Ready to Begin

The moment of realization has come. Today has marked one month and a week since I have started my knitting journey. In the past month I have learned the slip knot, cast on, knit stitch, and purl stitch while sharing with you guys all of my ups and downs. With all the practice that I have done since I have started, I thought I had a good gist of all that knitting entails, but it never fails, there is a lot more information out there to learn and make sense of.  

Image A (Front)

In this image, I started out practicing the purl stitch continuously and then I switched over to the knit stitch. Posting my questions to the knitting community, I found out that focusing on one technique, either knit or purl stitch, for every row is called a garter stitch. And the garter stitch can, in fact, be a pattern for a project and is recommended as the first project for beginners.

Image A (Back)

The garter stitch is also the reason why the stitches are parallel to the needle. Watching videos and looking at pictures, I realized that their rows were perpendicular to the needle and I questioned if I was doing something wrong. Fortunately, it is a normal stitching. And I want to point out in Image A (front), the transition from the purl stitch to the knit stitch produces a stockinette stitch (I had no idea). The stockinette stitch can be used as a pattern in which you repeat one row of knits and one row of purls in a project. It's a lot to digest but do not fret, if you're a visual learner like myself, this video will provide some clarification. 




Image B (front)



From a forum in Knitting Help, I read a thread called Knitting the Knits and Purling the Purls. Confusion at its max! But a fellow knitter explained that when you knit a row, the back of it is a purl stitch (and vice versa), when you flip the work (to start another row) you are now seeing a purl row. For the next row you would then have to purl stitch. It sounds complicated but in actuality, it is not. Identifying the knit and purl stitches will help you know what stitches to knit and which ones to purl.




Image B (Back)




I tried knitting the knits and purling the purls by alternating between knit stitching and purling in each row. As you can see from Image B, it did not work as well as I thought it would. There seems to be more stitches on one end of the row than the other but I won't give up and for my beginners, you don't either. I am learning as I go and I am itching to work on my first project. Soo, I think I know the basics enough to move to the next step of my journey and attempt my first project. Stay tuned, stay encouraged, and continue knitting!


[Keep Moving Forward!]