Knitting Stitch
From LoveToKnow Crafts
The knitting stitch is the basis of all knitting. If you don’t know how to make a knit stitch, well, you don’t know how to knit.
Forming the knit stitch
The great thing about knitting is that it’s really easy. If you know how to cast on using two needles, you pretty much know how to knit. Read Knitting Instructions for more on the basics.
To knit, have the needle with the stitches on it in your left hand. Slide the right hand needle’s point into the first stitch from front to back. Loop the yarn around the right hand needle, slide the needle from the back to the front, going underneath the first stitch, then slide the stitch off the left hand needle and onto the right.
Repeat until there are no more stitches on your left hand needle. Swap needles, so the one with the stitches is back in your left hand.
If you work better with pictures than words, check out the video at Knitting Help. This site is a great resource for just about anything you need to know about knitting.
Continental vs. English knitting
One thing you will notice if you look at the above listed site is that there are two different ways to knit, known as continental and English knitting.
The procedure described above is known as English knitting. That’s when you hold the yarn in your right hand and “throw” it across the needles.
Continental knitting is what it’s called when you hold the yarn in your left hand. The knit stitch is formed in the same way, but instead of throwing the yarn you wrap the needle around the yarn (it makes more sense in pictures than it does in words).
Most people in America (and England, naturally) learn English style knitting. It’s a great way to learn to knit and to teach children how to knit because it doesn’t require as much fine motor skill as continental knitting does.
But a lot of people who knit professionally (yes, there are such people) knit continental style. Usually this is because they say that knitting continental style is faster and produces less wrist strain because you don’t have to move your wrists as much as you do when you’re throwing the yarn.
It can be helpful to try both ways (get comfortable with English knitting before you try to learn continental style) to find out which one you are more comfortable with and which feels good and allows you to knit longer and better and stick with that style.
Using the knit stitch
Even if you only know the knit stitch, you can make some basic knitted items. A great way to use the knit stitch is in a simple scarf. You can use any kind of yarn you like, from novelty fun furs to suede, chenille and wool.
Look on the label to see what size needles are recommended for the kind of yarn you pick out. For big fluffy wooly yarns you’ll probably only need one skein of yarn, but you might need more than one if the skeins are small. Allow 100 to 300 yards for a medium-sized scarf.
Cast on enough stitches to make a scarf about six inches wide (check the gauge chart on the yarn label to see how many stitches that might be). Knit every row until you’re almost out of yarn, then cast off.
Each type of yarn you use will make a very different looking scarf and allow you to increase your wardrobe easily, even if you never learn more than the knit stitch.
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