Left Handed Knitting for the Beginner

Introduction

Left-handers who want to learn how to knit are often told they should just use the right-handed method. After all, you use both hands equally, right? This approach does work for a certain number of lefties, but for the rest of us our brains and hands just can't get the hang of the process.

I'm a self-taught knitter and so didn't have anyone trying to force me into a certain method. I found a few beginner books and web resources, resorted to holding up pictures to the mirror, and finally figured out how to get those stitches to work. I was knitting socks and sweaters within a matter of months and am currently teaching myself Fair Isle style colorwork.

I taught myself to knit because I wanted a Harry Potter Ravenclaw scarf (book colors, please). Having a specific goal in mind can be a great motivator to learning!

It took me a while to realize I knit continental style. I think it came to me naturally because I also crochet. I've tried English - or throwing - style but find I can't work as fast. So most of what I'll show here is continental, although I will include some information on the throwing style. Try both and see what works best for you. I have been using throwing style more of late because I've settled on the two-handed approach to colorwork: one color per hand.

Getting Started

Some of the terms used below might be unfamiliar. I'll do my best to explain them along the way, but don't hesitate to ask questions of the staff in the shop where you're buying your tools and supplies. Websites that sell knitting supplies almost always have information available - and sometimes even live customer support via chat.

Oh, and I will invariably refer to measurements in inches, yards, etceteras. I will do my best to also give the metric equivalent when critical, but I'm sure I will miss some. Please comment if anything is unclear in that quarter.

Supplies

The only thing you need for this first project is yarn. Get a worsted weight yarn. It's thick enough to be easy to handle without being overly bulky. Check the label for something called the gauge, although it might not be marked using that word. This tells you how many stitches per inch the yarn will make on the listed needle sizes. You're looking for something in the range of 4.5 to 5.0 stitches per inch on US6 to US9 (4.0mm to 5.5mm) needles.

Wool really is the best fiber to start with unless you have a true allergy or live in a tropical climate. Cotton and linen have very little spring and can be harder for the beginning knitter to work with. Wool is also more forgiving of mistakes.

Yarn is packaged for retail sale in two basic formats: as a ball or a skein. A ball is wound and ready for use, usually with a yarn end at the center to pull for your starting point. A skein is more like how embroidery thread is wrapped. It must be wound into a ball before you can use it, otherwise it's impossible to control and will tangle horribly. If you're buying your yarn at a general craft store, it will almost always be in a ball. If you're getting it from a yarn shop, it could be in either format, but they will be able to wind your yarn if you choose one in a skein.

Tools

You don't need many tools to start knitting.

• Knitting needles.
  The options can be overwhelming. I recommend bamboo or other wood as it's easier on the hands than metal, but you might find you prefer the more slippery quality of the latter. You can get a pair of straight needles or you can get circular needles. If you get the latter, make sure the set is at least 24" (60cm) long.
  
  For this first project get size US 8 (5mm). The size refers to how thick the needle is: the weight of the yarn and the size of the needle are directly related. In general, the heavier the yarn, the thicker the needle, and vice versa.
• Yarn needle. This is a blunt-tipped needle with a large eye. You will need this to weave in your loose yarn ends.
• Ruler. To measure your personal gauge: how many stitches you get per inch with your needles and yarn. Special knitting gauges are available, but any ruler will work.
• Scissors.
• Row-counter. Optional for this project, but very helpful for larger, more complex designs.

Casting On

This is a basic, two-strand method of casting on. It's pretty elastic in the finished garment and is easy to start with.

I recommend casting on over two knitting needles to prevent making the loops too tight. But if you tend to make fairly loose stitches naturally, try casting on with just one needle.

1. Holding the needles in your left hand, form a slip knot about 15" from the end of the yarn. (The exact length of the tail will be determined by how many stitches you need to cast on.) Insert the needles in the loop.
2. Tighten the slip knot. Wrap the tail end of the yarn (the loose end) around the base of your right thumb. Wrap the working yarn (the end coming out of the ball of yarn) around your right index finger. Bring the two yarn strands together in your palm and control with the other fingers of your right hand.
3. Bring the needle points around the outside of the yarn loop on your thumb. Tuck the needles under and come up through the loop.
4. Reach the needle points around to the left and down into the loop around your index finger, catching the yarn on the needles.
5. Bring the needle point back down into the thumb loop. Pull the yarn through the loop and drop the yarn from your thumb, forming a stitch on the needles.
6. Tighten and repeat for the required number of starting stitches.

Carefully draw one of the knitting needles out of the stitches, leaving fairly loose loops on the holding needles.

Demo: Casting On

Form a slip knot to begin the two-strand cast on.  Use two needles to prevent a too-tight starting row.

Loop the two strands around your right thumb and index finger.  Control the tension with the rest of your fingers.

Bring needles up into thumb loop.

Reach across and bring needles down into index finger loop.  Catch yarn on needles.

Bring needles down into thumb loop.  Drop loop from thumb.

Snug stitch up against needles and repeat.

Knit Stitch

Hold the needles with the empty one in your left hand. This is the working needle. The needle with the loops you just cast on goes in your right hand.

You have two choices for how to hold the working yarn (the end coming out of the ball of yarn):

• Continental
  Hold the working yarn in your right hand. Wrap around your fingers in a way that feels comfortable (it will take some experimentation) and "flick" the yarn around the left needle tip. This is the method you'll see me using most of the time.
• Throwing, aka English
  Hold the working yarn in your left hand with the working needle. Again, experiment to see what feels comfortable for you in how you wrap the yarn around your fingers. Push the yarn across to loop around the tip of the left needle.

Hold the yarn behind the needles.

1. Insert the point of the left needle into the first loop on the right needle from front to back.
2. Wrap the working yarn around the tip of the needle from back to front.
3. Draw the yarn through the loop on the right needle.
4. Allow the loop to drop from the right needle.
5. You've made your first knit stitch!

Continue to the end of the row. All the loops should have been knit from the right needle to the left one. Turn your work and switch hands with the needles. If you continue making rows with the knit stitch, you will wind up with a pattern called Garter Stitch, which has a distinctive, bumpy texture that is the same on both sides of the fabric.

FYI, the iconic scarf worn by Tom Baker of Doctor Who fame was done entirely in Garter Stitch. It's a long project, but doable for a beginner since it is nothing but knit stitch. It offers a great opportunity to get in a lot of practice.

Forming Knit Stitch

Holding yarn behind needle, insert left needle into first loop on right needle.

Wrap working yarn around left needle from back to front, pulling yarn up and catching on left needle.

Pull yarn through loop to front.  Allow loop to drop from right needle.

Purl Stitch

Hold the needles in the same manner as you do for knitting: empty one in your left hand, filled one in your right.

Unlike with the knit stitch, to purl hold the working yarn in front of the needles.

1. Insert the point of the left needle into the first loop from left to right, bringing the left needle in front of the right needle.
2. Wrap the working yarn around the tip of the left needle from bottom to top around the front of the needle.
3. Draw the yarn through the loop on the right needle.
4. Allow the loop to drop from the right needle.
5. You've made your first purl stitch!

Continue to the end of the row. All the loops should have been purled from the right needle to the left one. Turn your work and switch hands with the needles. If you continue making rows by alternating full rows of knit and then purl, you will wind up with a pattern called Stockinette Stitch. This stitch has two distinct sides and is what people most commonly think of as knit fabric. The knit side is smooth, and the stitches form little V's. The purl side is bumpy and closely set.

Forming the Purl Stitch

Holding yarn in front of the needle, insert left needle into first loop on right needle.

Wrap yarn around left needle from bottom to top around front.

Draw yarn through loop on right needle.  Allow loop to drop from right needle.

Casting Off

This is a basic and versatile method of casting off, or ending your work. I'm showing it from the knit side, but you can cast off from the purl side and even "in pattern" (where you follow a textured pattern while casting off). Practice keeping the cast off stitches loose: it's easy to make this too tight so the edge draws up.

1. Start on the knit side of the work.
2. Knit the first two stitches.
3. Using the right needle, pick up the next-to-last stitch on the left needle and lift it over the last stitch. Allow to fall off the needles. You should have one stitch left on the left needle.
4. Repeat across the row.
5. When you get to the last stitch and it's on your left needle, cut the working yarn leaving a tail of about 6".
6. Draw the end through the last stitch and pull gently to draw up the stitch and secure the work.
7. Weave the yarn ends (at both ends of the work) through several stitches on the wrong side of the work. Cut close to fabric.

Casting Off

More on Casting Off

A Note About Gauge and Blocking

Gauge

Gauge simply means how many stitches per inch (or centimeter) you get with your personal knitting tension and the particular needles and yarn you've used. If you're making something like a pot holder it's not that critical, but with most other items you must calculate this number when starting a project.

To measure your gauge, cast on 20 stitches and knit 20 rows of stockinette stitch (alternate rows of knit stitch with purl stitch). Ideally, you should cast off and block the piece before measuring (see below). At the minimum, measure this little swatch from the knit side, counting from the tip of each V shape to see how many stitches you have per inch across the fabric. Measure going up and down to see what your vertical gauge is.

The instructions for your pattern will tell you how many stitches per inch you need to get the right measurements in the finished product. If you have too few stitches per inch (the stitches are too big), try going down a size - getting smaller - with your needles. Switch to larger needles if you have too many stitches per inch.

Blocking

Blocking is the process of hand washing your project and then carefully shaping it on a flat surface to the right size and shape. Wool is very malleable while wet and can be adjusted up and down a bit. Blocking will also smooth the stitches and help them settle into place - this is where a lot of your little tension problems will go away as if they never happened.

Gauge and Stitch Patterns

Measuring gauge with a standard ruler.

Measuring gauge with a knitter's needle and stitch gauge.

The bottom couple of rows are garter stitch.  The rest of the sample is the knit side of stockinette stitch.

The bottom couple of rows are garter stitch.  The rest of the sample is the purl side of stockinette stitch.  Garter stitch tends to be a bit more open.

Other Resources 

There are tons of websites, books, and magazines out there for knitters.  A great community - and one with excellent tools for tracking your yarn stash and patterns - is Ravelry. You can find forums for all sorts of knitting interests and geographically based groups as well as a massive online pattern repository.

One of the best books I found while learning to knit was Knitting for Dummies (currently in its 2nd edition).  It includes all the basics you need to get started and also provides an introduction to more advanced techniques such as colorwork.  I also found a Susan Bates book, Learn to Knit, incredibly helpful because it includes both right and left handed instructions.  It's now out of print, but you can find used copies out there.

I have become an avid sock knitter, although now that I'm trying to learn colorwork I've also delved more into mittens (Latvian and Norwegian Selbu styles, in particular).  So try a variety of techniques and projects to see what strikes your fancy as you improve your skills!

Making a Doctor Who Scarf

Like a lot of Doctor Who fans out there, I decided to try the marathon that is making a replica of the iconic scarf worn by Tom Baker as Doctor number four back in the seventies. I'm actually on my second of these scarves (I sold the first one on eBay quite easily despite a flaw in the pattern!). It's a straightforward project with the real challenge being endurance - and boredom. But I find it the perfect thing to work on when I want something mindless: I just knit and knit and knit and only worry about row counts. I've actually worked on the scarf in a darkened movie theater.



The definitive source of information about this scarf is, of course, The Doctor Who Scarf, a site put together by a fan. It includes a history of the scarf (and its various permutations), an exhaustive run down of which version appeared in what episode, detailed instructions, yarn suggestions, and more.

I chose the original version from seasons 12 through 14. I'm a fan of Brown Sheep Nature Spun from previous projects and like that it's 100% wool. I used sport weight. Note that the quantity estimates on the web site are generous: I have almost enough left over from the first scarf to make the second one I'm working on! I'll only have to order a few more skeins in specific colors.

Speaking of colors, here's what I used from the Nature Spun Sport line:

• Beige: Ash (720)


• Brown: Bev's Bear (N94)


• Yellow: Sunburst Gold (308)


• Green: Nervous Green (522)


• Purple: Plum Line (N18)


• Red: Red Fox (N46)


• Gray: Charcoal (880)

I ordered my yarn from Paradise Fibers, but Nature Spun is widely available online and brick-and-mortar.

The entire thing is done in garter stitch. Row after row after row of knitting... I highly recommend a row counter, and you will quickly get in the habit of double-checking those counts. Every color block is an even number of rows, so the color changes appear only on one side.

Oh, and I recommend you stop periodically and weave in your ends. You'll easily be changing colors over 50 times, so there's a lot of ends to deal with. Not only is it tedious to do that many ends in one go, all those loose strands get a bit messy to deal with as the scarf gets longer. As you can see below, I need to take some of my own advice.



The tassels are the last thing to add after casting off and before blocking. Make them longer than they should be - and include each of the seven colors - then trim carefully to neaten. I like using my rotary cutter with a straightedge, but some people find that "too" perfect for a handmade item and prefer to hand trim.

Blocking. Well. Lay out several towels end-to-end, doing your best to stay out of traffic areas. I actually have to stretch it from my dining room into my living room. Hope for low humidity so the monster dries fast.

Enjoy!

Yarn Over

I took a semi-impulse trip to London in early May. I hadn't been over in ages but didn't think I would be able to make a trip until next year. The recession, however, has been a boon for travelers: I found a fabulous package deal in late March and decided to venture across the pond!

Naturally, I brought along some knitting, although I didn't actually carry it on the plane in either direction: I wanted to make sure I slept on the flight over, and they don't allow knitting needles in carry-on luggage when flying out of the U.K. But I figured I would pull out the needles while on the Tube, waiting in lines, relaxing in my room, etc. So I invested in circular needles suitable for the sock project I had designated for the trip and bundled up my cute little GoKnit pouch. I normally use double-pointed needles for socks, but they can be a bit of a hassle while knitting on-the-go (I've lost one or two at baseball games, much to my dismay).

Like any self-respecting knitter, I was determined to do a little shopping in some of the London's yarn shops! I did some research on Ravelry looking for recommendations and settled on two shops that would be easy to get to by Tube within zone 1 - turned out to be good choices since there wound up being partial shut-downs of the Tube over the weekend because of rail work.

My first stop was at I Knit London in a neighborhood behind Waterloo station. Because of the aforementioned rail works, I had to get off at the Westminster Tube station and walk across Westminster Bridge. It was a gorgeous day - and a bank holiday weekend - so that meant that the bridge was packed with visitors, vendors, and street performers. (How do the locals stand we tourists?) But once across the bridge, the crowds miraculously disappeared. The shop is located in Lower Marsh Street and was clearly a non-touristy area, despite its proximity to Big Ben et al. The cheery yellow sign was easy to spot:


The shop itself has a fairly typical layout for the genre with square wall bins of yarn, some comfy seating, and an excellent selection of tools, books, and patterns. The yarn options were many and varied - including a number I had never seen before in both conventional and unconventional fibers (even a really cool plastic yarn in fun, bright colors). They didn't have a particularly large selection of cotton or cotton-blend yarn, but that is perhaps attributable to the cooler climate - as compared to Philadelphia, that is - which translates into a longer wearing season for wool.


The shop advertises its selection of U.K. yarns, and I did hear a fellow Yank asking about them - not a huge range, but interesting. The shop assistant was very nice and helpful, and, after much deliberation, I purchased two skeins of Malabrigo sock yarn (a sophisticated variegated green and an inky blue kettle-dyed) plus a set of square double-pointed needles from Kolláge that I'd been anxious to try.

Upon leaving I Knit, I walked up the street the opposite direction from which I had come and made a wonderfully serendipitous discovery of a pretty little park, Waterloo Millennium Green, where I sat amongst the flowers by an Asian-inspired bridge and stream to eat my lunch. Egg & cress sandwich - one of my favorites!

After an annoying trek around Waterloo Station, I made my way to my next target, All The Fun Of The Fair in the Carnaby shopping district off Oxford Street. I really do not like Oxford on the weekends - it's just way too packed - but it was unavoidable. The Carnaby area is a pedestrian shopping zone of what appear to be converted factories and warehouses. There are courtyards of shops off the central spine of Carnaby Street, and the yarn shop was in Kingly Court, a charming spot with three levels.


All The Fun is on the third level and is a tiny little nook of a shop. Their selection of yarns is small but thoughtful, and they have a truly unusual collection of whimsical buttons, charms, notions, and pre-made knit items - including amazingly realistic donuts, cakes, and biscuits rendered in yarn! As busy as the courtyard below was, the yarn shop was a relaxing oasis of soothing colors and natural light.

I browsed for quite a while and finally selected five skeins: one of a lace-weight merino silk from Grignasco in a pale aqua and four skeins of Patons' Linen Touch DK in two different colors (pale blue and natural). I plan a shawl with the Grignasco and several spa accessories with the Linen Touch.

And despite all the money I spent on yarn, I did show a small bit of restraint: I had stopped in Liberty at the corner of Great Marlborough and Carnaby Streets before heading to All The Fun Of The Fair and visited their fabric department. I somehow managed to not buy any of their gorgeous prints!

Introduction

Hi, I'm Kris, and I'm a textile and handcrafting fanatic living in the Philadelphia suburbs. I'm just setting up my first public blog and am working on a number of ideas for the coming weeks. I hope to cover a range of topics related primarily to sewing, beadwork, knitting, crochet, costuming/cosplay, and other handcrafts.

Hope to see you here often!