We all know that it’s smart to start with easy knitting patterns when you’re a beginner. But, frankly, how excited can you get about knitting acrylic potholders? This article will give you a few tips to start knitting happily in no time. You don’t have to frustrate yourself with a complicated pattern to make something you can get excited about.

USE GREAT MATERIALS

Even a very simple garment can be wonderful if it’s knit from superb materials. Wool yarn is by far the most satisfying fiber to knit with for the beginner. It’s resilient, it has natural elasticity, and it’s forgiving of a beginner’s varying tension. And of course it comes in a wonderful variety of colors and styles. Worsted weight is good for beginners–anything smaller than that and you’ll lose patience waiting for results. One nice basic yarn you can find in many shops is Lamb’s Pride, which is a wool/mohair blend that is strong and lustrous, and comes in fabulous colors. Wool/silk blends are also good for beginners, but can be expensive.

If you’re in a very warm climate and you prefer to start with cotton, that’s fine, but it’s just not as satisfying to knit with. Cotton should be knit a little tighter than wool, so go with a slightly smaller needle as a general rule. Your knitting shop will be happy to recommend a good size needle for the yarn you pick out.

I strongly recommend against acrylic yarn–it’s hard on your hands and just not satisfying, even if it feels nice in the shop.

(By the way, at the start, don’t get too hung up on gauge, which is how many stitches per inch you get. Your first projects are all about developing your rhythm as a knitter and making the two basic stitches second-nature.)

START WITH A “NO-PATTERN” PATTERN

Once you have your tools and have picked out some great yarn, assuming you know the two basic stitches (knit and purl), you’re ready to get going.

(If you don’t know how to knit at all, and you don’t have someone nearby who can show you the basics, don’t despair. This is a good book that will walk you through everything A-Z so you can get started right away.)

For your first projects, knit simple pieces that don’t depend on a lot of measurement or precision. You might knit a nice pashmina-style stole–just cast on about 200-250 stitches and knit in garter stitch (that means you knit every row, no purling) until it’s 24″ wide or so. You can keep this from getting boring by either working with a yarn you adore or working in stripes of several wonderful colors. (If you use several colors, make sure they’re all the same brand and type of yarn. In other words, you’ll want 3-5 skeins of Lamb’s Pride or whatever other specific yarn you pick, in different colors.)

With circular needles, you can make a great tubular scarf that pulls up to cover your head when it’s cold. (Like an oversized turtleneck, without the sweater part.) Again, cast on about 200-250 stitches, but this time join them in a circle (your knitting shop can help), then just knit until you have about 24″ and cast off. Remember that you want a nice, soft yarn if you’re creating something to be worn by your face. You also knit every round on this one, but because it’s circular knitting, you end up with plain old knit (called stockinette) instead of garter stitch. Stockinette curls at the edges, unlike garter stitch that lies flat. Stockinette also drapes a little better.

If you’re ready to branch out beyond simple rectangles and tubes, check out my Squidoo lens on easy knitting patterns for hipsters that includes resources for everything from online yarn stores to an amazing new book with a pattern for a knitted Mohawk.

Happy knitting!

Copyright (c) 2007 Sonia Simone. Sonia Simone, besides being a passionate knitter, is a writer and editor who helps businesses create stronger relationships with their customers. You can read her communication blog at http://remarcom.typepad.com.

So you’ve been happily knitting along for years, and maybe even decades. But lately, your wrist and hand and forearm have been starting to hurt and you’re having problems getting your knitting projects done.

Chances are it’s going to continue to hurt, and then get worse. How does that happen?

The good news is that it’s not the knitting. Knitting in and of itself is not dangerous.    Knitting does require a repetitive motion, and that gets us close to what’s going on that causes pain.

But what is really going on with knitting that gives us wrist pain? Maybe it’s hand pain, maybe it’s forearm pain, and maybe it’s a combination. For right now let’s just lump it all together into wrist pain.

1. You perform the exact same repetitive motion over and over cause the muscles to fire over and over.

2. Muscles slowly start getting tighter and tighter, and the nervous system resets that new tightness as a new normal.

3. Connective tissue starts shrinkwrapping, like saran wrap around a half squeezed sponge.

4. The muscle and other tissue gets less circulation. Less blood and nutrition in, less waste product out. This counts as an irritant.

5. Because of the irritant, the body tightens muscles to guard and protect against the irritant.

6. You continue to do a repetitive motion, like knitting, and feel no pain or problem.

7. The muscles fires tens of thousands of times, which tugs on tendons and connective tissue. As everything gets tighter and tighter this tugging meets more and more resistance.

8. Eventually some micro tear happens, tiny little wear and tear damage.

9. The nervous system notices the damage, and kicks in an Inflammation Response.

10. Inflammation traps fluid in the area, and releases chemicals which make you feel more pain.

11. The body feels pain, so tightens up muscles to protect and guard you against the pain.

12. A Pain Causing Dynamic is now officially in place. This is a Downward Spiral of increasing tightness and pain.

13. At some point in here, you start to feel ache. Then later you start to feel pain, but it goes away quickly. Even if you don’t feel it, the Pain Causing Dynamic is constantly at work.

14. The body tries to compensate and fight off the Downward Spiral as long as it can. But it starts to lose. Then it can no longer win, and can’t really even put up a fight.

15. This is when you really feel the pain.

16. And you still think it will go away, and you love to knit, so…..

17. You keep knitting and the pain gets worse, until you literally can’t knit anymore because of the pain. Or because you are afraid of causing permanent damage.

18. At this point you get serious about looking for a way to make the pain go away.

19. You try everything the doctor prescribes, it doesn’t work.

20. At this point you are desperate for something that will really work, and you haven’t picked up the needs for a good long while and it’s killing you.

17-20 can vary some. But 1-16 is set in stone. By default, that’s just how the body operates with repetitive motion.

The first step is to understand how and why you have pain and why it won’t go away. The second step is doing the RIGHT activities to reverse the Pain Causing Dynamic and make that Downward Spiral into an Upward Spiral.

Knitting is something that you should be able to do for the rest of you life, without wrist pain.

If you are ready to Eliminate your wrist pain, get Carpal Tunnel Relief For Knitters.

Joshua Tucker, B.A, C.M.T is The Tendonitis Expert. He educates, leads workshops, and trains individuals how to ELIMINATE their Tendonitis related issues like Tennis Elbow, Carpal Tunnel, Plantar Fasciitis, and Wrist Tendonitis. Joshua says “When you have tried all the usual options and they fail, that’s the best time to start fixing Tendonitis.”

For more of the RIGHT information about how to Eliminate your Tendonitis, no matter how bad it is or how long you’ve had it, visit http://www.TendonitisExpert.com