Knitting

Patterns, projects and techniques

Great Knitting Patterns for Brand-New Knitters

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easy knitting patterns for beginnersThere’s always a little problem that new knitters have: you want to knit something great, but you don’t have the skills or confidence yet for something really big or complicated. You don’t want your first projects to take forever, but you also don’t want them to be boring.

Wooly Simple has collected 10 knitting patterns that are great for beginners.

What makes a pattern good for new knitters? Her criteria are that it only uses knit and purl stitches, is knit flat on straight needles, has clear instructions, great style and is free.

Come to think of it they’re pretty great for more seasoned knitters, too.

Check out her full list on the blog. I love this one; it’s the Malt Baby Blanket from Tin Can Knits.

Don’t forget to join our Exclusive Knitting Group on Facebook.  With over 25 Vintage knitting patterns available to download immediately. Subscription to this group is the cost of a single vintage pattern.

Specifically for knitters, you can join our Knitting Patterns Only group to get the latest knitting patterns, ask questions and gain inspiration for what to knit next in our online community.

Looking for more Baby Knitting patterns? Check these out on Etsy.

 

[Photo: Tin Can Knits via Wooly Simple.]

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Make Your Knitting Machine Scarves Better

I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve shared any patterns for our circular knitting machine users. I know these devices aren’t for everyone but even though I much prefer knitting by hand, it is kind of fun to crank things out on these machines.

One of the most common early projects for a circular knitting machine is a scarf. Which makes sense, because it’s just one long tube and you can make it as long as you like.

One problem that comes from knitting scarves on the circular knitting machine, though, is that it can be hard to know how to finish the ends of the tube so that it looks like a finished scarf and not a tube of knitting.

If you’re not a knitter or crocheter, the most basic way to finish a circular knitting machine scarf is just by cinching up the ends and maybe adding a pompom to each end to cover up any hole that might still be visible at the end.

But if you have a little knitting or crochet skill or are willing to learn, there are a lot of different options for closing up the ends of a scarf. And this would also be true if you hand knit a tube scarf!

I recently wrote a post over at Our Daily Craft that includes five different ways to close up the ends of a tube scarf:

  • the simple cinching method mentioned above
  • sewing the stitches together
  • three needle bind off
  • grafting
  • crochet bind off

Grafting is my favorite because I feel like it gives the cleanest, closest to a seamless look. If you’re a knitter you may already know how to do it but even if you don’t it’s not that hard to learn.

Do you knit tube scarves by hand or machine? I’d love to know how you like to finish them!