The Basics of Knitting - Video

Trying to be my own camera operator for a video like this was a bit challenging. I hope you can see well enough!

There will be other videos to show more techniques, knitting, spinning and more...

Here is the YouTube:

Link to Spinster Lois Swale's YouTube Channel

I promised a link to spindle expert Lois Swale's channel.

Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/user/missingspindle/videos

I appreciate her style, and hope you will as well.

I plan to be posting my own spinning videos shortly, but you can get some good information from hers.

Ameda's Favorite Slippers

These have been my own version of Mary-Jane slippers for some time. They are fast and easy to make, accommodate a wide variety of feet, and are practically guaranteed to to turn the recipient into a jelly of gratitude when given as a gift.

These are a great project to use up the small bits of yarn that accumulate in any knitter's stash. I will use whatever I have, be it acrylic, superwash wool, or even my own handspun, but not mixing types. Making these large in non-superwash wool and then felting them to fit makes for a sturdy slipper.

Size is dependent on the yarn used, and you'll be making these often enough that you'll work out for yourself the appropriate needed needle size for the yarn for your most comfortable knitting. As a general guide, bulky yarn and size 9 needles will make a men's, Worsted weight and size 6 needles will make a woman's size, and fingering yarn and size 2 needles will make a child's size.

This project is a good beginner project, as the very basics of knitting - Cast On, Knit, Purl, Increase, Decrease, and Bind Off - are used.

CAST ON

CO 6

STARTING TAB

Knit 6 rows in garter st (knit every row)
Continuing in garter stitch, Inc 1 stitch at each edge until you have 19 stitches on your needles.

INCREASE ROW

K1, YO to last stitch, K1 (you should have 36 stitches)

BODY

Knit 40 rows in Stockinette stitch (knit 1 row, purl 1 row

DECREASE ROW

Knit 2 together across row - 18 stitches

ENDING TAB

In garter stitch, Dec 1 stitch each edge until you are back to 6 stitches
Knit 6 rows

BIND OFF

Bind off the 6 stitches

FINISHING

Fold your rather funky-looking piece of knitting right sides together and the beginning and ending tabs together. Using the tails from your cast on & bind off, sew the beginning 6 stitches to the last 6 stitches. Match the ends of the increase and decrease rows, and sew up the sides of the body.

A SHORT DISCUSSION OF GAUGE

Since I'm not making a specific yarn recommendation and these slippers stretch to fit a wide variety of feet, I'm not being very specific on gauge for this project.

Gauge can be defined as the number of stitches and rows per inch for the specific combination of knitter, needle size, stitch used, and yarn. It can vary quite a bit.

The swatches in the following photos all have 23 stitches and 23 rows. One swatch of each pair is in stockinette stitch, and the other is in mistake stitch rib.


The swatches in the above image have not been blocked. They show how mis-shaped pieces of knitting right off the needles can be.


This pair of swatches are done in a rather slubby "art yarn". The yarn might not be the best choice for slippers unless the slippers were made large and then was firmly felted.


These swatches also show that some yarns are less than effective at showing the details of a stitch pattern. This is something to think of in projects.