Mitten Class: Lesson One

Mitten Class:
Lesson One

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Hi all you aspiring knitters!

With the actual mitten cast on to happen Sunday, I think we'll start off this project very slowly for those of you who have never knit. I want you to start by just knitting back and forth on 2 needles for a bit, to get used to doing the knit stitch. There's a neat site that shows great pictures for casting on and knitting...

OK...take 2 of your double pointed needles and your yarn. Measure off 12" of yarn, make a slip knot, and cast on 10 sts as per these EXCELLENT instructions:
http://www.wonderful-things.com/knit.htm
If you have any trouble doing this---e-mail Claudia or send a note to the list and I will respond there.

Hold the needle with the 10 sts on it in your left hand, and an empty needle in your right hand. Loop the connected yarn over and under the fingers of your left hand until you can grasp it and keep it still while you are working the two needles.

There are some fun rhymes out there for learning to knit. The knit stitch is basically a 4 step process where you:

GO IN THROUGH THE FRONT DOOR (the point of your empty needle (in your right hand) pokes into the first loop on the needle in your left hand
GO ONCE AROUND THE BACK (wrap the yarn in your left hand around the point of the right needle Counterclockwise)
PEEK THROUGH THE WINDOW(pull the point of the right needle, with the looped yarn around it, under the top loop of the stitch on the left needle and out through to the front of your work
THEN OFF JUMPS JACK (holding the needle with the pulled-through loop (the new stitch!!!) secure in your right hand [use your thumb to hang onto the newly formed stitch if you have to] pull the ENTIRE OLD LOOP (that first stitch on the left needle that you poked into) up and off the left needle...you will see that your newly knit stitch will survive intact on your right needle.)

Work this way across all 10 stitches. You have finished Row 1! Then stop...put the right needle (which now has 10 knit stitches on it) in your LEFT hand, and the newly emptied needle from your left hand into your RIGHT hand, and work across the 10 stitches again....this will be row 2.

Do this until your little square of knitting (called a swatch) measures about 3" from the needle. Now measure it ACROSS and write down the measurement in your new notebook. Post what it is here and we'll figure out your GAUGE, which is how many stitches fit into an inch of your knitting. This number will help you determine how big your mittens will come out.