As far as arts and crafts go, knitting is actually one of the easiest to learn and even to teach yourself. It's been around for centuries and has gone through many cycles of being fashionable for men, fashionable for women, fashionable for children and fashionable for the elderly. Thankfully now, knitting is gaining notoriety for all walks of life as a productive and satisfying hobby that's easy to learn and fun, too.

Before you start learning to knit you need to make sure you have the right equipment. No, you don't need $20 needles and rare wool from a pedigree alpaca. Even just a pair of chopsticks will do to start learning, but the best idea is some chunky, metal needles that will slip the wool over easily, but aren't so tiny you can't see what you're doing. Buy any 2ply wool that's not chunky, mohair or has ribbons or beads attached to its length. You want to be able to see what you're doing. Add to this a wool needle (one with a large eye), which can be found at any fabric shop and a pair of scissors and you're ready to go.

Now, knitting is different from weaving, in that there isn't one lot of thread running horizontally and another running vertically. Instead, every row runs horizontally and a series of loops holds them together. What makes different patterns in knitting is actually the way that the wool is wound around the needle. Wrap it round the top of the right hand needle when it's behind the left and you have a 'knit' stitch. Wrap it around the right hand needle when it's in front of the left and you have a 'purl' stitch. Knitting every stitch and every row in knit stitch is called 'stocking stitch', or 'stockinette stitch' and is the plainest of all the patterns. Knitting one row in knit, then the next in purl is known as 'garter stitch', which looks nice and smooth but tends to curl up at each end. When learning how to knit it's best to start without a pattern and simply knit row after row of knit stitch until you can do so without making holes, dropping or gaining stitches.

There are plenty of free patterns online and browsing YouTube for knitting tutorials is a great way to teach yourself how to make buttonholes and how to cast on and off. However you decide to learn, simply keep your patience and in a matter of weeks you could be knitting cable sweaters and afghan throws!

Stan Tian

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