How to knit
A Beginners Blanket
Beginner Knit Blanket Class, Full Class
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hello future knitters my name is Jenny
and I'm going to show you how to make
this beautiful hanate blanket in front
of me so the very first thing I'm going
to tell you is where to get the actual
pattern here if you go to nip XCOM
you'll be able to find this pattern as a
free download just search for knit
beginner blanket and you'll be able to
download it and get started right there
so I'm going to cover a few details at
the blanket as you can see it's a rather
large blanket it's 50 by 60 inches big
so it's a very very generous size it's
knit in Preciosa yarn which is our 100%
merino single ply yarn and again the
high e doesn't mean a whole lot to you
but we'll talk about more about yarn
later on it takes 12 schemes of Preciosa
yarn it's a worsted weight yarn so if
you want to use a different blend or a
total different yarn you just want to
make sure that you're getting worsted
weight yarn you're going to need a
really long circular needle a u.s. size
9 and we'll talk more about that later
on and then finally you just need a
little yarn needle for weaving in your
ends now the things that we're going to
cover over the course of our video class
is of course casting on that's going to
be the very first step that you learn to
any knitting project next we're going to
move on how to make a knit stitch we'll
show you how to start the stitch how to
turn your rows then we're going to move
on to how to get these big stripes we're
going to go over changing yarns changing
your colors and then finally we're going
to show you how to bind off all your
stitches finish it and weave in your
ends so I hope you're excited because I
am before you start your beginner
blanket you want to gather all the
supplies that you need and that's just
going to make everything nice and
organized and you'll be prepared
whenever you get to the next step so
first things first the yarn we have our
Preciosa yarn here it's a nice 100%
merino wool single ply yarn and all that
means is that it's a single strand of
yarn it's not twisted and that makes it
extremely squishy really really nice and
soft and that's why we chose this yarn
for this blanket is because it's just
going to be something you want to cuddle
up with and it's extremely warm and just
incredibly soft it's a worsted weight
yarn so again if you are looking for a
different yarn to substitute just make
sure you get what's called worsted and
you'll be all set and you'll end up with
the same size blanket our yarn here
Preciosa it is 273 yards for 100 grams
so for our blanket we have four
different colors here and you're
actually going to need three colors per
stripe so for our size blanket that
measures 50 by 60 inches you're going to
need 12 balls of Preciosa yarn you're
going to want also a tape measure is
very handy you just want to throw it in
your project bag that way you can track
your progress measure your stripes as
you go along to make sure that you're on
track you want a little pair of scissors
and that's just going to help you when
you are changing colors and for weaving
in your ends you can cut it very closely
it's very pointy and you can get in
really nice and close
you also want a yarn needle here I like
a slightly larger yarn needle for
heavier yarns like this it just makes
working in the ends a little bit easier
and that is going to be done at the very
very end it's the very last step in your
project finally you want a long circular
needle you're probably wondering why are
you using a circular needle this seems
very complicated a little bit fussy but
you want to use a really long needle
like this because your project is going
to be fifty inches wide and that means
that all fifty inches are
going to need to be sitting somewhere on
your needle at any given time and
regular straight needles are just not
going to cut it for this but we're going
to be treating these like we would be
knitting with straight needles and again
it sounds complicated but we'll go over
everything in detail as we work our way
through all the steps and through all
the videos now if you do get our
Preciosa yarn here it comes in what's
called a skein and I'll just unwind it
really quickly for you it'll come like
this and you don't want to work off of
it you're going to need to wind this
into a ball somehow I'll take it apart
really fast and you can see holding this
it's just loops and loops and loops of
yarn so if you just cut the ends here
and open it up it's just going to get
tangled very quickly so there's
something called a swift and a ball
winder that you can use together to wind
up balls of yarn very quickly and nice
and neatly but you can totally do this
at home you can either get a friend or
you know your boyfriend girlfriend
husband mom for their sister just hold
it out like this for you and then you're
able to grab the end here
and you can just wind it around your
hand and make a little ball that way or
you can even fit this around a chair or
if you have a larger lampshade too but
the easiest thing to do is just to have
someone hold it out like this and then
you can very neatly slowly just unwind
it and wind it into a ball so that's
definitely what you wanted to you if you
get Preciosa or any other yarn that
looks like this you just want to do it
it'll save you a ton of trouble a ton of
time so that is everything you need to
get started and again for color stripes
you can choose four different colors you
can even do two different colors and
alternate them that's all up to you but
these are all the basics you need to get
started for the beginner net blanket all
right by now you've probably got
all your supplies all your yarn
everything you need to get started and
the first thing that we're going to do
is cast on our stitches the things that
we're going to be using at the moment
are your circular needle and you want to
grab your tape measure - although I'm
going to show you an alternate way is
like figuring out how much you are yarn
you'll need for your cast on and then
also your very first stripe color of
yarn that you'll be using so here you
see I have a very long circular needle
in front of me and again this is
probably a little bit different than the
traditional knitting that comes to mind
with the straight needles and that's
just because the blanket that we're
knitting is 50 inches wide and all those
stitches they just can't fit on your
standard straight needle so this is why
we are using a long circular needle even
though we're going to be treating them
essentially like you would straight
needles and again we'll cover more of
that and you'll see it in action later
on so I have my yarn here and one way
for measuring your cast on yarn is about
three to four times the width of your
project that is a good rule of thumb so
this is where your tape measure comes in
handy so I'm going to measure out 50
inches here alright so 50 inches is the
width of my blanket so one rule of thumb
is you want to leave yourself a little
tail to leave in later so I'm going to
actually start right around here and
then I'll just do one length of 50
inches mm all right and then like I said
you want to do that about three times
and that will give you enough yarn for
your cast on
so one more time across my ruler here
and it doesn't have to be really
accurate you just forgetting kind of the
ballpark measure of how much yarn you'll
need so right here is where I want to
create what's called a slipknot so on
one end you're going to have your yarn
tail essentially on the other side here
it's called your working yarn and that's
going to be the yarn that's coming from
your entire ball of yarn so the very
first step in creating a cast on row is
a slipknot what I'm going to do is right
where my hands are holding on to the
yarn right here you want to make a loop
just like this and then you're going to
grab one end place it behind that loop
and then you'll see a little line going
right through your circle of your loop
I'm going to grab my needle tip here and
you just want to pick up that loop that
was that little line running in your
loop and then you pull up and now you'll
be able to tighten that very first
stitch and you want to have it on your
needle you know you don't want to have
it super tight where you can't move it
but you don't want to have it really
loose either you just want to be able to
move it back and forth nice and easily
so that is how you're always going to
start a cast on is with a slipknot now
what I'm going to show you is called the
long tail cast on and I did mention
there is an alternate way if you don't
have a ruler handy if you want to find
where to make your Slipknot you can just
use your yarn the end of it right here
and I'll just believe my little Slipknot
in place right here so say I was
starting all over again you would want
to leave six to eight inches or so
and then you just wrap your needle
loosely for however many times it says
to cast on so for example if my pattern
said cast on ten stitches I would leave
my little yarn tail so I have five wraps
around my needle here so it goes six
seven eight nine ten right here that's
where you want to make your Slipknot so
for example with our blanket it says to
cast on 210 times you would leave a
little bit of a tail and then just wrap
it around about 200 you know 215 times
sometimes they go a little bit extra on
a big project like this because you
don't want to run out at the end you'll
just have to start all over but like I
said those are a couple different ways
of figuring out where to make your
Slipknot I'm going to slide it on my
needle here and then you make you
separate your yarn into two different
sections one goes towards you and one
away from you your yarn tail is going to
be going around your forefinger the one
that's connected to your working yarn is
going to go around your thumb so you
have this little triangle of space here
and I'm going to put my forefinger my
thumb right through the middle and then
I'm going to grab on to both yarn tails
like so so you get a little bit of a
triangle shape here the next step to
casting on is I'm going to pull this
towards me now what this does is you'll
see it's a little space here and it kind
of forms an X I'm going to use my needle
tip and you follow right up your thumb
and you go through that space here
next you want to grab this strand of
yarn and you want to go behind it so now
my needle is essentially wrapped with
the yarn coming from my forefinger and
then you just kind of reverse back out
through that space making sure not to
drop that strand of yarn and you lightly
drop your thumb and your forefinger out
and you gently pull on it so now I have
my second stitch now your slipknot it
does count as one stitch so I would have
two of my stitches cast on right now and
then you just continue in that same
manner so again I'm going to kind of
organize my yarn here put my fingers
through pull this towards me I'm going
to go up through that space by my thumb
grab the Strand of yarn and then it's
kind of like you're reversing right back
through and again this looks a little
bit tricky but after you do it 200 times
like that for the blanket for example
you'll be an expert at it and it goes
very very fast it makes a really nice
neat edge and it's really versatile I
really like using the longtail cast on
for everything from home decor like
blankets even for hats and sweaters it's
extremely versatile so you can see it
gets a little bit faster and I'm casting
on these stitches right here you can see
it's nice and stretchy I'm able to move
them back and forth nicely and you just
continue in that same way until you have
210 stitches on your needle and at the
end I try to count it at least twice you
know sometimes with so many stitches you
can get a little bit overwhelming so
counting that twice will ensure that you
have the right amount of stitches so I'm
just going to keep working my cast on
here and after I get two hundred and ten
stitches on my needles I'll meet you
right back here all right so I've cast
it on all of my stitches so you can see
they stretch almost the entire length of
my needle here it's a lot a lot of
stitches a lot going on so we've
definitely finished our cast on and
we're finally ready to do the knit
stitch so you're probably wondering what
end do I use I'm super confused so let
me go over how to start your very first
row what you want to do is your empty
end the one that doesn't have any yarn
tails that needle is going to go in your
right hand the end of your needle with
all the yarn coming out of it that's
going to go in your left hand here and
everything in between it's just going to
be hanging out here for now and as
you're starting your row and as you knit
across it it's actually everything's
going to be shifting over so this whole
part of my Caston Row is slowly going to
be moving onto my right needle and
shifting to the right and we're going to
go over how to deal with the end of your
row in a little bit but right now we're
just going to focus on how to start your
row and how to work the knit stitch so
again here's my little tail from the
beginning we're not going to be worrying
about that we're going to be taking care
of that later at the end of your project
it's going to get woven in later what we
are going to use is your working yarn
and again that's going to be the end
that's attached to your ball yarn right
here I'm going to slide a few of my
stitches up and with the right hand
needle here I'm going to insert my
needle tip through my first stitch and
you want to kind of go from it left to
right here you don't want to be going
this way you just go and go left to
right and then what we're going to do is
wrap the yarn around your needle tip and
you actually want to be doing this I'll
do a kind of exaggerated you want to do
in a counterclockwise motion all the
time and so consistency is key here you
always wrap it around the same exact way
and that's going to keep your stitches
looking all the same and then on the
following row they're all going to be
nice consistent and even and it's just
going to cause a lot less confusion so
again I'm going to have my needle
wrapped here
and then very carefully you can almost
even hold on to this strand of yarn so
it doesn't fall off you're going to
reverse out if that stitch and pull your
right hand needle towards you so now I
have my needle pulled through the stitch
I have the yarn still wrapped around my
needle and the very last step of the
knit stitch is you just want to very
carefully have this little stitch that's
all on your left hand needle you can
just pull that off and you're able to
pull that off because it's essentially
connected to the stitch on your right
hand so you're kind of building up the
structure where every stitch you're
building one more on top of it and
they're all interlocked so again I'll go
over that very slowly one more time
right here I'm going to insert my right
needle through the stitch you wrap it
around and then you pull it through
carefully making sure to keep that
strand of yarn around your right hand
needle and then you pull that stitch off
so you just continue in the same way
across all of your stitches and that's
how you make the knit stitch and it's
literally half of all the fundamental
stitches the only other stitch you'll
learn is called the purl stitch
everything else is a combination of
those two
so knitting is kind of cool in that
sense it's very simple and you can
combine them for endless possibilities
to make all kinds of things but for
right now we're just going to be
perfecting the knit stitch and
practicing it a lot throughout your
blanket so we just go through the knit
stitch that's on your left needle wrap
it and pull it through so I'm going to
work my way across this row to the other
side and I'll show you what to do once
you get to that part - alright so if in
knitting across my row and as you can
see the majority of my stitches are now
on the opposite side from where they
started so they've been slowly shifting
over to the right onto the side
and now most of them are just in the
middle and I'll show you how to change
everything how to start your next row in
a few minutes but I wanted to show you
what it's going to look like when you
get to the end of your row you might
just not sure be not sure what to do but
actually you just keep doing exactly
what you have been doing so I have a
couple stitches left here as you can see
and I'm going to just work my way across
the third to last one the second to last
one and I know it's a little bit scary
just seeing that one stitch hanging out
here but you're actually going to knit
it the same way you fitting all your
other stitches so I'm just going to go
through my stitch wrap my yarn and then
pull it through and so now it's just
kind of hanging out on my needle and you
actually do pull your left hand needle
out just like you've been doing just
like that
so now all my stitches have been
transferred over I've knit one row and
now to start your next row you just do
exactly what we did at the beginning you
swap your needle ends so this is how you
basically work a flat piece like a
blanket but on a circular needle so
again we're treating them just like we
would be as if we were working on
straight needles so I'm going to put the
needle that's empty without my working
yarn coming from it I'm going to put it
in my right hand the needle that has the
working yarn coming out of the front
that's going to go back into my left
hand you can see it's looking awfully
familiar just like I did a row ago where
we started from the cast on and I'm
going to keep going the same way the
only thing different on your rows going
forward is you're going to be doing
what's called slipping a stitch you're
going to be just slipping the first
stitch it's essentially that I'm just
going to take my needle tip this time
you do go from right to left and you
just slip it off your needle it's just
going to give you a little bit of a
nicer edge so you want to make sure to
do that on your first stitch of every
row going forward
and now I'm going to just knit my next
stitch here I'm going to go through the
same way wrap it and pull it through
again so basically I'm going to be
repeating those last few steps again and
again until I've reached my 15 inches or
62 garter ridges now that's something
you might have come across if you've
read ahead in your pattern and I'll go
ahead and show you what that means
really quick now just as a little bit
about an overview you can see below my
right hand needle here you have this
line of bumps they're kind of
interlocking shapes it's one clear line
that counts as one garter stitch Ridge
these are going to be kind of stacking
up on top of each other and they're
actually composed of two rows so for
every two rows you get one garter stitch
Ridge or one garter Ridge so that's an
easy way as you're working along you can
count those to see how close you are to
your 15 inches but you do want to make
sure that you also measure your 15
inches but 62 should get you extremely
close to the 15 inches so again you're
just going to be working across your row
when you get to the end work that last
stitch in the same way and then you just
swap your needles to make sure your
empty one is in your right hand and the
one with your working yarn here is in
your left hand and you just keep
repeating that same cycle for your
entire stripe so I'm going to be working
on this for a bit and then the next step
is changing your next color so again
after 15 inches or 62 garter rows come
back here and I'll show you how to add
your second color in alright so I've
been working on my blanket for a little
while now you can see I have long
stretch of knitted fabric here in front
of me once you've gotten to 15 inches
you're ready to change to your next
color stripe now in the pattern
you'll notice it mentions something
about Garter bridges again something
you're probably not familiar with but
I'll cover that right now when you look
at your knitted blanket here you're
going to see these rows of bumps all
across your fabric each little row of
bumps here is going to be one garter
ridge and to take it a step further
one garter ridge is actually made up of
two rows so if you're thinking about 62
ridges it's 124 rows so I have my 15
inches here my 62 garter ridges so I'm
going to show you how to change to your
next color which I have right here so
the very first thing that you want to do
is you want to cut your first yarn that
you've been using here now you don't
want to cut it up close you're going to
want to leave about 6 to 8 inches and
that's so we can weave them back into
your blanket later on and that's going
to not just hide the yarn tails but it's
also going to secure it and keep
anything from unraveling later on so I
have my little scissors here and it
doesn't have to be super accurate you
just want to make sure you're not
cutting up very close so I'll just cut
it right here and now I'm going to start
with my new color I'm adding the white
next and again you want to make sure to
leave about 6 to 8 inches on the other
side before you start your knit stitch
something that I do is I just kind of
hold these up and make them kind of
equal like this and then I know I want
to start knitting with my new color
right around here so you just want to
slide up your stitches and you start the
same exact way as you've been knitting
across your rows you insert your needle
into your very first stitch and then to
keep everything kind of at the same
tension I'm actually going to hold both
of these yarns together with my right
hand you make your very first stitch
and slide it off the needle and
everything's going to be really loose
here in the beginning but don't worry
about it we can easily tighten
everything up later on and then you just
go across your row knitting into the
next stitch with your new color and that
is the way you change color and you
start your stripe patterning so now you
can see here I've started adding white
and again this is going to be a little
bit loose but don't worry about it
so as you continue across your row
you're going to get your very first
layer of white your very first row and
then you just build upon that just like
you did for your very first stripe so
you want to continue with the next color
for another 15 inches or 62 garter rows
so I'm going to get back to work on this
and then I'll meet you there
all right you can see here we've been
busily knitting away we've worked
through all four colors of our blanket
you can see we've been gone to the cream
light blue a now we're on to the darker
teal here I've come to my 62 harder
ridges here so my last stripe here
measures 15 inches and that means that
we're getting ready to bind it off now
all binding it off means is you're
finishing off your stitches in a way
where they come off your needle but
they're not going to undo at all so
they're nice and secure and they're
finished and it mimics your cast on edge
so what we're going to do is you start
like you would any other row and you're
going to knit two stitches so I'm kind
of going to shift all my stitches around
so I can get to these here so again it
just begins like any other row
and at your bind off edge here I know
that you've been slipping your first
stitch but on your bind off just go
ahead ignore that and knit it like you
would your very first row so I'm going
to knit one stitch I'm going to another
stitch so I have two stitches now on my
right hand needle what you're going to
do next is take the tip of your left
needle here you're going to use it to
lift up that very first stitch that's on
the right and you're going to slide it
over the tip of your right needle and
now you can see I'm back to one stitch
on my right needle I'm going to go ahead
knit one more stitch now I have two
again and I'm going to repeat passing
over that stitch just like I just did so
I'm going to take my left needle pass
that right hand stitch over the left so
you're just kind of just going to be
repeating that you're going to be adding
in a new stitch so I'm going to knit one
more you want to get back to the two
stitches and then you take one off you
add another one in and then you take one
off and as you can see you're slowly
binding off your stitches so this little
section of my first three stitches
they're interlocked here and off of my
needles so I'll work a few more just so
you can see what I'm talking about
and you just do this across the entire
row and then you lift it over every one
I'm going to knit one more so you're
kind of just bouncing back between those
two steps you knit one and then you pass
one over you knit one and then you pass
it over so you can see after you know
the first few inches you're getting a
nice even edge here along the top it's
nice and stretchy and they're not on
your needle anymore so that's how you
finish your knitting it's nice and you
know versatile there are different bind
offs I'm sure as you continue you
knitting you'll find all kinds of
different options for anything but this
is the most basic find off and it works
beautifully for a range of things so I'm
just going to keep working across my row
like this binding off and when I get to
the other end I'll show you the very
last step to binding off so you can see
I've worked my bind off across the
entire blanket I only have a few
stitches left I'll show you how to
finish your bind off so I'm going to
work the next two just as I have been
doing now you can see I'm coming up on
my very last stitch here I'm still just
going to go through it and omit it just
like I normally would I don't have any
more stitches on my left needle I'm
going to take that left needle tip and
use it to lift that first stitch over
the second and now I have one stitch
left what you're going to do is drop
your left hand needle you can see I only
have a little bit of yarn left I'm going
to loosen this to make a bigger loop and
take my needle out completely and then
all I'm going to do is pull the tail
through the loop and then you pull to
secure it and now you're all done with
your bind off you are going to have yarn
tails hanging out any place that you
cast on that you bound off or switch
color or when you change your yarn when
you're at the end of a ball so you will
find little yarn tails hanging out
throughout your stripes the next step is
going to be the final step and that's
weaving in all these yarn tails and then
I'll show you that in the next video all
right so you've worked all four of your
stripes of your blanket you've completed
your very last stripe you found off your
stitches and now there's one final step
before you're totally done and that's
weaving in your ends like this from my
bind off you're going to find
and any place that you switched stripes
so when you switch from one color to the
next
when you run out of yarn and you're
adding in a new ball of yarn you're
going to have in yarn tails there and
then also at your cast on and bind off
so they're going to be a little bit
scattered throughout your blanket and
just do it all at once on the end so
I'll show you how to weave in your ends
right now you'll just want a little yarn
needle to help you do this so you're
going to start by threading the yarn
tail that you have through the yarn
needle and then when you look at your
fabric you'll notice that you have bumps
on both sides of your blanket it looks
identical on either side it's pretty
much reversible this is what's called
garter stitch and knitting and that's
when you knit every single row which is
what we've been doing for our blanket
you can actually weave in your ends on
either side of this it doesn't matter
since the stitches look the same on both
sides when you look at your fabric
you'll notice there's those garter
ridges that we've been talking about
throughout the video class on these
garter stitch ridges you'll notice
interlocking shapes one of them looks
like a u-shape or a smiley face and then
the next one that interlocks with it is
an upside-down U shape or a frown so
you're going to start by going through
one of those stitches you want to find
the one that's an upside-down u or
smiley face and you want to go down and
pull the needle towards you when you're
going through those stitches then you're
going to go through that next stitch
right above it and that's going to be
the upside-down U shape and you want to
go through it and then pull your yarn
needle away from you and you basically
keep working in this zigzag pattern
going down through one up through the
other so you're kind of mimicking the
stitches that you have so I'm going to
find the next stitch over and it's going
to be that upside-down u shape and I'm
going to pull my yarn needle down
through it
towards me and then I'll just go through
that next one and pull it away so I'm
just going to work a couple stitches you
want to get at least an inch or two
working your stitches on one row and
then after if you've worked a little bit
away from where you started from it's
time to go down through the next garter
stitch Ridge and that just helps ensure
that all your yarn tails are going to be
nice and secured in there you kind of
want to make it really hard for your
yarn tail to get out so by going through
that one Ridge and then going below kind
of again in another zigzag manner it's
going to get your yarn tail really nice
and secured into your knitting and it's
going to make it really hard for that
yarn tail to unravel so I've worked a
few stitches across my first garter
stitch row weaving it in I'm just going
to find a stitch on my garter stitch
Ridge below it and go through that and
then in the same manner I'm just going
to work my stitches in the opposite way
so I work towards the right and now I'm
going to go down a garter stitch Ridge
and work towards the left so I just went
down towards me so now I'm going to go
through that next stitch an upside-down
u and pull it away from me so I'm doing
the same thing I did above but one
garter stitch row below and you want to
do this a little bit looser you don't
want to pull too tight because that
might pucker the fabric and after you've
worked across your row you can just pull
your little yarn tail out
so after you've woven it in you just
want to stretch your knitting
horizontally and vertically and that's
going to help ease your yarn tail in
through all your stitches at a nice even
tension that way if you've worked it in
a little bit tightly it just goes back
and fits with the tension of the
knitting that you have then
you can take your scissors here and just
cut maybe about half an inch away from
your knitted fabric and you'll have a
little bit of a yarn tail still sticking
out but again just pull it both ways and
your yarn tail is just going to slide
back into your stitches and become
totally hidden and you won't be able to
see it it's going to be totally
invisible and you know that your yarn
tail is nice and secure it's not going
to unravel and you'll be all set so
there you go you just want to work
through all of your yarn tails weaving
in those ends in that same manner as you
get to them and you've just completed
your very own hand knit blanket it's
gorgeous and you've worked the knit
stitch probably a million times and
you're a master at it now so after you
completed this you can work your way
through a new project exploring the purl
stitch so you've just woven in your ends
and you're going to work across all the
yarn ends in your blanket in the same
way and after that you're done and you
can enjoy your very own hand knit
blanket
