Knitting I: Learn the Basics with a Simple Scarf

1. Trailer: For me, knitting is really relaxing. Its kind of meditative. It's a great way to decompress. Hi, my name is Davina, and I run a site called sheepandstitch.com which teaches people how to knit. So, in this class, we'll be going through the basics of knitting. I'll be bringing you from a total beginner to someone who can actually knit, and we'll be going through the four techniques: casting on, casting off, knitting, and curling, and we'll be knitting a scarf, which will be your first project. It's super fun. It's really amazing to be able to make something with your own two hands. Most of us don't really use our hands for very much these days beyond typing on a keyboard or sort of picking up things. Our hands are not really part of any production, but with knitting, you can use your own two hands and you can actually make something that you can wear or give to someone else. You can make something that's beautiful and useful. For me, that's completely magical, and I would love for other people to experience that too. 2. Introduction: All right. So, in this class, you'll be making a garter stitch scarf, which looks like this. I'm just going to wear it for you so you can see what it looks like. It's just a big cushy scarf that you can wear around your neck, and it's nice and thick, and we also have an optional fringe, just in case you want something kicky. You don't have to do it, totally optional. But this is the project that we'll be knitting in this class, after I teach you how to knit. So you might be wondering why you should be knitting at all. In this industrial age when you can basically buy anything that you want in a store or online, why would you bother buying materials, find knitting needles to make a scarf? Doesn't make any sense, right? But the thing about knitting is that it's really empowering to be able to bring production back to you. Until recently, since human history, we've been making things with our hands. Only until factories came along that we started relying on other people to make our stuff. So, personally, I think it's really empowering and really awesome, really cool to actually use your own two hands to make something that you can wear and use and gift to other people. So that's one of the reasons why I knit, because I think it's amazing that you can actually make a scarf or a hat or whatever you want, something that is beautiful and useful with your own two hands. The earliest fragment that we have of knitting is from 1000 AD, and it's from the Middle East. So it's generally accepted that knitting grew out of the Middle East, and then eventually made its way into Europe with the Islamic conquest. So, when Muslims went into Spain to conquer Spain, they brought the craft into Spain, and from there, it spread into Europe. That's one theory. The other theory is that when Europeans went into the Middle East during the Crusades, they ended up picking up the craft of knitting from the locals there, and brought it back into Europe where it ended up spreading. So, the cool thing about knitting is that it actually has really royal beginnings in Europe, when it was brought back into Europe or when it went into Europe depending on which theory you subscribe to. Knitting was really a craft for the church, for the Catholic Church. So, high Catholic officials would have liturgical gloves, little pillows that they would use, that would be knitted, and that was really what knitting was for, for early European knitting. It was really relegated to the church, and to royal princes and kings. It wasn't until much later in the Renaissance that knitting became kind of a craft industry. A cottage industry, where people learned how to knit and made things for themselves. From Europe, knitting spread out into the rest of the world, during the Age of Exploration, when people were going out to explore the rest of the world. That's how knitting spread into the new world, into North America, and into Asia, and into Africa as well. So that's what we know about the early history of knitting. 3. Materials: Needles and Yarn: When you're thinking about knitting, you're going to need some materials. So, the first thing that you're going to need is going to be needles. So, the needles and I've got here are wooden or bamboo needles and these are size 7.5 millimeters, which means that they're really big and thick. They're definitely on the big end. These are needles that I would really recommend. The other types of needles that we've got or that you can buy, are plastic needles like this one. Now, these are huge needles, even like 12 millimeter needles, I would not recommend yields this big. I also wouldn't recommend plastic needles either because plastic needles are quite slippery. I also would not recommend aluminum needles. So, these are aluminum needles, you can hear them they're quite sharp sounding and they're also really slippery. These needles are also quite a bit smaller, these are four millimeter needles. They're perfectly fine needles but if you're just beginning, I wouldn't recommend something so small. So, the needles that I do recommend are these ones right here, either wood or possibly bamboo needle 7.5 millimeters. The needles that you started out with do not have to be this big, they can be six millimeters or up. A needle size that's bigger than six millimeters is a great place to start, If you can get wood or bamboo needles. Now, the reason why I like wooden or bamboo needles is because wood has a natural stickiness to it. So, when you cast on your yarn and I'll tell you what casting on means in just a little bit. But when you're casting on your yarn, your yarn will grip the needles because of the natural, I don't know what you call it oiliness, stickiness of the wood and that's great because you're stitches won't slide around. When you're starting out as a knitter, It's really easy to get frustrated because your stitches are just like sliding all over the place. So, the more secure they can be, the better. So, you'll really help yourself out if you use wooden needles when you're just starting out. Okay. So, the type of yarn that I will recommend when you're first getting started is an acrylic yarn like this or a wool yarn like this. So, I don't want to get too bogged down in yarn weight, but when you're thinking about what kind of yarn or the thickness of the yarn that you want, I would recommend like a bulky yarn and above. So, a bulky, super bulky, even a chunky weight yarn would be very appropriate for you when you're starting out. So, this what I've got here, this is an acrylic yarn and this is a bulky weight yarn, It's nice and thick. You can see wrapped around my finger, It's a pretty thick yarn. The reason why using a thicker yarn is a good idea is because you can grip it better. That's really the only reason why I would recommend it, it's because it's big and chunky. I mean you can maneuver around it and manipulate it a lot better than if you were knitting with say a lighter weight yarn like this for example. So, this what I've got here is an alpaca yarn. So, alpaca is a type of fiber and it's very slippery and very smooth, which is great because it gives you a lot of drape. But when you're starting out knitting, it's a terrible yarn choice because it'll just be slipping all over your needles, It's hard to control, and it's also quite thin. So, if you look at just compare the weight of these two yarns, you can see that compared to the blue yarn, this blue acrylic, this white alpaca is very thin, much thinner. So, it'll be harder for you to control when you're knitting. That's why using a thick yarn is a good idea. Acrylic is also great because it's really cheap. So, when you're starting out, don't blow a lot of money on really expensive yarn, just get a nice solid chunky workhorse yarn that you can use to practice your techniques on. So, that's why acrylic is great. Now, wool is also great too. This is a super bulky yarn, So this is very thick. So, if you compare this thickness with the acrylic, you can see that the red wool is much thicker. So, this is a super bulky weight yarn, this is probably the thickest yarn you can find. I mean I have seen really thick ones but those are like special thin ones, this is still a pretty standard yarn weight, super bulky. So, this is a wool, and wool is great for beginners because wool is also quite grippy. It stays on your needles quite securely unlike alpaca or cotton or bamboo, those are really smooth silky yarns that knit up really well but for a beginner, it's probably not a good idea because it'll be slipping all over the place. Okay. So, once you get your yarn you might be thinking what needle size you need to get, that's a great question. Now, everything that you need to know about your yarn is on the yarn label. So, I've got a yarn label right here. This is a yarn label from Plymouth yarns. If you look at the back of your yarn label, you should have some information about the fiber content of your yarn. So, whether it's wool or alpaca or cotton and also the size of your yarn, basically the yarn weight. So, on this yarn label, it says that I can get three stitches per inch using a 10.5 US needle. Now, that's a great place to start when you're thinking about knitting. Just go with whatever your yarn label says basically. So, we'll talk later on in a different class about different yarn weights and gauge and things like that. When you're just getting started, just do whatever your yarn label says. So, if you fall in love with the art of the yarn store, and you want to get that yarn, just look at the yarn label if it says to US size 10 millimeter needle, then get US size 10 millimeter needle. So, do whatever your yarn label tells you for this course. Okay. So, where are you going to get all of these materials? Now, you could go online that's a great option, but my favorite option is to go to a local yarn or craft store. The reason for that is, it's great to support local businesses and of course, once you're there you can grab someone who was probably really knowledgeable about yarn, needles, knitting, crafts in general, and they can help guide you. So, that's one of the reasons why I love going to a local yarn store. You can actually feel the yarn yourself. You can feel the thickness of it, feel the texture, see the color, which you don't have to look at the colors through a monitor. You can actually see it, it's very visceral. It's a great experience. It's a good time. So, I would recommend that you actually go look for a local yarn store in your community and if you don't, then that's okay. You can always go online and I've got some online resources for you in the description that you can go to you and I've shopped from all of these places. So, they're really good they got great yarn choices. But of course, the first option, the best option is to just go to a store in your area and if you don't have one, then you can look online and you got a lot of auctions online. 4. Technique: The Cast-On and The Knit Stitch: All right. So, now I'm ready to cast-on. Casting-On basically means getting the yarn that you have onto your needles. So, you need to get your stitches onto your needles and I'm going to show you how to do that with a cast-on. So, now you've got your needles and your yarn and we're ready to cast-on. So, we can start putting these yarn onto our needles. So, we can have some stitches to knit. All right. So, the first thing that you want to do is to make a slipknot. Now, a slipknot is made by making a little loop with your yarn like this. We're going to take the tail end of our yarn and bring it to the back of our loop. Then we're going to pick that loop out like that. So, we have a slipknot just like this. Pretty cool, right? All right. So, we're going to take our needle and just put it through our slipknot like this. Then, we're going to tighten it up. Here we go. So, it's nice and secure on our needle. Cool. So, this is the first stitch on our needle. All right. But we need to put more stitches on here. We can't just have one stitch. So, what we're going to do is we're going to take the yarn that's attached to our ball, and we're going to be using this yarn to put the rest of our stitches on our needle. Okay. So, I'm going to take my index finger on my left hand, I'm just going to make like a little gun like this. I'm going to go underneath this yarn that's attached to my ball. Then, I'm going to twist it upwards, and then point it upwards, and then point it all the way to the left. So, it's like a backwards gun. Then I'm going to take my needle and push it through the loop that's been made on my finger, and then just drop it off on the needle just like that. Then, I'm going to tighten it up. Cool. So, here we've got two stitches on our needle. All right. So, let's keep going. Here's my working yarn, the yarn that's attached to my ball. I'm going to take my index finger go underneath this yarn. So from left to right underneath, and I'm going to twist my head upwards so it's pointing. So, my fingers pointing upwards and I'm going to turn it all the way to the left. I'm going to take my needle, go into the loop that my finger has made and then just take everything off. We've made a third stitch. Cool. All right. So, just practice that on your own and you can say the words out loud if you need to. So, index finger into a gun and then we're just going to bring it from left to right, turn your finger upwards all the way to the left, and then use your needle to pick up that loop on your finger, whoops, to pick up that loop on your finger like this drop your hand off and pull down. So, nice and easy. So, once you get comfortable with this, you can get a rhythm on it and do it really fast. You can just go like this. Really fast and get as many stitches as you like. All right. So because we're practicing, I would do maybe like 12 stitches. That's pretty good for us to practice. So, now I've got 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. So, let's do two more. So here we go one and two. So, now we've got 12 stitches on our needle, Cool. So, we are ready to move on to the knit stitch. All right. So, now you've got your cast-on stitches onto your needle and now we can actually knit them. Cool. All right. So, what we're going to do is you're going to hold the needle with your stitches in your left hand just like this and you're going to hold your other needle in your right hand like this. You can kind of hold it like you would normally hold a pencil. All right. So, what we're going to do is we're going to push our stitches kind of close to the tip of our needle. Then we're going to use our right needle and we're going to move it into the stitch. So, we're going to go from the bottom to the top. All right. So, let's see if we can't do this, here, we go so now our needle is moving in from the bottom to the top. We're just going to push it in it might be a little bit tight but that's okay just push it right in, and with our working yarn, s, the yarn that's attached to our ball, we're going to bring it from the back, all the way to the front. So, we're just going to loop it around our needle. Now, you can see that if I bring my needle up through that stitch that I just wrapped around my needle, I have a little loop here. Cool, right. So, now I'm just going to drop that right off my left needle. This is one knit stitch. So, we've just made one knit stitch. All right. So, we're going to do that again. I'm going to take my right needle, and I'm going to bring it down to this stitch and I'm going to push into it from the bottom to the top. Here, we go, who that's a tight one. Okay. So, we're going to take our working yarn and wrap it from the back to the front like this. Then we're just going to pick that loop that we just made through this stitch, just like that. Then we're going to drop it off our left needle. All right. So, let's do that again. We're going to bring our needle from the bottom. Push it through from the bottom to the top, taker working yarn and go around our right needle and then pick that loop that we just made through the stitch on our left needle and drop it off. We're just going to keep going. All right, so bottom to the top. Okay. Bring our working yarn from the back to the front pick up that loop, drop it off. All right. That's all there is to the knit stitch. So, practice that on these stitches, knit all of your stitches and once you've done that, maybe flip your flip your needle around and continue doing that. So, I'm going to show you what I mean when I say that you're going to flip your needle over. So, here we go let's finish off these stitches right here. If this is hard, don't worry about the motions, you can just grip your yarn like this go around make a big motion and then pick it out, that's okay. Once you are comfortable with the knit stitch, you might be able to just do like this right like what I'm doing. But when you're first getting started, it's perfectly fine to go around your needle like this. Make a big exaggerated motion that's okay. All right. So, here we're at our last stitch and I'm just going to knit that and there we go now we've just knit one row of our of our stitches. So when you get to the end of your row, you would just turn your work around like this. All right and now you are at the beginning of your row again and you can continue knitting. So, you would just take your yarn with your needle go, through the first stitch from the bottom to the top, wrap it around your needle like this. Then pick that loop that you just made through your stitch and then pop it off the needle just like that alright and just keep on going. So, once you reach the end of your row, you would just take your needle turn it right around and continue knitting. 5. Technique: The Purl Stitch: All right, so we've just done the Knit stitch which is great, and what we're going to do next is the Purl stitch. Now, once you master the knit and Purl, you'll be able to make a bunch of different stitch patterns. So, let's get started and learn how to knit the Purl stitch. All right, so what we're going to do with the Purl stitch is very similar to the Knit stitch with one little exception. So, we're going to take our right needle, and instead of going from the bottom to the top, which is what we did when we were knitting, we're going to go from the top to the bottom. So, this is the Purl stitch. We're going to take our right needle and we're going to go from the top of this stitch down to the bottom of this stitch. We're going to take our yarn that's attached to our ball right here, and we're going to bring it over our right needle. Okay, so when we were knitting, we had it back here, but when we're purling, we want to have it up front like this. So, we've got our needle that's going into our stitch from the top to the bottom, and we've got our yarn up front, and then we're going to take our yarn and go from the back of this needle to the front. We're just going to wrap it around like that. Then, I'm just going to push the loop that I made through the stitch on my left needle, just like that and then pop it off the needle. All right, so that is a Purl stitch. Let's continue doing that. So, I'm going to take my needle on my right hand, go through this stitch from the top to the bottom. I'm going to take my yarn which is now up front. We're going to go back to the front and then we're going to pick that loop through the stitch on our left needle and then we're going to drop it off, okay? So, let's do that again. From the top to the bottom, just like this, yarn up front, around back to the front, and then we're going to pick that stitch or pick that loop off, and then we're going to drop it off our left needle. All right, so here we go. Here we go. Here's one Purl stitch. So, the thing to remember about the Purl stitch is that you always want your yarn up front and your needle going in from the top to the bottom. It's in a lot of ways the opposite of the Purl stitch. All right, so here we go, and top to the bottom, yarn in front, going from the back to the front and then picking it off. When we're at the end of our row, we would just turn our work around as we did for the Knit stitch. This is the tight one. Here we go. All right, so we're at the end of a row and we're just going to turn our needle around just like this, and then we can start purling all over again. So, if with our right needle we would go from the top to the bottom, then we've got our yarn up front like this, then we're going to take our yarn, wrap it from the back to the front and then pick that loop through the stitch, drop it off our needle and just keep on going, and that is the Purl stitch. 6. Technique: The Cast Off: All right. So now you know the cast on, the knit and the purl. Okay. So, maybe you've knit yourself a little swatch and you want to get your swatch off the needles. So, what you're going to do is you're going to do the cast off and I'll show you how to cast off your stitches so that you can get your knitted project off your needles and out into the world. So, what we're going to do is we're just going to knit as we did, as we have been doing. We're going to take our working yarn, wrap it around our needle, bring it through and pop it off. Okay. So, we're going to do two knit stitches just like this, and once we have two knit stitches, we're going to take our left needle, bring it underneath the stitch on our right needle like this, and then bring it over this stitch like that. Okay. So, now we just cast off one stitch. So, we're going to keep going. All right. I'm going to knit one stitch like this. I'm going to take my left needle and go underneath my stitch that's farthest on my right and then bring it over the stitch that I just knit, just like that. So, let's keep going. We're just going to knit one stitch, bring our needle underneath the stitch on the far right, and then bring it over the stitch that we just knit. So, we're always knitting two stitches and bringing our needle underneath the stitch on our far right and bringing it over the stitch that we just knit, just like that. All right. Here we go and let's keep going. So, once we've done our whole row then this fabric that we've just knit will be off our needles and it can go out into the world and you can do whatever you want with it. So, you can see that it's got, as we're casting off, there's this nice edge on it. It is literally getting off our needle, we are casting it off. So, let's keep on going. Here we go, and it's really as simple as just knitting across your row and this is the best part of knitting in my opinion because it means that you're done and your work can now enter into the world. You can do whatever you want with it, really exciting. All right. So, we're almost at the end of our row. Right here we've got three more stitches left? Here we go. Okay. So, two and let's do this one last stitch. Here we go. Cool. All right. So, when you've got one stitch on your needle like this, what we're going to do is we're going to get out our scissors. All right, here we go. So, I'm going to cut a length of yarn, maybe five, six inches or so. Just snip it right off and then I'm going to take this yarn tail that I've just cut off. I'm going to bring it to the front of my needle like this and then I'm going to bring the stitch on my needle right over it like this, and then pull it through, and now I've just made a knot and my work is off the needles. Pretty cool, right? 7. Scarf Project: Knitting and a Quick Fix: All right, so once you've got the yarn that you want to use for your scarf, so either a bulky, super bulky, or a chunky weight yarn, then we can start actually knitting this scarf up. Right, so we're going to start with a cast on, so we're going to make a slip knot like this. Okay, bring our yarn in the back and pick out a loop. Here we go, put our needle through that loop, tighten it up, and then we're going to start casting on. All right, so let's do this. We're just going to put some stitches on our needle. Now the number of stitches that you put on really depends on how wide you want your scarf to be. If you want a really skinny scarf, then you would cast on fewer stitches. If you want a really big thick scarf, then you would cast on more stitches. So, the scarf that I showed you earlier, the sample that I knit, I cast on 26 stitches in a bulky weight yarn. Now depending on how wide you want, you would cast on either more or fewer stitches. I want a little bit wider, so this is pretty good. When you look at your cast on stitches, it's an approximation of how wide your scarf is going to be. If I cast on this many stitches, my scarf isn't going to be exactly this wide because once I knit my stitches, they're going to expand a little bit. If I cast on these many stitches, you can expect your scarf to be maybe like this wide, give or take an inch or two. But the best way to figure out how wide your scarf is going to be is to actually knit into it. But this is a nice way for you to figure out, to eyeball how wide your scarf is going to be. Once you've decided that you want this number of stitches on your needle, then we can start knitting. There's one difference that we're going to do for this scarf than when you were knitting in our demonstration earlier. What you're going to do is you're actually going to slip the first stitch of your needle. So, you're not going to knit into this, you're just going to push your needle into it, and then pop it right off, just like that, so no knitting. Once you've done that, then you would just knit the rest of your stitches as normal, and that's the only difference. You would slip the first stitch on your row of every row and then just keep on knitting, and that is essentially the pattern. This is a really simple scarf, so all you're going to be doing is knitting all of your stitches except for your first stitch, which you would slip. The reason why we do this is that it gives our edge a really clean finished look. It gives it a selvage edge, which is a jargony fashion speak. It gives it a nice clean edge and that's why we slip the first stitch on all of our rows. I'll just show you what I mean again once we get to the end of this row. This is totally normal when you're knitting into your first row, after casting on, your stitches are going to be a little bit tight. That's completely normal. Here we're almost at the end of our row, just got two more stitches. It's a hard one, and here we go. End of our row. All right, so, we're going to turn our work around and we can keep working our row. But as I said earlier, we're not going to knit the first stitch, the first stitch, we're just going to slip off our needle and then just keep on knitting. Just remember the entire pattern for this scarf is just slipping the first stitch on your needle and then knitting the rest of your rows. That's it, that's all you've got to remember. It's like a one line pattern; slip the first stitch, knit the rest of your stitches at the end of your round, or at the end of your row, turn your needle over, slip the first stitch, and continue knitting. So, you would basically continue knitting until your scarf is the length that you want. As you're knitting your scarf and your fabric grows longer, you can just wrap it around your neck and see whether you like the length. If it's too long you can rip back, if it's too short keep on knitting. Just keep on going in this matter until you get the length of the scarf that you want. Let's say that you've been knitting for a while and you get something like this, but maybe your knitting is a little bit uneven, so maybe in some parts it's a little bit tighter, in some parts it's a little bit looser, you just don't really like how it's looking. If that happens to you, you don't have to live with your knitting. This is your knitting, you can take control of it. So, if you don't like a section of your knitting, what you can do is just rip back your work, and that's exactly what it sounds like. Let's say there's a section over here that I'm unhappy with, what I can do is just take my needle right off my knitting, just like this, and then just rip back, just like this. Depending on the fiber that you're using, your stitches may keep their shape, like this. Because the loops on my stitches are still pretty sturdy, I can just bring my needle and just pick them right up. So here we go, I'm just going to maybe rip back one more row, and here maybe I'm going to start picking up. All I'm going to do is just take my needle and thread it through these stitches. Once I've have thread them through, I can start knitting all over again. So, what I did earlier was I just ripped it out like this, and you can do that. But if you're nervous that your stitches are going to get lost or fall off, what you can do is just rip back one stitch at a time. So, rip one off and then pick it up, rip one off, pick it up. This is a really safe way for you to rip back your knitting without having to risk your stitches getting lost or being dropped. All right, so, here we go, one more, and there we go. Whoops! Sometimes you may have to just use your hand to pick it back up. So, here we go. Cool. So, now our stitches are back on our needle and we can continue knitting them. 8. Scarf Project: Rescuing Dropped Stitches: Okay. So, let's say that you accidentally dropped a stitch. Now, this happens a lot to beginners and you can tell that you dropped a stitch if you have this sort of weird ugly whole thing happening. Okay. So, you could see that there is a huge hole and this just doesn't look right. So, if this happens to you, what you want to do is just go back to where the hole happened. Okay, go back to the scene of the crime, so to speak. So, we're going to go back. I'm going to take some of the stitches from my right needle back to my left needle, just take them right off and here we go. So, now we're at the place where there is a giant hole in our work. Now, what we can do is we need to rescue this stitch. So, I'm going to take an extra needle that I have around and if you don't have one, you can use maybe a pen or even like a hair pin to help you out, and I'm going to first try to find this stitch that's dropped. So, here we go. I see that it's down here. This is where our stitches dropped all the way down to. This happens when, maybe you just drop a stitch off your needle and continued knitting, and that stitch ends up unraveling all the way down to your work. So, we're going to do is we've got our stitch on our needle and what I'm going to do is this stitch she needs to climb all the way back up here. Okay. So, this is where the rest of our stitches are at. So, it's dropped all the way down here, it needs to go all the way up, and that's easy because we've got these little strands of yarn in between these stitches. So, it literally has a ladder that it can climb up. Okay. So, what we're going to do is we're going to find the first ladder rung, this one right here, and we're going to take our needle or your pen that you have your stitch on and we're going to go underneath this ladder rung right here. Okay. Then I'm going to take the stitch that has fallen off and I'm going to bring it over this ladder rung. Okay. So, let's take a look at whether this looks okay. All right. So, this doesn't entirely look okay because this row right here is a purl row, and I can tell it's a purl row because of these bumps. Okay. So, this is a purl row, so this stitch needs to climb up the purl way. All right. It's just climbed up the knit way so I'm going to show you how to climb up the purl way. So, I'm going to take it off my needle or off the stitch again. So, it's down here and what I'm going to do is I'm going to take my extra needle and I'm going to go from the top to the bottom. I'm going to go under this ladder rung and I'm going to pick up that stitch. So, this is our stitch that needs to be rescued and I'm just going to turn my work over so I can see it a little bit better. Okay, so here we go. This is the stitch that was dropped and this is our ladder rung. What I'm going to do is I'm going to take this over my stitch and I'm going to take my stitch right here. Okay. This is my stitch and I'm going to bring it over that ladder rung just like this. Okay. Cool. So, now let's look at our fabric. All right. So, this is looking a little bit more like it. We've got a little purl bump here and that matches the purl bump that is on this row. Cool. All right. So, let's keep climbing up. All right. So, now we've got this ladder rung that needs to, okay something's going on here. Okay. So, now we've got our next ladder rung here and we're going to climb up that. So, I know that we just did a purl row. So, I know the next row is going to be a knit row. So, I'm going to take my rescue needle. I'm going to go under this ladder rung like this. I'm going to take my dropped stitch and I'm just going to pinch it. Okay, and then go over that ladder rung. All right. So, now he climbed up another stitch. So, take a look at your work. If it looks right, then keep on going. All right. So, where is our next ladder rung. Let's find it and oh! I think we missed, actually we may have missed a stitch. We might have missed a ladder rung somewhere. Okay so this looks like, this is our next ladder rung and here we go. Okay. So, I think I missed that stitch. So, here we go. This is our next ladder rung and we're just going to climb up it like this. Okay. There we go. All right. So, now I know that my next ladder rung is going to be a purl row. I can see, because I can see these purl stitches right here. Okay, so I'm going to turn my work around again like this. Okay. I'm going to just pinch my stitch, take that rescue needle off and then I'm going to go through this ladder rung right here. I'm going to go from the top to the bottom, put the stitch back onto my rescue needle and take the ladder rung, bring it over my stitch, and then I'm going to take my stitch and go over the ladder rung like this. All right. Here we go. So, let's look at it the right way again and let's see if it looks okay and it does. Right. So, we've got a row of purls here and here is our stitch and it's purled up the ladder. Great. All right. So, we've got two more. So, I know that my next stitch is going to be knit because garter stitch is basically one knit row and one purl row. So, here we go. I'm going to bring my stitch, my dropped stitch over the ladder rung. All right. So, now we have one more to climb up. So, let's turn our work over again. All right. We're going to pinch our stitch so it doesn't drop again. We're going to take our rescue needle go underneath this ladder rung, bring our dropped stitch over and then I'm going to take this ladder rung go over my dropped stitch, then take my dropped stitch and go over the ladder rung. All right. So, I think we are at the top of our work now. Let's take a look. Okay, cool. So, what was once a giant gaping hole, we have patched up. Pretty cool, right? So, now our dropped stitch is rescued and we can put it back on to our left needle just like that. Cool. So, now our stitch is rescued and we can continue knitting our work. Pretty cool, right, and nobody will know that we dropped it at all. It's a nice clean rescue. 9. Scarf Project: Casting Off: So, once you get the length of scarf that you want, then we can cast off. So, this is just a little sample that I've got here. So, let's pretend that I've already knit a really long scarf and I'm ready to cast off. So, just use your imagination. This is not a tiny piece. This is really long. So, let's cast off together. So, what we're going to do is we're just going to knit one stitch, knit the second stitch, and then take our left needle, bring it into the stitch, and bring it over the stitch we just knit. So, this is just a little review from our demo earlier. But when you're casting off, you want to make sure that you cast off really loosely. So, you don't want to have a tight cast off. You want your fabric to be nice and stretchy. So, keep it loose. So, no depth grip. Don't be grabbing it really tight. Just keep it nice and loose, as loose as you can make it as you're casting off. I hope that you're knitting was enjoyable. This is a really nice project to just practice the basics, to just practice knitting all of your rows and all of your stitches, and just to get an even rhythm with your knitting. So, we are near the end here, and here's our last stitch. Cool. So, once you're done, once you're at your last stitch, then you will get out your scissors and then just cut a length of yarn, length of tail right there. Then you're going to bring your tail end up to the front, and then bring your stitch over that length of tail, and then pull it through. Now it's nice and secure. So, pretend I have a really long scarf here. For you, you can just start wearing it if you like. But if you want a little fringe, then I'm going to show you how to do that right now. 10. Scarf Project: Finish with Optional Fringe: Okay. So, if you want a fringe on your scarf like this, then you're going to need to get the rest of your yarn out, and we're going to figure out how to do this together. Okay. So, a fringe is really optional and it really is up to your preference. These frames that I've got here on my sample is quite long. I'm going to measure it for you right now, so you get an idea of exactly how long it is. It is about four inches. All right. So, it's a nice fluffy fringe. I've got four yarn pieces per tassel, and this is really up to you. Okay. So, experiment with how you want your fringe to be. Do you want it big and fluffy? Or do you want a sparse fringe? So, just experiment a little bit. I'm going to show you how to put a fringe on your scarf should you desire a fringe. So, here's the sample that I've got and remember, just pretend this is a really long scarf. Let's say, I want a fringe that's the exact same length as the one I had on my sample. So, that was about four inches from the point where it was dangling. So, I'm going to measure out maybe about 10 inches of yarn and here we go. Let's measure out 10 inches and then I'm just going to snip right there, okay? Here we go. All right. So now, we can get our measuring tape out of the way, and we're just going to measure out another length of yarn that's also 10 inches. So, here we go and there we are. I'm going to use four pieces of yarn. I like the fluffiness of that, but you can experiment maybe you want even fluffier fringe, so you're going to use maybe five or six pieces of yarn. It doesn't really matter, okay? So, just play around with it and choose a fluffiness that you like. So, here we go. Now, it doesn't matter if they're not all even because when we're done with it, we're going to trim it to make it all the same length. So, what we're going do is we're going to fold this in half, and then we are going to use one of our needles to find the edge of our fabric. So, let's say, I want to put it in the fringe in right at the edge. I would put my needle in to the fabric, so I would maybe choose a stitch to go into, I'm going to choose two stitches to go into right here, right at the edge of my fabric, right there. All right. Then, I'm going take my tassel, then I fold it in half, and I'm just going to plop it over my needle like this, okay? Then, I'm going to pull this tassel right through this stitch that I've just made. So, here we go. All right. Got it all through. Here we go. So, now that I've put it through, I'm going to take this tassel, and bring it into this loop that I've just made. Here we go. We're going to tighten it up. Cool. All right. So, here is one part of our fringe. Cool. All right. So, let's keep going. You would basically, if this is the length that you like, then you would continue doing that across your scars. So, let's say, you like that length, and you would measure out say, another 10 inches, and if you don't want to get your measuring tape off, you can hold it against your fringe, and just add on like an inch or two, and then cut that off, and continue going across your scarf. So, here, I'm just going to cut off another length of yarn, and keep on making our fringe. The thing to remember when you're attaching your fringe is that you want to make sure that your needle is going in in the same direction across the whole width of your scarf. So, I'll show you what I mean right now. Okay. So, first, put in this fringe we went in from the back here. So, we're going to go in from the back again. So, you can see that our knot is a different shape in the back as it is from the front. In the front, it's like a nice flat knot. In the back, you can see two areas of our yarn going into a center. So, you want to make sure that when you're putting your fringe in, you're going all in the same direction, so that one part of your fringe doesn't look like this and the other part looks like this. Okay. So, let's do this again. I'm going to leave maybe a one inch gap between the two fringes, the knot of my first fringe and my second fringe, and I'm going to push this in to my fabric, and I'm going to take my fringe that I've made folded in half, pop it over my needle like this, and then bring it through the stitch that I made. All right. With the loop that I've made through the stitch, I'm going to bring the tassel into that loop. Okay. Cool. Then, I'm just going to pull down. All right. So, here we go. Here's our second tassel. Awesome. Okay. So, once you've gotten your fringe all up in your scarf, it should look something like this. Cool. So now, your fringe isn't going to be even in all the same places. You can see some areas are a little bit longer and some are a little bit shorter. So, if you want to make it even, all you really need to do is just cut it. So, make it even by cutting it. So here, I'm just going to trim a little bit off here. I can see it's a little bit long and you can just trim it as you see fit. So, this looks pretty good to me right now, but maybe there are some areas that are a little bit longer than others, and I would just snipped out right off. So, once you're done, trimming your fringe, making sure that it's all the same length, then you would just turn your scarf the other way around and do the exact same thing. So, get your fringe in the same length as the other side and then just attach it to the opposite side of your scarf. That's pretty much it. That's all there is to it. So, once you're done with your scarf, then you can wear it, wrap it around your neck, and enjoy. 11. More Creative Classes on Skillshare: