If you’ve read my knitting origin story, you know that the beginning of my knitting journey was full of decidedly NOT recommended things. We’re going to build our own knitting starter kit and start knitting in the way I wish I had from the beginning. It’s all here, from supplies to tutorials to patterns, and more. I hope you’ll find that this is the ultimate guide to get you started.
Please share this knit kit with an aspiring knitter in your life.
Supplies: Phase 1
In terms of supplies, knitting is a relatively affordable endeavor to start. There’s no need to buy expensive equipment or full sets of anything. One skein of yarn and one set of needles will get you through your first swatch and your first project. Just make sure you pick the right yarn and needles.
Yarn
I recommend a single ply, DK, Worsted, or Aran weight (4 – Medium) in a soft wool to start out, as long as you don’t have a known lanolin allergy. Lots of knitters express that the elasticity of wool feels better in their hands as they knit than the rigidity of cotton. Your mileage may vary, but I recommend starting with wool rather than a fiber that most knitters don’t enjoy.
I recommend choosing the highest quality yarn you can reasonably justify. This is important from your first stitch – it’s part of how you’ll know if you like knitting. If the yarn doesn’t feel good in your hands, you won’t enjoy the process. (But maybe it was just the yarn you didn’t like.)
When you decide to embark upon your knitting journey, it’s important to start on the right foot. Give yourself the best chance of enjoyment from the start.
Recommended first yarns:
- Probably available at your Local Yarn Store (LYS)
- Probably available at a commercial craft store (Michaels, Joann’s, etc.)
I’ll be using Maxima. Malabrigo Worsted is a great budget-friendly high quality yarn. If you have access to it, I’d start there.
Purl of Wisdom: Use the good stuff! (As long as that stuff is in your budget and you can justify it to yourself.) Over your knitting lifetime, you will acquire precious skeins that you think are too precious to use. Use them! Enjoy them! (Or at the very least display them where you can admire them.)
Purl of Wisdom: Knitting is full of math. A knitting math trick you might find useful right about now is dollars of yarn divided by hours of knitting. Let’s say a $25 skein of yarn takes 5 hours to knit. That’s entertainment at a rate of $5/hour, and you have something to show for it!
Purl of Wisdom: Yarn is reusable. If you don’t like something, rip it out and try again. Knitting is one of the few crafts with the opportunity to reuse supplies. You can’t un-paint a painting, but you can re-wind and re-knit yarn.
Needles
For the yarns above, start with size 8 (5.0mm) needles in wood. Wood is less slippery as you’re getting used to managing the needles and stitches.
It’s fine to jump right into circular needles unless you really want to use straight needles. There’s no need to invest in an interchangeable set yet.
With circular needles, you can knit flat (back and forth) or in the round (connect the ends and just knit around). With straight needles, you can only knit flat, and you can only fit so many stitches on them. This is why I recommend circular needles. They’re more versatile.
Notions
For your swatch, you will need a darning needle and scissors. Once you decide you’d like to continue your knitting journey, here’s my list of recommended notions.
First Stitches: Sampler Swatch
Your first stitches can make or break your knitting experience. Before you cast on a project, you need to learn how to cast on, knit, purl, and cast off. You can do this with a swatch, so let’s do it!
A swatch is a tiny practice square. In the future, swatches are used to determine your gauge, which determines how big (or small) something will be, which is critical if you’re planning to knit something that needs to fit. This sampler swatch is for learning to knit. We’re going to do a few stitch patterns, and you’ll be off to the races.
There are tons of great, free knitting videos out there, many of which I will link throughout this guide. I’ll also link some written articles with videos if you prefer that. I will include each of these options for each technique in the swatch.
A note for lefties: Do NOT reverse anything. Knitting uses both hands, and either can be dominant. You will always move stitches from the left needle to the right needle.
Pep Talk: Mistakes
Before we dive in, I want to take a moment to say that if you mess up, it is fixable! There is no need to rip it out (aka “frog” because rip it sounds like ribbit) and start over. And there is no pressure to fix mistakes on this swatch. But so that you know from the start, here are some video resources to come back to if you need them.
- Accidental yarn overs between stitches or knitting the wrong direction (the most common mistakes for brand new knitters)
- Tinking (knitting backwards to get to the messed up stitch)
- Putting fallen stitches back on the needle
- And many more…
Wind the Yarn
If your yarn comes in skeins (like most hand-dyed yarns do), you’ll need to wind it into a ball. If you decide knitting is something you want to continue, you’ll want a ball winder and swift (look!). But when you’re just getting started and not sure if knitting will be a long term hobby for you, you can wind the yarn by hand. Open the twisted skein, and loop it around something to keep it from tangling. Find the ends, then wrap the yarn into a ball.
Cast On
Cast on 20 stitches (instructions below).
Over your knitting lifetime, you will learn many different cast on methods. We’ll do a German Long Tail Cast On for this swatch. It is stretchy and can be used for casting on just about anything. It will probably be your go-to cast on in the future.
So that you know, most people learn the knitted cast on when they are learning to knit, but it has no stretch, and I find that it can be confusing to new knitters because of its similarities and differences to the knit stitch itself. We’re going to learn the most useful stuff from the start.
Videos
Watch each of these, and pick the one that resonates with you. You might choose to go straight to that teacher when other videos of theirs are linked.
P.S. You can make a video go faster or slower by clicking the gear icon and changing the playback speed. Change the playback speed to 0.5x to which will make the video twice as slow. VeryPink Knits has a whole playlist of knitting techniques in slo-mo if you’re interested. You can also click the 4 corners icon in the bottom right to make the video full screen.
Written & Illustrated Instructions
- Interweave (video included)
- Nimble Needles (video included)
- The Spruce Crafts
Swatch
You just cast on your first stitches!
Intermission: English vs. Continental Style
Before you start knitting the stitches you’ve cast on, you should know that there are two different ways to hold yarn: English and Continental.
- English : Hold the working yarn in your right hand, and use your right hand to wrap the yarn around the right needle.
- Continental: Hold the working yarn in your left hand, and use your right needle to pick up the yarn.
To start, I recommend choosing the one that feels most natural to you. Most beginning knitting tutorials use English-style, but it may be worth starting with continental. Use the following rules of thumb to start:
- If you already know how to crochet, try continental-style first.
- If you are left handed, try continental-style first.
- If you are right handed and do not know how to crochet, try English-style first.
If you choose continental, make sure your needles are touching for the whole stitch! You’re welcome. I just saved you so much heartache about gauge in the future.
Remember, this is just a swatch. You can always try the other style later and choose what feels best to you.
Knit
Knit 3 rows.
- Row 1: Knit all stitches. Turn.
- Row 2: Knit all stitches. Turn.
- Row 3: Knit all stitches. Turn.
Videos
Written Instructions
- Knit Stitch – Purl Soho (video included)
- How to Knit – Tin Can Knits (video included)
Swatch
You just made 4 rows (2 garter bumps) of garter stitch! The Twisted German Cast On counts as 1 row of knitting. So your cast on plus 3 rows = 4 knit rows.
Purl
Work in Stockinette Stitch for 4 rows.
- Row 1: Knit all stitches. Turn.
- Row 2: Purl all stitches. Turn.
- Row 3: Knit all stitches. Turn.
- Row 4: Purl all stitches. Turn.
Videos
Written Instructions
- Purl Stitch – Purl Soho (video included)
- How to Purl – Tin Can Knits (video included)
Swatch
You just made 4 rows of stockinette stitch!
Rib
Work in 1×1 ribbing for 4 rows.
- Row 1: (Knit 1, Purl 1) – repeat all the way across. Turn.
- Row 2: (Knit 1, Purl 1) – repeat all the way across. Turn.
- Row 3: (Knit 1, Purl 1) – repeat all the way across. Turn.
- Row 4: (Knit 1, Purl 1) – repeat all the way across. Turn.
Videos
Written Instructions
Switching Between Knit + Purl – Purl Soho
Swatch
You just did 1×1 ribbing!
Seed Stitch
Work in seed stitch for 4 rows.
- Row 1: (Knit 1, Purl 1) – repeat all the way across. Turn.
- Row 2: (Purl 1, Knit 1) – repeat all the way across. Turn.
- Row 3: (Knit 1, Purl 1) – repeat all the way across. Turn.
- Row 4: (Purl 1, Knit 1) – repeat all the way across. Turn.
Videos
Written Instructions
- How to Do a Seed Stitch in Knitting – The Spruce Crafts
- Seed Stitch Knitting Pattern for Beginners – Nimble Needles (video included)
Swatch
You just did seed stitch!
At this point you might be noticing that the knit stitches look like little Vs and the purl stitches look like little bumps. Pay attention to these, it’s how you learn to read your knitting.
Knit Again
Knit 3 rows.
- Row 1: Knit all stitches. Turn.
- Row 2: Knit all stitches. Turn.
- Row 3: Knit all stitches. Turn.
We’re only doing 3 rows because the bind off will add one row of knit stitches, too.
Bind Off
Bind off.
We’re going to learn a stretchy bind off that builds on the skills you’ve already been learning.
Videos
The sample in the video below is in 2×2 rib. You are currently working in garter stitch, so you will knit every time. No need for any purls.
Written Instructions
Learn to Knit: 3 Easy Stretcy Bind-Offs – Ysolda Teague – Refer to the K2TOGTBL, K1 Bind Off
Swatch
You did it! Since this is our tiny practice square, we’re not done yet.
Yes, it looks a little wonky. That’s because we haven’t blocked it yet. After blocking, any remaining wonkiness is because of the different stitch patterns. Ribbing tends to pull stitches inward, and garter tends to spread out.
Block
We’ll do a simplified blocking method:
- Soak it in some water. You can do this in your hands or a bowl.
- Squeeze out the excess. Do not twist it or wring it!
- Reshape and lay flat to dry. (Just like all of the instructions on your store-bought sweaters.) Put it in the shape you want it to be (within reason).
When you knit your first real project, I have a blocking tutorial.
Notice that the swatch is wider than it is tall even though we did 20 stitches, 20 rows, a cast on, and a bind off. That’s normal! Knit stitches are wider than they are tall.
Weave in Ends
Weave in the ends to secure and hide the tail ends of the yarn.
There are many different ways to weave in your ends. Here are some different suggestions.
Video
Written Instructions
Swatch
You did it!
Going forward, I recommend weaving in your ends before blocking and trimming the tails after blocking.
Admire Your Work
You just made your first knitted item. I recommend using it as a coaster for your coffee or tea mug.
In this swatch, you learned to cast on and bind off, which you will need to do for every project. You also learned the two stitches of knitting – knit and purl. Notice that with those two stitches, you created 4 different stitch patterns. Everything else you do from here on out will be based on those two stitches.
Now you have the foundation to do anything. Through the tutorials above, you probably found a teacher that clicks for you. Search their channel for how-tos on any type of stitch you come across in the future.
Continue Your Knitting Journey
You’re now ready to knit an actual thing. I recommend something that teaches more skills to build on what you learned in your swatch. Increasing and decreasing are nothing to be afraid of, and neither is working in the round.
Supplies: Phase 2
If you decide you want to stick with knitting as a hobby, it’s time to build your stash of supplies. I recommend:
- An Interchangeable Needle Set
- The Ultimate Set of 7 Knitting Notions
- Outfitting Your Project Bag(s) with Notions
- Knitting Books for Your Library
First Patterns
Reading a knitting pattern is nothing to be afraid of. Tin Can Knits has a great series to walk you through the basics.
The Simple Collection by Tin Can Knits is a great place to start for your first patterns. It is a collection of 15 free patterns that teach the basics and include tutorials. The Malt baby blanket is the first in the series, and you’ve already learned how to do everything that you’ll need for it.
If you decide to find a different starting pattern, I recommend something that doesn’t need to fit perfectly yet. Gauge is an aspect of knitting with which even the most experienced knitters struggle.
Something in the round is doable if you’re up for watching some more videos and learning to join in the round. If you decide to follow the Simple Collection patterns above, I’ve knit dozens of Barley hats over the years, which is pattern number four in the series.
Final Thoughts
I hope this “make your own” knitting starter kit worked for you and that you’re ready to be a knitter!
If you have a LYS (Local Yarn Shop), go there! Join the knit nights. Watch some knitting podcasts – they will help you feel immersed in the knitter-verse. Check out all of my purls of wisdom to take with you as you continue your journey.
If you’d still like a learn-to-knit-kit that’s all boxed up to give as a gift, this one from Purl Soho is highly regarded. (Still send your gift recipient here for the advice and videos, though.)
