[Nfb-krafters-korner] learning to knit

[Annette Carr]

Deidre,

I am so glad that you are not giving up.  Ripping out and starting over is
part of knitting.  My family says that if I had fabric from all of the
stitches I've knitted I could have made enough material to make hats and
scarves for the entire country.  

In the beginning you are going to drop stitches.  It is just a fact of life.
Even after knitting for a long time you will drop stitches.  I would agree
that most likely your stitches are too tight.  This is a common problem for
beginners.  It can be a problem for experienced knitters when we are not
paying attention to what we are doing because we are listening to a good
book, or we are tense from a stressful day and the tension is traveling down
to our needles.

Tips:
Take your time.  
Frequently take note of the tension of the yarn woven through your fingers
on your left hand and loosen it up.
After knitting a few stitches, push the stitches back from the points of
your needles and lay the work down on the table.  Check out the stitches on
your right needle.  If they feel tight and do not slide easily on your
needle, loosen the stitches up.  Do this by pulling a little on the stitch
closest to the point of the right needle.  Do not make it too big.  Then
move to the stitch next to it and give it a little tug to take up some of
the slack from the first stitch.  Now tug on the next stitch and loosen it a
bit.  Double check to see if stitch 1 and 2 need loosening again.  Now go
back to knitting and make 3 more stitches.  Repeat this process if needed .
You will not have to do this loosening stuff for ever.  

If continental does not work for you, then go back to the other way.  There
is no one right way to knit.  Find what works for you and be consistent in
using it.

Keep me posted on how you are doing.

Annette


-----Original Message-----
From: Nfb-krafters-korner [mailto:nfb-krafters-korner-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Deidre Muccio
Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2013 5:31 PM
To: 'List for blind crafters and artists'
Subject: [Nfb-krafters-korner] learning to knit

Hello Annette and others
I was eager for the first beginner's knitting class to happen yesterday. I
felt sure that I could learn. Right off I lost my slip knot off the needle
several times. I never successfully casted on. I was also totally perplexed
because the motions described for knitting were not what I had been shown
several times before by a neighbor. It turns out I had been shown English
not Continental, which is what we did yesterday. Btw, probably many of you
have taken this with Annette before, and you know she gives her all.
Today my neighbor came back over to try to help me get the hang of
Continental. I still didn't manage to cast on a first row of stitches, so
she did it for me. I can't wait to hear the recording to see if at some
point before the next class, I can figure it out myself.
	I now see the difference between English and Continental, it's the
same, except for where the long strand of yarn gets placed or picked up. I
can do that movement now except that a problem I'm having is that the
stitches get so tight that when I need to pick that stitch off that left
needle the stitches on both needles have to be right up near the tip and I
risk their sliding off. I was told the reason things are getting so tight is
that I am putting too much tension on the strand of yarn that is resting on
my pointer finger. I was also told that it is good for there to be tension
as the two needles are inside the stitch on the left needle, but I suppose
that is easy for a sighted experienced knitter to say! 
	I can't believe everyone in class yesterday was able to knit a few
rows without dropping stitches. At least 3 times I dropped stitches off the
left needle and my neighbor had to put them back on. I felt them and she
told me what to do to get them back on the left needle but I'm not 100% sure
I would have done it perfectly. I am not always even sure when I've  made a
mistake, so to speak, though often I can tell when something happens that
didn't feel right.
	What do you other beginners do if no one is around to help remedy
the kinds of problems I'm talking about? Start from the very beginning
again?
	This process of learning is quite remarkable. I'm trusting that I'll
get the hang of it, but I will surely need more help. I'm not willing to
give up yet.

	Deidre


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