Hey friends! A bunch of people have asked me recently about learning how to knit, which makes sense because right now so many folks are stuck inside and anxious and looking for something to do with their hands. This article I wrote last year should be a good jumping off point in terms of materials and resources, but a lot of the advice (like suggesting you visit a store IRL) isn’t possible right now, so here are some additional/amended tips.
This doc is not a step-by-step tutorial on how to knit, which for my brain personally is well-nigh impossible without photos or video, but is hopefully an introduction to finding the instructions that work best for you. It’s also not the end-all, be-all; a lot of people swear by chunkier yarns, or particular kits, but this has helped me and some of my students and I hope it will help you too!
(To that end, I have been working on a book for the past year about how to get started on knitting, complete with many many pictures, but that won’t publish until the fall. If you find this doc at all useful, I’d be incredibly grateful if you preorder the book / buy it once it’s out, if we’re like, even still doing books then, for yourself or for someone else you’d like to share it with!)
How to get the stuff you need:
It’s probably easiest at this current moment to order everything from the same retailer; while I’d normally suggest patronizing your local yarn store in person, this is all extremely not normal and you should not do that. Some of my favorite indie NYC stores, like Brooklyn General Store and Purl Soho, are doing things like local pickup and free shipping respectively and could really use your business right now.
Here are some other online-only places to buy materials, which will likely be on the cheaper side, and a complete list of what I’d suggest ordering as a beginner:
- 2-3 balls of Wool of the Andes worsted yarn (if you order the superwash version it’s machine-washable, but that’s a little more expensive)
- 1 set of yarn needles
- 1 set of 16” size 7 circular needles
- They also sell learn-to-knit kits that are like $20 each, which IMO is as much as you should ever spend on a beginner kit.
Amazon
- This size 7 circular knitting needle, my all-time fave
- This yarn needle (I’d spring for the 2-pack because you will def lose one)
- Amazon doesn't have a great selection of yarn but just to get started, this feels pretty good for acrylic yarn and isn't pricey / comes in a range of colors, and you'd likely just need one ball for a hat. I also really like Vanna White’s line???
These are the materials you’d need to make a standard hat, but they’ll also work if you want to make a small cowl or a dishcloth or just noodle around with yarn and needles for a bit before committing to a project. If you want to make something larger, like a scarf, order more yarn (I’d recommend around 8 balls).
Basically, you want to look for about 200-300 yards of medium-ish weight yarn; as long as the specified gauge range includes a size 7 needle (see what I mean below in an example from the KnitPicks yarn listing) you should be good. Also keep a pair of scissors nearby — even like, kitchen scissors are fine, just wash them!
(Don’t worry about anything here except where it says “Knitting Gauge:.....#6-9 needles,” which contains a 7, so you are good!)
Online resources:
Right now, absent someone who can teach you IRL, YouTube is your dear friend. I like KnittingHelp’s videos for total beginners, and it’s worth poking around to find a YT instructor you vibe with in general. You can also check out Bluprint and Skillshare if you prefer to take a more structured class, generally for a small fee. And if you have a friend willing to teach you over Zoom or Skype, take them up on it!
These various classes might require slightly different materials than I’ve called for here, so be sure to read the fine print / ask and adjust your orders accordingly. The learning curve for knitting is fairly steep — it can be confusing and frustrating and counterintuitive for many hours at the beginning — so give yourself some space to fuck up and enough accountability that you’ll follow through.
If you’re going at it by yourself, you should try to learn:
- Casting on (try the Backwards Loop method for maximum ease, but I like Long Tail best, which is what’s taught in the KnittingHelp vids)
- The knit stitch
- Possibly the purl stitch if your project calls for it, but I usually suggest new knitters pick one that doesn’t since it can kind of turn your brain mushy
- Decreasing
- Casting off
You can search for those terms on YouTube or Instagram and should find myriad tutorials; I personally tend to prefer the short videos that are really zoomed in, so you can just loop it over and over until you figure out the particular maneuver, but YMMV.
If you’d like to learn from a book, try Stitch N’ Bitch or Knitter’s Almanac, both classic, user-friendly, utterly delightful texts that are available as ebooks as well as in print.
Depending on how long all this lasts I might try and hold a like, here’s how to knit for beginners class on Zoom or something, but idk how useful / grainy / frustrating that might be, so! Let’s all go on this journey together! Happy knitting!!
Community-submitted resources:
Tin Can Knits has a very useful set of free patterns to teach you the basics.