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 Knitting is an all time favourite craft as it fulfills a basic need for warm clothes. It is simply the interlocking of lines of loops (yarns mainly of wool) made by two needles- an art that can be easily and quickly mastered. If you use your imagination, you can make sweaters, booties, rugs, shawls etc in an endless variety of patterns and designs with a combination of Knit, Purl and other stitches. The earliest known samples of knitting date from 7th century Arabia.
Materials
Knitting needles are made of plastic, aluminium and
wood. They come in a wide range of sizes, types and lengths . Single
pointed straight needles are used when you work back and forth in rows, Double
pointed needles are used in sets of four for working tubular knitting such as
socks and mittens. Circular needles are usually used for knitting skirts or
other tubular garments when you work in rounds. Small needles are used for thin
yarn and larger needles for heavy yarn.
Yarns are available in a variety of
materials like wool (light, medium and heavy), cotton , synthetic, jute and so
on. They differ as to twist, size, texture and weight.
Gauge
Gauge means the number of stitches and rows per inch. Gauge will be specified in
the directions given for a particular design. It is important to maintain the
gauge specified in the design to get the correct size of the article you are
making.
To check the Gauge, make a practice swatch 3
or 4 inches square patch of the stitch given. Stitch using the specified needle
and yarn. Then place the patch flat on the table and with a ruler measure the
number of stitches and rows per inch. For eg. Gauge= 4 stitches per inch.
If your stitch number doesn't correspond to the Gauge given for the design, try
out different size needles i.e a larger needle if you have more stitches per inch
or a smaller needle for less stitches per inch until the Gauge specified is
obtained.
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