Alanna Okun - Knit a Hat: A Beginners Guide to Knitting

Editor: Meredith A. Clark

Series Designer: Laura Palese

Designer: Shawn Dahl, dahlimama inc

Production Manager: Kathleen Gaffney

Library of Congress
Control Number: 2020931037

ISBN: 978-1-4197-4065-7
eISBN: 978-1-64700-113-1

Text copyright 2020 Alanna Okun

Photographs copyright 2020 Abrams

Cover 2020 Abrams

Published in 2020 by Abrams, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

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Welcome
to
Knitting!

Why
Knitting?

There are so many reasons to learn to knit. Maybe youve been in search of a hobby, an activity to keep your hands busy with something other than scrolling mindlessly through your phone or picking at your nails on your daily commute. Something more outwardly focused than meditation but more inward than watching movies; lower impact than exercise; cheaper and healthier than a vat of red wine.

Maybe you find yourself needing a process thats tangible, one that involves taking little more than sticks and string, adding time and effort, and ending with a real, useful object.

Maybe the older you get, the more you realize its been a really long time since youve learned something new, and figure you should give being a beginner a try again, with exceptionally low stakes. Maybe you feel like its time to just suck at something for a little while.

Or maybe you just really want a hat!

Whatever your reasoningand there are infinitely more options than Ive mentionedwanting to learn to knit means youre already well on your way there. You might think youre not crafty or capable of wrapping your brain around it, but I can assure you that in my ten-odd years of teaching knitting to other people, Ive had more students than I can count who make the exact same claim and walk away from their first (sometimes second) lesson with an honest-to-God piece of fabric. It might be a little crooked, it might not yet be a scarf or a hat, it might not look like something youd see on Instagram or pick up in a clothing store, but its the essential building block for everything thats to come. I promise that whether youre left- or right-handed, an experienced maker of things or a total klutz, you are more than capable of getting there too.

Why a
Hat?

Eventually, of course, youll want that scrap of fabric, or one like it, to actually become a thing. The most popular such item, in knitting lessons and lore, is a scarf.

This makes a lot of sense on the surface. A scarf is the easiest beginner project to knit inasmuch as to make the most basic scarf, all you need to learn is to cast on (well get to that), to do the knit stitch (that too), and to cast off (I would never leave you hanging).

A scarf is essentially a long practice swatch, and therein lies the problema scarf can be very, very long. For some beginners, this is a good thing; performing the same motion over and over again gets them in the correct rhythm, helps them improve and troubleshoot their own work as they go, and generally feels soothing.

For many others, though, repetition is the kiss of death. They start off with great enthusiasm, but by the time theyve reached inch ten or so, they begin to wonder precisely how much longer theyll have to do the exact same thing. Theyll zone out and drop a stitch or two, which is not a stumbling block on its own but, when its the result of boredom, is a symptom of a far worse condition. Theyll put the project aside for a couple of days that turn into a couple of months that turn into oh yeah, I tried to knit once, but it just wasnt for me.

This is why, whenever possible, I direct new knitters to try a hat for their first project. This isnt to say that you have to dive in headfirst (ha!)well go over the motions of knitting before setting our sights on the full undertakingbut it is to say that youll be a little more challenged than your scarf-knitting counterparts. Making something round, something that requires decreases, is necessarily a tad harder than just going back and forth, but its the kind of difficulty that youll learn from. Once youve made a hat, youll be well set up to make projects youve likely never dared to think aboutinfinity scarves, sweaters, even socks. Those essential building blocks of knitting that add up to an intricate, lacy top arent really any different from the ones that will make up your simple, solid hat.

It Will Be
Wonky

Still, I understand the fear that creeps in with starting anything new, particularly as an adult. Were taught that were supposed to be automatically good at whatever we try, and that if were not, we should abandon it and spend our time doing something else.

But Id like to argue in favor of being bad at an activity, at least at the beginning; its not an indictment of you or your worth, and it doesnt mean that youre not crafty or will never be able to master a given technique. In fact, it can be good to surrender to the process, to not feel like you have to be totally in control at any given moment. And if your first couple of rows, or even your first couple of projects, turn out a little wonky, its not the end of the world. You can always undo the stitches (well go over how to do that) and reuse the yarn, or keep the item as a testament to where you started and, later on, how far youve come.

Ultimately, though, youll never have a hat until you commit to starting and to sticking with it. And the chances are good that you or someone in your orbit could use one.

This book is intended for absolute beginners, people who may never have even held a pair of knitting needles in their lives. Or maybe youve awkwardly manipulated needles and muddled through the basic knit stitch, but thats where your experience ends. Thats why I describe in detail the choices I suggest making and the processes I suggest following, and, ideally, your first step will be to read (or carefully skim) the whole book to get a sense of the scope. (Spoiler alert: Its a much smaller scope than youre probably expecting.) This advice is similar to a chefs suggestion that you read the entire recipe and prep all the ingredients before beginning to cook, except in this case youre also learning how to chop onions, rinse lettuce, and turn on an oven for the first time.