More new knitter advice

My niece is going through what most beginners do, a bit of frustration that it's not going faster and the feeling that she needs to control the yarn.  Here are a couple more suggestions I made to her:

1. When I was first learning, I pulled my stitches really tight, using the tension around the needle to make them even. Don't worry too much about even stitches, that will come with a bit of practice, just make the stitch and let it go.
 

I used to wrap the yarn around my hand or fingers pretty tight. I still do sometimes when I'm getting something started and feel the need to really control the yarn tension, but other than that you want to be able to put gentle tension on the yarn, but you don't need to pull it tight after every stitch.

Try a couple different ways of hold or lightly wrapping that yarn around your hand without the death grip...

I hold my yarn different than most knitters I see. A lot of people (and books suggest) bringing it between your fingers and over you index finger. I actually wrap it around my palm loosely then around my index finger. Find what is comfortable for you, what works for your hands might not be what works for someone else.  There is not a single "correct" way to hold your yarn, do what feels comfortable.

2. Cast on over a needle one size larger to make sure your cast on isn't too tight. Most knitters start with the long tail cast on - try a backwards loop cast on if you don't have a larger needle.

3. Make sure you slide the stitch up onto the fat part of the needle. Otherwise, you creating a stitch to tight for the needles.  The stitches should slide with relatively little effort even on bamboo or wooden needles.

What knitting lessons learned would you pass on to a new knitter?
 

Restart and a new start

I think it's about time to restart my blog. Knitting has been taking over my life and I'm trying to figure out why and what to do about it. Maybe if I share some of my thougts on knitting, I can work through some of these issues. So, here goes, Hippy Chick Knits V2.0.

And I'm so excited, one of my nieces is learning to knit...Yeah! She writes a pretty mean blog herself, so I hope a little of her blogging style rubs off on me.

Here is the initial advice I gave her based on my own experience over the last 4 or 5 years:

1. you do not need a death grip, neither the yarn nor the needle are actually trying to kill you. (though if you ever get to sock knitting, those needle do find interesting ways to stab you.)

2. wool is your friend - if a scarf isn't working out - bind off, throw it in the washing machine on hot, felt the crap out it it and ta da you have a pot holder.

3. once you learn the basic stitches it will go faster and even become relaxing

4. oh the pretty colors......

5. if you are struggling - try bigger needles and light, solid color yarn so you can see what you are doing; fiddly small needles and dark or highly varigated yarn are a challenge when you're starting.

What other advice to you give to new knitters?