Steege - Knit Christmas Stockings

Any animal fiber, such as wool, alpaca, and mohair, will felt, as long as it hasnt been pretreated. Washable (superwash) wool, bleached white wool, cotton, rayon, silk, and synthetic fibers dont felt. Many off-white and light colors do not felt well, if at all. Its not unusual to find that different colors of the same yarn felt differently. Some yarns require a longer period of agitation than others, or they may not ever achieve the degree of felting desired. Making swatches is always a good idea, but before jumping into any felted knitting project, its especially important to knit and felt a swatch with the yarns youve chosen. (For more about felting, see .)

Most knitters have strong preferences when it comes to selecting knitting needles, and the wide variety of choices can be confusing until you try them. Coated aluminum needles are durable but sometimes heavy in larger sizes. I find that slippery yarns tend to slide rather easily off metal needles. Plastic or similar materials are lighter, though they can bend or break, and yarn sometimes sticks to them. Depending on the yarn youre working with, bamboo or wood needles may be a good compromise. The yarn moves smoothly along them, even in hot, sticky weather, and theyre quiet and comfortable to use.

Most of the patterns in this book are knit on double-pointed or circular needles. Available in several lengths, circular needles have a flexible nylon or plastic center cable. Double-pointed needles come in sets of four or five. If youve always used four for knitting in the round, youll find knitting with five is easier and less likely to leave telltale lines (known as ladders) between the needles.

The size of knitting needles is indicated by number. Its important to note whether the size is US, UK, or metric theyre all different! The chart on gives equivalent sizes for all three. Youll note that in the US system 0 is very small, whereas in the UK system 0 is large. This book provides US and metric (but not UK) sizes in all the instructions.

Although you can get started on most projects with little more than yarn and needles, a nice, well-supplied knitting bag, like all tool kits, makes life easier. Here are some suggestions for things you might need:

• Straight, circular, and double-pointed needles in assorted sizes
• Crochet hooks in small, medium, and large sizes
• Retractable tape measure and a 6-inch metal ruler with needle gauge
• Needle point protectors, to keep yarn from slipping from needles
• T-pins, to help you block and shape the finished item
• Blunt-tipped tapestry needles, for sewing seams and weaving in ends
• Small, sharp scissors
• Stitch holders, as well as safety pins for holding small numbers of stitches
• Stitch markers, round and split
• Cable needles
• Sticky tags or see-through removable tape, to mark your place in patterns and charts