Leigh Ann Chow - Basic Knitting: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started

diting this book has truly been a labor of love. Many people have helped and encouraged me along the way:

Carol Woolcock, of The Mannings in East Berlin, Pennsylvania, whose generosity and helpfulness allowed us to photograph yam, needles, and knitting accessories. The Mannings is one of the most comprehensive knitting stores in the region, and Carol's openness with her inventory enabled us to photograph a wide array of tools and supplies.

My Stackpole colleague, Susan Drexler, whose own passion for knitting helped to inspire my own. Sharing new yams and projects in progress with someone who can truly appreciate them is one of the joys of being a knitter.

Garrick Chow, who patiently tolerated my incessant ramblings about knitting and accompanied me as I dragged him to knitting stores from Pennsylvania to California. Only the partner of a knitting addict can appreciate the extent of the obsession.

Photographer Alan Wycheck, who provided invaluable advice and guidance in addition to his exceptional photographic ability. His unfailing commitment to thoroughness and quality has helped to make this book as complete as I hope beginning knitters will find it to be.

Finally, Anita Tosten and Missy Bums, who provided the vision and creative inspiration for this endeavor. Anita's talents as a designer are showcased in the 10 projects included in the book. I feel truly blessed to have had the opportunity to collaborate with two of the most talented, hardest-working women in the business. In addition to teaching and designing, Anita and Missy manage Wool in the Woods, a young but thriving company that produces some of the beautiful hand-dyed yam featured in these pages. Their enthusiasm and sense of humor have made this project a true pleasure for me. Special thanks to Anita and her husband, Rod, for allowing us to photograph the finished projects in and around their home; and to Missy's daughter, Megan Dupont, who served as our model for the finished garments.

-Leigh Ann Berry

nitting is a craft that is presently enjoying a renaissance of sorts. Around the world, people young and old are discovering-or rediscovering-the joy of working with needles and yarn. First practiced in ancient times, hand knitting has evolved from a necessary means of producing socks and stockings into a craft that is limited only by a knitter's creativity.

This book is intended to serve as a comprehensive introduction to the basic skills you will need to master in order to become a knitter. The focus of the first half of the book is on detailed, step-by-step text and photo sequences that will teach you how to execute the basic stitches and techniques of knitting. The second half of the book will show you how to apply these basic skills when completing actual projects. The skill workshops that accompany each project will teach you skills and techniques that are relevant to a particular piece or garment. A few of the projects also include "Project in Progress" sections, which show you the more complex stages of the project in step-by step detail.

We recommend that you spend your first hours with this book in the Basic Skills section, learning and mastering the fundamental stitches and techniques. Then, once you are comfortable working with needles and yarn, you can move on to try one of the ten projects included in the second half of the book. The first project, the Teddy Bear Sweater, offers a good first project to put these skills to use, and we suggest that you attempt this project first before moving on to any of the others. Working a sweater in miniature allows you to practice the same techniques you will need to use in later projects. The Skill Workshops that accompany this project also teach finishing techniques that will be required for other garments later in the book.

So pick up your needles and yarn and get ready to learn how to knit!

Yarn

COLOR

Yarn comes in as many colors as the rainbow: reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, indigos, and violets and every shade in between. Variegated yarns combine several complementary colors into one multi-hued skein.

Most yarn is dyed commercially in batches, or lots. The color of these batches can vary from one to another and the differences in color will become obvious when switching from one skein to another in a knitted garment. To avoid any potential color discrepancies, make sure to purchase enough yarn to complete your project all at once, making sure to check the skeins' labels to ensure that the dye lot number is the same.

Your local knitting store offers yarn in as many colors, weights, and textures as you can imagine.