Knitting a Scarf In A Day For Dummies (eBook)

Pam Allen has been designing sweaters since 1985. Her patterns appear in Vogue Knitting, Family Circle, and Women's Day, among other publications. She is the author of the best-selling Knitting For Dummies. Shannon Okey (Cleveland, OH) is the author of nearly a dozen books on knitting and other fiber arts, a columnist for knit.1 magazine, and a frequent contributor to other craft magazines. She hosts a call-in podcast about knitting and has appeared on many television shows, including Knitty Gritty, Uncommon Threads and Crafters Coast to Coast. Okey can be found online at knitgrrl.com.

Introduction 1

What You Can Do In A Day 1

Conventions Used in This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 3

Icons Used in This Book 3

Chapter 1: Knitting Need-to-Knows 5

Why Knit? 5

Knitting your worries away 5

Gaining a feeling of accomplishment 6

Keeping your mind and hands occupied 6

Creating a one-of-a-kind piece 6

Sorting Out What Knitters Need 7

The tools 7

An understanding of the basics 8

Selecting Yarn: The (Quick) Consumer's Guide 9

Fiber fundamentals 9

A weighty matter 11

Yarn packaging 12

Reading labels 12

Choosing a ball, skein, or hank 13

Picking Up Knitting Needles 14

Sizing up needles 14

Seeing what they're made of 15

Grabbing Must-Have Gadgets 16

Chapter 2: Deciphering Patterns and
Gauge 17

Reading Stitch Patterns 17

Deciphering common abbreviations and shorthand 18

Following written stitch patterns 20

Measuring Gauge to Get the Size Right 21

Considering what affects gauge 23

Making a gauge swatch 24

Measuring your gauge 25

Matching your pattern's gauge 25

Chapter 3: Essential Skills: Casting On, Knitting, Purling,
and Binding Off 27

Casting On 28

Now You're Knitting and Purling 31

Getting a knack for knitting 32

Pushing forward with purling 36

Binding (or Casting) Off 37

Chapter 4: Basic Stitches You'll Use Again and
Again 41

Starting with Garter Stitch 42

Knitting and Purling Stockinette Stitch 43

Creating Box Stitch 44

Chapter 5: Applying Your Knitting Knowledge with Three Scarf
Patterns
45

Ribbed Scarf 46

New skill: Switching from knit to purl and back again 46

Materials and vital statistics 47

Directions 48

Box-Stitch Scarf 48

Materials and vital statistics 49

Directions 49

Double-Wrap Garter-Stitch Scarf 50

New skill: The double wrap (and beyond) 50

Materials and vital statistics 51

Directions 52

Chapter 6: Oops! Fixing Common
Mistakes
53

Stopping Mistakes or Catching Them Early 53

Dealing with Dropped Stitches 54

Finding and securing a dropped stitch 55

Picking up a dropped stitch in the row below 56

To make a knit stitch 57

To make a purl stitch 58

Rescuing a dropped stitch from several rows below 60

In stockinette stitch 60

In garter stitch 61

Ripping (Your Heart) Out 63

Ripping out stitch by stitch 63

Ripping out row by row 64

Chapter 7: Where to Go from Here 67

Taking Your First Steps 67

Visiting dummiescom 68