[Nfb-krafters-korner] learning to knit

[Powers, Terry (NIH/NCI) [E]]

Cathy 
Wrap the yarn around your pinky not your hole hand.  
Let the yarn pass infrunt of your hand and around your pinky on your right hand.  It will then dangle down to the ball in your bag or basket...
Terry P.


-----Original Message-----
From: Cathy [mailto:flowersandherbs at gmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2013 6:35 PM
To: 'List for blind crafters and artists'
Subject: Re: [Nfb-krafters-korner] learning to knit

Hi Deidre,

This is Cathy who was also in the class. I learned to knit in high school and joined the class to refresh my memory. My memory was refreshed, but holding the needles and making the stitches was not easy for me. I was so afraid of losing stitches off my left-hand needle, that I had the left-hand needle clutched so tightly in my fingers that it began to hurt and I'd have to stop and set it down. Then when I would need to place the right hand needle into the stitch on the left needle, my needle would get tangled up with the working yarn that was woven through my fingers. It would get knotted and I'd have to take it all out, and start again. three times I did that. the only way I was able to knit the three rows I did was when I did not thread the working yarn through my fingers. I really would like to get the hang of this method however since Annette says it makes knitting faster and it is easier to purl that way. 

I too am looking forward to the recording. Maybe I will figure out why my yarn is tangling. As for your stitches being tight, I am now speaking as a loom knitter and crocheter ,and have found that the secret to tight stitches is the tension on one's hands. It is difficult to relax one's hands when you are worried about dropping a needle, but if your hands are more relaxed, they will not pull the yarn so tightly and the loops will remain looser. I am not having tight stitches with the needle knitting, perhaps because I had the experience of knitting in high school, or perhaps because I crochet and loom knit.

Oh, please don't give up after only one class. The importance of Practice when learning anything new cannot be stressed enough. Just keep plugging away. as far as the slip knot. When I taught a beginning crochet class last year, I found it so difficult to figure out how to explain how to make a slipknot. It is so weird because it is such a simple knot! 

Try this and see if it works for you.

Hold the yarn end in your right hand.
 Point your pointer finger on your left hand toward the right.
take your yarn and lay it over your finger with the end that you are holding heading away from you.
wrap the yarn loosely down and around your finger till the end of the yarn in your right hand is again above your left hand.
Tuck the end of the yarn under the loop so that it goes from the wrist towards the end of your finger.
Remove your finger and you should have a loop.
Place this loop on your needle and loosen and tighten it by gently pulling on the loop and the tail of the yarn.
If it can loosen and tighten, then you have a slipknot.

HTH.
(just figured out the other day that HTH means (hope this helps)

<smile> Cathy




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