When I win the lottery, inkdarkmoon and I are gonna pick you up in my private jet and sweep you off to the Amalfi coast to my knitting retreat and we'll sort this all out.

You don't need to learn how to purl right away. I know folks who have made it their mission to avoid purling as much as possible...

Are you a better "learn from seeing in person" type crafter, or can you teach yourself from books? I started off with books ("Knitting for Dummies" because I lurve my "For Dummies" library) and graduated to bugging more experienced knitters at my local Stitch 'n Bitch for tips/techniques when things got more complicated.

Take a deep breath. Once you get over this first hurdle (and it took me three tries to get over the first hurdle) you'll be a knitting fiend!

I just wish I had a good idea of what it's supposed to look like with just one kind of knitting stitch. Dude, you need to win the lottery like, now. I sort of suck at teaching myself from books, so the site with the videos was pretty helpful, I just wish she'd show more what it's supposed to turn out looking like.

I... want.... socks! Someday, I will make 20 pairs of those socks. Just you wait!

I think I really have been half crocheting, which is sort of disheartening, since it's a hell of a lot easier with a crochet hook, and doesn't help me with the knitting thing. I'm just frustrated. Have I said that quite enough?

I'm worried that my switchee this round won't like me. I'd say more about her, but I don't want to drop any hints. I'm really excited, I just hope she doesn't think my packages are lame.

When I win the lottery, inkdarkmoon and I are gonna pick you up in my private jet and sweep you off to the Amalfi coast to my knitting retreat and we'll sort this all out.

 

You don't need to learn how to purl right away. I know folks who have made it their mission to avoid purling as much as possible...

 

Are you a better "learn from seeing in person" type crafter, or can you teach yourself from books? I started off with books ("Knitting for Dummies" because I lurve my "For Dummies" library) and graduated to bugging more experienced knitters at my local Stitch 'n Bitch for tips/techniques when things got more complicated.

 

Take a deep breath. Once you get over this first hurdle (and it took me three tries to get over the first hurdle) you'll be a knitting fiend!

Ok... imagine you have a length of yarn aranged into a zig-zag of alternating mountains and valleys. The cast on edge anchors each valley, or the bottom of each zig.

Now, imagine you lay a length of yarn behind the zig zag. Reach under the first mountain, and pluck a loop through. Then reach under the second, and pluck a loop through. Once you've reached the end of the row, the second piece of yarn is just a second zig-zag interlocking with the first. Then you would flip the whole thing over and go back the other way.

When you are knitting, the loops on the needle are the mountains, and they have their backs turned to you. That's why you enter the stitch from the left side (that's if you knit western style, if you knit eastern or combination, it will vary - however 99% of books teach western style, so I'm assuming that's what you're learning). If you look carefully at the base of the stitch, you can see how you are opening it up to "face front". Then you use the tip of the right needle to pull the working yarn through to make a new loop on the right hand needle. To be sure you are pulling the yarn through the correct way, look at the new loop on the right needle, does it angle the same direction laying on top of the needle as the stitches on your left needle? then you have made the stitch correctly.

I hope this explanation didn't make it worse!

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ETA: Purling is just what would happen if you laid the yarn in *front* of the zig zag, and made the loops by reaching from behind the mountain and pulling through a loop from front to back.

Ok... imagine you have a length of yarn aranged into a zig-zag of alternating mountains and valleys. The cast on edge anchors each valley, or the bottom of each zig.

 

Now, imagine you lay a length of yarn behind the zig zag. Reach under the first mountain, and pluck a loop through. Then reach under the second, and pluck a loop through. Once you've reached the end of the row, the second piece of yarn is just a second zig-zag interlocking with the first. Then you would flip the whole thing over and go back the other way.

 

When you are knitting, the loops on the needle are the mountains, and they have their backs turned to you. That's why you enter the stitch from the left side (that's if you knit western style, if you knit eastern or combination, it will vary - however 99% of books teach western style, so I'm assuming that's what you're learning). If you look carefully at the base of the stitch, you can see how you are opening it up to "face front". Then you use the tip of the right needle to pull the working yarn through to make a new loop on the right hand needle. To be sure you are pulling the yarn through the correct way, look at the new loop on the right needle, does it angle the same direction laying on top of the needle as the stitches on your left needle? then you have made the stitch correctly.

 

I hope this explanation didn't make it worse!

 

No, not worse. I'm attempting continental style knitting, and I think I can finally cast on using her style. But then I get to the end of the row, and go for the first stitch, and it looks like it all falls apart. I guess I'll try a couple of rows. Oh, and I'm doing it where I'm transferring new stitches onto the needle in my left hand, and holding the rest in my right hand.

are you left handed?

Very, very left-handed.

A girl I knew from a knitting club who was left handed said she had started out by finding a book with detailed pictures, then scanning them in, and mirror imaging the pictures from right to left.

A girl I knew from a knitting club who was left handed said she had started out by finding a book with detailed pictures, then scanning them in, and mirror imaging the pictures from right to left.

I've sort of been taking the video instructions and reversing them onto my left hand. That might work out a little better, though.