really this wool will stretch pretty far and that’s because it’s wet. So now that we got it all pinned out to the dimensions that I want, I’m going to let it sit until it’s completely dry. You want to make sure that it is in a well ventilated area or perhaps in sunlight. Definitely a place where a pet is not going to come lay down on it. You’re going to wait until it feels bone dry all the way through. And then, once it’s totally, totally dry and feels thoroughly dry. You can take all the pins out and the wool will have sort of frozen in its new form, wherever we stretched it to and will stay like that for quite a while, until it gets damp again or until you just worn it and worn it and worn it. And that is how to wet block.

So if you don’t want to wet block your item, say it just kind of crumpled or you’re still in the middle of working on it and you just want to see how the stitches are going to even out, I recommends steam blocking. It’s really fast and it’s really satisfying. So you can see how this mitten is kind of crumpled from being shoved away with all the winter wear. I’m going to lay it down. I’m going to take a wet towel, really wet. Put it on top and then take a hot iron and press it so that the steam from the wet towel is going into the piece. The towel will be really hot when you are finished.

So you can see the steam rising. Remove it and now, careful when you do this because it could be really hot, and now the fibers have relaxed enough to have taken most of the curl and the bend out. And this is the time when you can sort of give your fabric a little tug and now I have two lovely mittens, nice and smooth and evened out. And that’s steam blocking.

A great way to wet block your items and then let them dry without having to pin them out is to buy a blocker for the thing that you’re drying. For example, this sock blocker. When I put the sock on wet, it dries in this position and now when I take it off it’s thoroughly dry, it stays in this position. So if you’re making someone socks, this is a great way to have them look just as beautiful as you walk in to when you give them away. And my secret is that the top of sock blockers make really great mitten blockers too so you get two for one in this.

So now you know a few different methods on how to block your knitting. Either wet blocking, pinned up onto a specially made blocking boards or steam blocking with a wet towel on top. Or just letting your freshly laundered knitted objects dry on something that is the shape you want them to be. So I use the blocking board, I use rust proof T-pins. I used a special wool wash, an iron, a wet towel and a measuring tape.

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So after you’ve joined to knit in the round and you’re going around and around and around, you are knitting in the round; and there are a few things to remember about this. Right now, I’m working a little bit of ribbing here on my round knitting. That’s knit one, purl one, which yields the same surface on the front as on the back. There’s the inside, there’s the outside.

But let’s say I want something different, something other than a rib. If you remember, when you’re knitting flat in order to get stockinette you need to knit on the front and purl on the back, but not so with knitting in the round. If I just knit all the way around every single stitch, every single round I would be getting stockinette.

I never have to work the back. So I’m just going to knit a few stitches here and show you that on the front I’ve started building up just knit stitches. On the inside of my hat or cowl or whatever this is that I am knitting on the round, you see all the purl stitches so I’m automatically getting stockinette as I go.

If I wanted garter stitch in the round, I would have to knit one round, and then move the yarn to the front, and purl one round. So there are benefits and differences to knitting in the round. Here’s a little hat that I’ve made and it shows you garter stitch on the bottom.

So that’s knitting around and purling around and knitting around and purling around, and then I switched to just knitting for many, many, many rounds, which got me stockinette and then I did some decreases. So knitting in the round is a great way to get quick way to get stockinette and to make circular items that don’t need to be sewn up.

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In this video I’m going to demonstrate how to do some basic cabling techniques.

In my little sample that I’ve knit up, I’ve got a basic three over three cable, twisting to the left. I have some traveling cables, and then I have the symmetrical version of this one, three over three, twisting to the right.

So first I’ll show you how to cable to the left. So I just purled the little gutter of purl stitches that surround these cables to better show them off. So I’ve purled three and now it’s time to twist three stitches over to the left.

So what I want to do is, I want to get rid of these three stitches for just a minute and get them out of the way. I’m using a double point. You can also use a cable needle, a toothpick, whatever you need to do to get those stitches out of the way. So don’t be confused. They’re just going to sit down here.

And what I want to do is, I’m going to go ahead and knit the second set of three, because I want those to be brought behind. So now that those are out of the way, I can bring these three back up, and knit them. And what I’ve just done is, I’ve twisted them around each other. So I twisted the three on the right over, making a left twist.

And now I’m going to purl the gutter stitch and show you a traveling cable. Traveling means it’s not twisting around itself. It’s just moving across the background of purl. So I want these two to move one over to the left, to start traveling back towards the center. You can see they’ve traveled away from the center. Now you want them to go back in.

So I’m going to move these two out of the way and work the next stitch, which happens to be a purl. So I’m going to purl it, which has moved it over to the right, and now I can move my yarn back and knit the next two, which means they’ve now moved over and I have two purl stitches in between.

I’m going to work my way over to the next set of traveling stitches, just purl all the way across, except for, I’m going to leave one, because remember what we want this traveling cable to do, is to move one place back in towards the center.

So this time I’m going to grab this little purl stitch and get rid of him towards the back. I’m going to hide him. So move my yarn back to the back because I’m going to knit, knit the next two. And now I can put that little one purl stitch where he needs to go.

So I’m going to move the yarn to the front. I’m going to purl from the cable needle, and now those two traveling stitches have traded places with that one purl.

I’m going to finish the purl gutter, and now it’s time to cable to the right. So I want these three stitches to be brought in front of these three. So this time I’m going to grab three and instead of leaving them to the front, I’m going to leave them behind, and knit these three.

So all I’m doing in cabling is, I’m reversing the order of stitches as you come to them on the needle. With the help of the cable needle, now I’m ready to knit these three from the cable needle. Two, three. And I can see I lost a purl stitch, which happens. I’m just going to put it back on. So here we are with three twisting to the right, over the three to the back. I’m going to finish out the row by purling the gutter of three, and there you have a basic twist to the left, stitches that travel anywhere you want, and twist to the right.

Now you don’t always have to cable three over three. This little mitten cables two over two. So you can see that it’s two twisting over two, always twisting to the left in this pattern.

Here we have some traveling stitches that travel away from each other and towards each other and always twist just once to the left.

And then finally on this hot water bottle cozy, we have traveling stitches that travel away from each other, and then back towards each other, and cable a few times in the center. So you can cable as often as you want on the front of your knitting to make a tighter cable, or as infrequently as you want to make a loosely twisted cable with however many stitches as you can handle on the cable needle.

Have fun knitting and designing with cables.

Transcript

I’m going to show you how to decrease in purling. And show you how to turn two purl stitches into one.

So I’m basically going to purl two together instead of pearling one we’re just going in from the right side, wrapping around the front, scooping up a loop and popping it off. We’re going to go through two with our, the tip of our right needle.

So I’m gonna stick my needle into two purl stitches at once, wrap one loop around, scoop it up from the back making sure to go under both of those stitches, and pop off both of the old stitches. So you can see there’s two there with one coming out of it.

So I’ll show you that again into both stitches from the right, make sure you get both of them, wrap around the front, scoop one loop up and pop them both off. And there you have two stitches that have been decreased, do it one more time, into two, scoop up one loop and off. There are decreased purls, lets see what it looks like on the front, there they are.

So that’s how to decrease in purling.

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So I’m going to show you how to make ribbing, which is a fantastic stretchy edge to put at the hem of a sweater or a sleeve or the brim of a hat, or anywhere that you want fabric with a little bit of bounce. The first one I’m going to show you is 2 x 2 ribbing, which means knit two, purl two.

I’m going to slip my first stitch, as I always do to make a tidy edge, and there’s my two knit stitches. Now I’m going to move the yarn to the front and purl two, one-two. Then I’m going to move my yarn to the back, and knit two, one-two; and continue on, move the yarn, purl, move the yarn, knit.

This makes a fabric that is two knits wide and then purls wide, and then two knits wide, all the way across, and the only thing to remember is that when you get to the back, you have to knit them as you see them, so that you’re not switching the pattern. And I’ll show you what that looks like when we get to the end here.

I finished with two purls, which means on the back they look like two knits. They look like knits, so you have to knit them. In ribbing we always want to stack our knits on top of knits, and our purls on top of purls. So I say, knit them as you see them. You can also work 1 x 1 ribbing, which means knit one, purl one, but you have to move the yarn every single stitch, instead of every other.

I’m going to slip my first stitch, move the yarn to the front for purling, purl one, move the yarn, knit one, move the yarn. So it’s a little bit more work in that you have to move the yarn every stitch, but it makes this beautiful fabric that kind of looks the same on both sides.

Because it’s so elastic, it pulls in and hides the purls and makes a great stitch for a scarf, because it has no wrong side. This is a scarf knit in 1 x 1 rib, knit one, purl one, with two different color changing yarns. And here is a glove with 2 x 2 ribbing, so knit two, purl two, in a yarn that slowly fades color to color. And those are some examples of ribbing.

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So now I’m going to show you how to do the backwards loop cast-on.

For this cast-on you will need a bit of a tail and then you will need to make a slip knot and put it on the needle in your right hand. I use my right index finger just to hold this loop in place.

And now what I’m going to do is I’m going to hold the yarn in a thumbs up position. So my four fingers are holding the yarn and my thumb is sticking up.

And then what I am going to do is I’m going to scoop my thumb under the yarn so it is, from my perspective, going around the left side of my thumb.

Then I’m going to simply grab that loop with my needle point and slip it down, but not too tightly. So, again, reset, thumb comes around the yarn, grab the yarn from off of the front of your thumb, and pull down. This cast-on is really fast, which is why most people like it. However, it has some pretty obvious downsides. Now I’m going to show you what they are.

For beginners, especially, when you are not really good at tensioning your yarn yet, or knowing how big or how tight to make your loops, when you knit back into these first cast-on stitches, there is a real propensity for getting this really awkward strand between the stitches.

But just because the backward zip cast-on doesn’t offer much of a foundation row, so it’s really not recommended for a large number of stitches to begin your project. Which is sad, because a lot of beginners like to use it because it is easiest cast-on to learn.

But my recommendation is to save this cast-on for when you need to cast-on a few stitches in between pieces of already established knitting like around the top of a thumb, or for a button hole on a sweater. It’s not the best for beginning your project. For that, I would recommend the cable cast-on or the long tail cast-on.

This is what the backwards zip cast-on looks like after you’ve knit into it. There’s the little chain edge at the bottom.

So that is the backwards zip cast-on.

Transcript

So now I’m going to show you how to do a left leaning decrease.

There are actually a few more choices with left leaning decreases than there are with right leaning decreases. With a right leaning decrease, you do a knit two together, but with a left leaning decrease there are a couple different options.

I’m going to show you my favorite one first, which is just to knit two together through the back loop. So what that means is, instead of knitting two together through the front loop like normal, this time you’re going to insert the right tip into the back of two stitches at once. There we have it.

And now I’m going to knit as normal, wrap a loop around, scoop up that new loop, and pop both of them off. And you can see what that yields is the stitch on the right side leaning on top of the stitch on the left side, which makes it lean to the left.

So I’ll show you that one more time. You take the tip of the right needle and stick it into the back of both stitches that you want to decrease, wrap a loop around, scoop up that new stitch, and pop both of them off. So now you have the stitch on the right leaning on top of the stitch on the left, making a left leaning decrease.

The other way to do it is a slip slip knit. So the first stitch you’re going to slip over without working it, as if to knit. Slip the next one, as if to pearl. And then insert the tip of the left-hand needle into the front of both stitches and knit. I’ll show you that one more time. Slip, as if to knit. Slip, as if to pearl. Insert the left tip into the front of both stitches and knit as normal.

So both of these methods yield left leaning decreases, but you can see that they look a little bit different. Here we have the knit two together through the back loop, which sort of raises the front stitch a little bit more than the slip slip knits. You can choose whichever one you like best.

And I’ll show you an example of what balanced decreases would look like. Here on this side we have a row of stitches that are leaning to the left. And on this side we have a row of stitches that are leaning to the right.

So if I were working balanced decreases on a garment, say, when I get to the point where I’m going to do my first decrease, which I know is after knitting two stitches, I can see that that’s a left leaning decrease, so I’m going to choose my method here. I’m going to do a knit two together through the back loop because it is my favorite.

And now I have contributed to that growing line of left leaning decreases. And then I would knit across until I got to my right leaning decrease and they would be symmetrical.

So those are two different ways to work a left leaning decrease.

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Here’s another cool way to play with knits and purls to make something called basket weave. This is really neat. It makes what looks like a basket weave fabric, but really it’s just playing with squares of stockinette and squares of reverse stockinette. So here on the sample you can see that what I have going on here is alternating squares of stockinette and reverse stockinette.

Reverse stockinette is just the back of stockinette. So in the bottom fabric here, at the bottom of this fabric I have three stitches of purl, three stitches of knit, three stitches of purl, three stitches of knit alternating across. I maintained that pattern four rows high. That’s because knit stitches are shorter and fatter than they are tall. So if you want a square that’s three stitches wide, you have to make it four stitches tall in order to render a square.

So now I’m going to show you how to switch in order to make the basket weave. So here on the last row you can see that I’ve got a stockinette fabric here and a reverse stockinette fabric here in my squares. So it’s time to switch them and that just means, because this is stockinette it has knits on this side and purls on that side. I want to switch it, which means I’m going to start with my purls.

So I’m going to purl three, and then I’m going to move the yarn, and knit three on top of these purls. Then I’m going to move the yarn and purl three on top of these knits, move the yarn and knit three on top of these purls. So all I’m doing is switching the pattern that I had previously established in the four rows below.

So that’s a front and a back, and a front and a back. So I’m doing the front of this newly established pattern and here we can see it has made the switch on top of the stockinette, I see the beginning of revers stockinette. And on top of the reverse stockinette, I see my little V’s beginning of stockinette. So now let’s look at the back.

We’re going to continue to knit them as we see them. So I see purls, I’m going to purl, and then I’m going to move the yarn and knit three, just continuing what I’ve established in the last row. So you only have to switch your pattern if you’re doing squares this size every fourth row. So you’ll do a front and a back and a front and a back, and then you’ll switch and do the opposite, front and back and front and back, making little squares of stockinette and reverse stockinette.

So let’s see what that looks like after two rows. Oh, boy I can see that half of my pattern is done, and after I did two more rows I would switch again, and continue to make little squares that alternate. And if little squares of three wide and four tall are too small for you, play with the numbers. You can do any number of stitches, as long as you remember that if you want squares they have to be a little taller than they are wide.

So in this example I have done six stitches by six stitches and I’m knitting for seven rows. Here we go again with the switching. We’ve got reverse stockinette here, stockinette here alternating as we go. So obviously, in order to switch it, I’m going to need to knit this part now. I’m going to do a slip stitch edge, which I just automatically put on everything and begin to knit across, four-five-six.

Now here’s my stockinette portion, so I’m going to move my yarn, and begin reverse stockinette by purling six here. And I would continue as set for seven rows or eight rows. Really, you can play with your row height and just see what looks more square to you. Have fun with basket weave.

Transcript

So if you think you’re ready to knit your first project with lace, a few things to keep in mind are that lace is just yarn overs, combined with decreases and increases, in a variety of different ways to make different patterns. So here are a few really simple ones that you might see.

This is a simple eyelet, where the yarn over is followed right after by a knit two together. You can insert eyelets in any kind of pattern, like these little leafs in this scarf that I knit. You can see here that there are two yarn overs stacked up three rows high, with some really simple increases and decreases, in stockinette on a background of purl.

You can also use patterns that have double yarn overs, and single yarn overs, like this little sample that has double yarn overs, with two singles, in alternating patterns across the rows. And then, you can also get more complicated like this shawl, which has all these little rows of increases and decreases, and yarn overs, but then also features lace stitches knit on as a border going all the way around the shawl.

Lace patterns generally require you to pay attention, and to keep track of where you are. They are notoriously difficult to go back and fix a mistake on. So don’t be scared, give it a shot, keep a pencil handy, turn off the TV while you’re learning your pattern, good luck, and those are some ways to make lace stitches.