How to knit
A Ball With Straight Needles
WALDORF HANDWORK KNITTED BALL | BEGINNER LEVEL
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hi everybody my name is Hannah and this
is pepper and pine and I have a hand
word project to share with you today we
are going to be making this multicolored
knitted ball and I just showed you one
that had four colors and then this one
has six colors you also need some wool
for filling and of course your knitting
needles and a variety of colors for this
ball of course you could just use the
one color if you want but this is a
really exciting process to see those
colors come together I'm going to show
you this in detail the first thing you
want to do is cast on and I know there
are many different ways to cast on and
to knit but I'm just going to show you
the one that we are most familiar with
these days so we're just going to make
that little slip knot there and put it
on to our knitting needle and then you
want to grab the yarn between your
fingers and pull down the knitting
needle into a V so I'm going to show you
this again you slip your two fingers in
between those two strands of yarn pull
down the knitting needle and then you
can begin casting on now I'm going to
show you this a couple of times so that
you can really see the process so again
I am just going to grab the yarn from my
thumb and then wrap it around the yarn
that is on my finger then I'm just going
to reposition and then do the whole
thing over again now for this ball you
can use anywhere from 18 to 20 Caston
stitches and I am using a bulky weight
yarn for almost the entire ball but I
kind of made a mistake in one of the
yarns is actually a worsted weight so
it's best if you try to use the same
weight for the entire thing so there I
am just counting up to make sure that I
have the number that I need and now
we're going to begin knitting and the
way that I'm going to knit is going to
require some crossbody action which is
especially good for these young
developing students because it helps
with brain development so I'm going to
take my needle and I am going to let's
get that little piece of a strand of
yarn out of the way first and you want
to make sure that you're not knitting
that little piece of strand of yarn you
want to make sure that you're actually
knitting the yarn in your skein of yarn
so lemme show you this process again so
I'm going to take my needle that is in
my right hand and I'm going to slip the
needle through that loop that's on the
needle in the left hand and then you
want to wrap your yarn around and then
slip your needle through I know it takes
a little bit of practice and in general
knitting is taught to first grade
students in a waldorf school so about
seven years old and i noticed that with
my children seven was a little bit young
even though they could learn how to do
it at seven I found that just because of
the commitment of home schooling
multiple aged students I didn't I wasn't
able to really spend the time with my
seven year olds and I found that they
took on this skill much easier when they
were just a little bit older so I would
call this project still a beginner
project since it just requires basic
knitting now once you're done knitting
one or two strands you want to make sure
that you have the correct number of
stitches and for the first part of this
you want to knit six ridges so that's
about twelve rows and once you get
through knitting your six ridges which
you can see a little bit more clearly
here and using a bulky weight yarn helps
this process along because it's a
bulkier weight so you can get through
what appears to be more with not as much
effort as if you're using a really thin
worsted weight yarn or a very tightly
plied yarn alright so here comes the fun
part and that is stitching these two
different colors together now you do not
need to not these at all but you might
consider making the blue yarn a little
bit longer and you'll see why at the end
but if your student is a little bit
unsure of this process then go ahead and
not those two yarns together and that
way it's a little bit easier to knit the
first stitches so you're going to go
ahead and knit this the same way you did
with just the single color but now we
are just stitching in the blue and
that purple which is going to look
really cool and you're still going to
have that tail of that purple and the
tail of the blue and you're going to be
able to see a little bit more clearly in
just a minute so that's how you get the
second color on to your project and when
you knit the next row it's going to be a
lot easier because by that point your
yarn is really well stitched in with the
previous color now I did this project
with my 11 year old but I think that
this would work with any child above 7
who has grasped the concept and the
skill of knitting so you can see by the
time I got done with my second row that
that little tail of blue was just a
little bit too short so I would
recommend making it a little bit longer
so that your student isn't nervous that
it's going to come undone and something
else you can do is just go ahead and tie
those two pieces together and it's an
option you don't have to it's fine in
the end it's not going to show anyway
alright so this is what it looks like
when all six colors are knitted together
now this is the one that my son did you
can see that there's little bits of tail
here and there of those extra pieces of
yarn and none of that's going to show
it's all going to be tucked inside the
ball so for this next process you need a
needle that has a wide eye so that it
can fit your yarn and this is a blunt
needle so it's safe for children it's
great for knitting projects so now we
want to tie off our yarn and I did this
with just a single strand of yarn but in
the past I have doubled up my yarn and I
think it's probably better to do double
just so that it doesn't come undone or
tear because this is going to get played
with with children all right so I'm just
gonna trim off that extra piece there
and then we're gonna start turning this
rectangle into a ball it is really
thrilling for children to see this so
you're just gonna take your needle and
just go along the top part of your
project and once I got through about two
colors I was able to pull my needle
through and then I handed it over to my
son to kid
continue just knitting through or
actually sewing through the top portion
of his project along with that yarn and
it were going to be pulling that yarn
together to squeeze all of those top
parts together so now he's gotten just
towards the end and now this is where
it's going to take a little bit of being
careful so that you don't tug your yarn
too hard and tear it and this is why
maybe doing two pieces of yarn through
that if you've doubled up rather than
going single would make it a little bit
safer for it to stay together because it
would be terrible if it came apart but
they're actually really easy to mend if
they do one of mine did come apart one
time and it was very easy to fix all
right so now we have all of those pieces
kind of pinched together and you want to
just take all those little extra bits of
yarn and just make sure that they're on
the inside so you really don't need to
trim them down actually trim down all
those little extra pieces and actually
it's a little bit easier to keep them
long because then they really do stick
inside your whole project so now I'm
going to stitch those two ends together
and I am going to tie it off so that I
ensure that it stays like that as I
stitch down the side of the ball so you
can start to see that it's coming
together like a ball and now we're gonna
go and stitch that purple and blue
together you could do any color you
wanted to you could do four colors you
could do more colors you just want to
make sure that each color section is
roughly the same size and I mean you
could get creative and do them all
different sizes as well but you do want
to be able to turn this into a ball in
the end and ours was a little bit of an
oval shaped ball but I think if we had
stuffed it more it would have looked a
little bit more circular but in the end
it really doesn't matter this is a very
forgiving project and my son absolutely
loves it there is like this excitement
when the project is completed and it's
just it's a really great simple easy
project to do with any child I would say
about eight and older so once you get
your yarn around the top part so this is
similar to how we begin the project once
we were done knitting it then you can
start to fill it up so I want it to go
ahead and get that needle all the way
through to the end and I kind of pinched
it just a little bit so it's not a full
opening but it's completely enough to
start stuffing it we're using some
all-natural wool batt in order to stuff
it but you could use any kind of filler
if you wanted to and once you get it as
full as you want it then we can start to
pinch those pieces together very
carefully so that you don't tear
anything and then you just want to make
sure that you tie it off and knot it so
that it stays in place and I'm just
making sure that it's nice and squeezed
together and you can see how it
completely turns into a ball you did not
have to do any kind of special stitching
and reduce the stitches up to the corner
and that's what's really great about a
project like this is that you can do
this as a beginner with a really simple
rectangular shaped piece of knitting so
there it is it's all done it looks
beautiful I love the rainbow colors my
son really likes it and now I'm working
on another one for my daughter because
she's only six and she's just a little
bit too young for this yet even though
she's just itching to get her hands on a
pair of needles alright so if you want
to see some of the other hand work
projects that we have you can tap on the
screen right now if you want to see some
of the other projects that we're doing
in our home school I've left a couple
more videos that might interest you and
don't forget that if you want to see
what we're up to on a daily basis you
can find me on instagram at pepper and
pine
