How to knit
Follow our simple steps to make the most important stitch you’ll learn
Everything you need to know…
Hold the needle with the stitches on it in your left hand. Keeping the yarn in your right hand and at the back of your work, insert the point of the right-hand needle up into the front loop of the first stitch, as shown.
Now wind the yarn anticlockwise around the point of the right-hand needle using your index finger. It’s important to keep the yarn in your right hand relatively taut to maintain an even tension as you go.
Bring the right-hand needle down through the loop, making sure that you catch the yarn you wound around the needle. This creates the stitch. Don’t pull the free yarn too tightly, let out some slack.
Push the point of the right needle further through the stitch you created, then gently pull the right needle up and to your left, taking the original loop with it. You’ve now created one knit stitch. Repeat Steps 1 to 4 across the row.
Insert the tip of the right-hand needle into the front of the stitch and knit as normal, but don’t drop it from the left-hand needle.
Then take the right-hand needle behind the left and insert the tip of the needle down through the back of the stitch on the left-hand needle.
Wrap the yarn around the tip of the right-hand needle to knit the stitch. Bring the needle through to make the stitch, keeping it on the right-hand needle.
Take the stitch o the left-hand needle. You will have increased one stitch by knitting twice into the original stitch, first at the front, then at the back.
MATTRESS STITCH
Place your knitted pieces RS up side by side. Thread your yarn on to a needle, anchor the end and weave along an edge to your start point. Working from back to front, push your needle up between the first and second stitches of the left piece’s edge, then insert the needle down between the first two stitches of the right piece’s edge (on the equivalent row). Moving upwards, bring the needle back up on the right piece, scooping up the bar that lies at the back of the stitch. Return to the opposite piece and repeat.
BACKSTITCH
Pin your two pieces together and secure your sewing yarn tail a stitch length to the right of where you are starting. Now working from right to left, bring the needle up a couple of stitches away at 1 . Take the needle down at 2 and up again at 3 and down at 4 . Repeat this motion, keeping the stitches regular and ensuring you put the needle through the middle of each knitted stitch to avoid splitting the fabric.