Emma Brown - Knitting For Beginners: The A-Z Guide to Have You Knitting in 3 Days

KNITTING FOR BEGINNERS

Copyright 2015 by Emma Brown - All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.

Copyright: No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including scanning, photocopying, recording or other electronic mechanical methods, without prior written permission of the copyright holder.

First Printing, 2015 - Printed in the United States of America

I like making a piece of string into something I can wear

Knitting is the process which produces cloth from thread. Its used to create garments, toys, home wares and all sorts of exciting things! Its a skill that can be enjoyed by anyone and its growing in popularity every single day with celebrities such as Sarah Jessica Parker and Cameron Diaz happily declaring their love for the hobby. But, its actually so much more than that. Knitting can be beneficial to your health! It has been proven to lower blood pressure, relax the enthusiast and even burn calories (approximately 55 for half an hour of knitting).

In fact, knitting has become so popular that there are now many competitions and challenges associated with it. The most well-known of these being:

The Worlds Fastest Knitter currently held by Miriam Tegels of the Netherlands who can hand knit 118 stitches in one minute.

Speed Knitting currently held by Linda Benne of America who can knit 253 stitches in 3 minutes.

The World Knitting Record currently held by Australia at 4 hours and 50 minutes.

Of course, these arent things that we are aiming for just yet! They are just interesting facts which demonstrate how widespread knitting has become. Although these days it is considered a hobby more popular with females, knitting started out as a male only occupation, proving that anyone can reap the benefits from it!

There are many suggestions of when knitting began, but the truth of it is no one really knows since many ancient textile fragments thought to be knitting have actually turned out to be an ancient form of needle craft, often thought of single needle knitting nlebinding. However, when the knitting machine was invented, hand knitting became less of an essential necessity, and more of a hobby, which is where we are at today.

Knitting for Beginners is an extensive guide to the basics of knitting giving you step-by-step instructions helping you to master all of the stitches and techniques that youll need to get started with this brand new skill. Once you have gotten to grips with some of these, a few patterns have been included which will get you putting everything together in fun and interesting ways. Once you have completed these anything else will become much easier in comparison.

In fact, this is the most comprehensive knitting guide for beginners available on the market, and once you have worked through everything within its pages, youll never look back!

Watch video for The Benefits of Knitting

There are a few supplies that you will need before you start your first knitting project. The amount you spend on this skill is entirely up to you, and entirely depends on your requirements and budget. Everything that youll need to complete a knitting pattern will be listed within the patterns information, but just for practicing the stitches listed in this guide, you will only need the basics:

• Yarn
• Needles
• Scissors
• A sewing needle
• A crochet hook.

Watch Basic Knitting Supplies

Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocking fibers. Its essential to knitting as it is the basis for creating the cloth. It may interest you to know that although we automatically think of wool at the mention of yarn, but for the four of five hundred years of the recorded history of knitting, the yarn materials were cotton or silk.

To decide what yarn is best suited to a particular knitting project, many factors come into play; its loft (its ability to trap air), its resilience (elasticity under tension), its washability , its feel (its feel, particularly softness vs. scratchiness), its durability against abrasion, its tendency to twist or untwist, its overall weight and drape, its blocking and felting qualities, its comfort (breathability, moisture absorption, wicking properties) and of course its look. Of course other factors may be considered, but dont worry that isnt for you to worry about the knitting pattern will tell you all the necessary information about which yarn is best suited for each individual project, but to understand the things a little better, you will want to know the details of everything discussed in this chapter.

There are three main types of yarn: wool, cotton and acrylic. Each type produces an entirely different result after it has been worked with, so it is important to familiarize yourself with these during the practice stages of learning this skill so you know how each one works and how they suit you and your knitting style.

When choosing a yarn type for your knitting project, consider the following:

• Wool: Wool (made from the fleece of sheep) is the queen of yarns, and it remains a popular choice for knitters. Here are some of your wool yarn options:

- Lambs wool: Comes from a young lambs first shearing.

- Merino wool: Considered the finest of the fine breeds.

- Pure new wool/virgin wool: Wool thats made directly from animal fleece and not recycled from existing wool garments.

- Shetland wool: Made from the small and hardy native sheep of Scotlands Shetland Islands.

- Icelandic wool: A rustic, soft yarn.

- Washable wool: Treated chemically or electronically to destroy the outer fuzzy layer of fibers.

• Fleece: Examples include mohair and cashmere, which come from Angora and Kashmir goats, respectively. Angora comes from the hair of Angora rabbits.
• Silk, cotton, linen, and rayon: The slippery, smooth, and often shiny yarns.
• Synthetic: Including nylon, acrylic, and polyester. Straddling the border between natural and synthetic are soy, bamboo, corn, and other unusual yarns made by using plant-based materials.
• Novelty: Novelty yarns are easy to recognize because their appearance is so different from traditional yarns:

- Ribbon: A knitted ribbon in rayon or a rayon blend.

- Boucl: