A little while ago I wrote about the knitting needle roll I made and the fingerless gloves pattern that I was beginning to knit. Well, it’s been several weeks now but I’ve finally finished my pair of gloves! I originally chose the design because of it being labelled as ‘perfect for newbie beginners’ – but it turns out that even patterns labelled as ‘perfect for people who cannot knit at all, ever’ would probably be too difficult for me. I can do the knit stitch. I can do the purl stitch. Yet can I do a row of ribbing? Yes, I can, but it takes me about half an hour. The same goes for casting off…
It also makes it slightly more complicated that I now live in my own house without my mum there to immediately correct my mistakes. If I accidentally drop a load of stitches (easily done), I have to give her a call and hope she (or my dad) can explain how to remedy the situation over the phone.
So, as a near-first-time knitter and without my mum or grandma there to help me, I learnt to cast on, cast off and do the stitches in between using a handy little book on my Kindle. It’s called ‘A Little Course in Knitting‘, is published by DK, cost me 99p and is perhaps the best learn to knit guide that I’ve ever found. The pictures and diagrams are very clear and easy to follow (unlike some of the previous ones I’ve tried – see the Cath Kidston article here).
The pattern for the gloves is from Anna Wilkinson’s ‘Learn to Knit, Love to Knit’ and is basically a few rows of ribbing, a few rows of garter stitch and then a few more rows of ribbing. I didn’t follow the pattern exactly (no, I don’t mean because it went wrong) as the glove-size specified was a bit too big for my dainty, crafty hands. Once all the knitting was done I was then instructed to mattress stitch (thank you DK book for explaining this) up the sides, leaving a gap for the thumb hole et voila! Just in time for next week’s cold spell too.
Sew Sensational 