Essential Techniques Every Knitter Should Know

Class Preview

Become a more informed, confident and proficient knitter. Discover what techniques to use when, how to execute them perfectly and why they’re the best choice.

Introduction

Meet your instructor, designer and author Sally Melville, and learn more about the essential techniques covered in your class. You can watch the lessons in order or skip to the ones that interest you most. Use this class as a reference whenever you want to learn or review any technique!

Gauge

Even if you hate math, a few simple calculations will help you achieve the correct gauge — and garment projects that actually fit. Sally shares tips on knitting a gauge swatch and what to consider when you want to use a yarn different from what the pattern specifies. If the yarn you love isn’t a perfect match, you can do a little math to modify the pattern. Sally shows you how!

Casting On

There are myriad ways to cast on, and each has its advantages and disadvantages. Sally covers the most common — the long-tail cast-on — and shows two ways to do it, but she also encourages you to explore alternatives such as the e-wrap, cable and crochet cast-ons, which may be more appropriate, and prettier, for your particular project.

Bind-Offs

The bound-off edge should complement your knitting, without being too tight, too loose, too knotty or sloppy. Learn how to do the typical chain bind-off with a few extra steps that will make it look great. Or try the sewn bind-off for a super-stretchy finish, such as on the cuff of a toe-up sock. The three-needle bind-off also has its place, as Sally explains.

Selvages & Tails

The selvage of your knitting can be decorative — as the finished edge of a piece — or functional — the point where you will add a seam. Sally shows how slipped stitch, garter stitch and stockinette selvages look in your work and discusses factors you should consider when choosing one over the other, regardless of what a pattern specifies.

Increases

Knitting into the front and back of a stitch is the easiest way to make an increase, but it’s not always the prettiest. See how make-one and lifted increases might be a better choice for your project. Sally also shows how to use increases to make knitted bobbles that don’t droop.

Decreases

Sally walks you through the leaning tower of decreases, with a handy trick for remembering which ones lean left and which lean right and where to use them. Need a centered double decrease? Sally shows you how to make it!

Seaming

Seaming is not as hard as it seems, if you follow Sally’s guidance. She’ll walk you through row-to-row, stitch-to-stitch and stitch-to-row seams for a beautiful finish.

Picking Up & Knitting

You’ll gain confidence in picking up and knitting stitches when you can see just how to do it with a close-up view. Sally demonstrates how to pick up and knit along a row edge and along a curve such as an armhole or neckline. No more fumbling and guesswork with Sally’s techniques in your toolkit.