knitting discovery of the day

[chanter1944]

Trying to teach yourself to cast on by reading written instructions?

Does not f***ing work.

Either I end up with no loop, or I create a giant knot, or... grrrr. When you're not sure what they mean by 'in front of your hand', and your yarn ball is a giant skein, you're not going to have the best success making a slip knot that doesn't snarl. Or a loop. Or... argh. *cusses* I need someone to sit down and actually show me these things. Dang it. *sigh*

Say sorry for the winge 'n' hiss, folken. Hermione's got it wrong, is all. You can't learn everything out of a book.

I've got my first set of knitting needles and some lovely sapphire blue yarn, anyway. Now to find a relative who can teach me to use them.

Edited to add: I've got the pesky slip knot figured out, whew! Thanks Rowena and Karen both. <3 I was missing a rather important step - as in, the making sure the second strand crossed the first one bit. Oooops! Heh. It only gets better from here... I hope.

Comments

[fluffhusk.livejournal.com]

I can write you up a thorough how-to cast-on document if you like.

[chanter1944]

*snugs you* Thanks. I may take you up on that, if my mother doesn't remember how. I'm going to ask her first. :) Granted, I've got plenty more to learn after casting on. Heh. :)

[fluffhusk.livejournal.com]

No worries. Feel free to bother me with questions. I'm more than willing to yap at you about stuff :)

[chanter1944]

*grins* Awesome. I might very well end up yapping at you about other stuff in return. Pottery and color-picking geekery ahoy! XD

[withherhands]

A slipknot is the one thing that people have the hardest time with when I teach knitting.

The way I do it is by holding my left hand palm-down, the tail of the yarn tucked between my thumb and my palm. I wrap the yarn over the top of my first two fingers, under the bottom, making sure that it crosses the other strand, the over the top again, closer to my knuckles than the previous strand. and back under again. Basically this way you have an "X" on the underside of your hand and two strands running parallel on the top.

reach under the strand closest to the tips of your fingers and grab the top of the strand closest to your knuckles. Pull it through, and there's the slip knot. Not sure this will help or these directions make sense, but it's worth a shot?

Also, what method are you using to cast on? Because depending on what technique you're using you technically may not need a slipknot!

[chanter1944]

That makes a heck of a lot more sense than what I was reading earlier! Thanks, Karen. *hugs*

I'm using the knitted cast on, as opposed to the long tail one, which I didn't even try. Confusing directions are confusing when you can't see photos. *shrugs* Thanks for the info, seriously. Makes a lot more sense to me. Now if I can figure out the rest...

[jewelledfairy.livejournal.com]

I tried teaching myself how to knit. It didn't go very well, even when I watched videos on how to do it.