Making the Garter Stitch

Have you been knitting?  Oh, I hope you have!

And did you know, that as you knit back and forth, row after row, you are creating the lovely and wonderful Garter Stitch!  I’ve always wondered why they call it “garter” stitch?  Could it be because the ridges look a good bit like the ruffle of a ladies garter??  I dunno. Hmmm…

I’ve been knitting too!  Here’s how mine’s going…

See all those Garter Ridges?  Each Ridge is created from two rows of knitting.  Later on, when you get into reading patterns, you may find a pattern asking you to make x amount of garter ridges, and you’ll know that for each ridge, you’ll knit two rows.  Pretty cool, huh?

Here are some perks about garter stitch:

1.  It’s so pretty and puffy.

2.  It looks amazingly different when you use different size needles. (More on that later).  Everything from tight & textured to loose & lacy!

3.  IT LAYS FLAT!  No curling at the ends or sides! (Like Stockinette Stitch will do. Don’t worry about this stitch yet.  You’ll be making it in no time…as soon as you learn to purl:)

4.  It looks the same on BOTH sides of the knitted fabric.  No “right” or “wrong” side.

5.  Has a lovely “give” to the fabric…meaning it stretches nicely.

A friend of mine, who has NEVER knitted, took some needles and yarn on a family trip to Ohio for the express purpose of trying to learn to knit from my instructions here on Drawn2Knit.  And I was SO tickled to hear this report from her today:

“I started in the car.  Cast on about 50 stitches just to practice.

<My son> and I worked through it together.  There is the whole: how do you hold the needles?

What’s too tight and what’s not? Does this look right?…  but we rejoiced when we figured it out!

Great fun to do together!”

Oh yay! and hurray!  I was so tickled to hear this.  She did say, though, that some of my photographs with the green yarn directly behind my hands, made it a bit difficult to figure out what was going on.  I will remedy this soon!

If you’re just starting out, do keep on trying!  Some of the questions my friend had at first, ie. am I holding the needles correctly?  Is this too tight? Does it look right?  These are all questions that will iron themselves out as you practice, practice, practice.  AND you can always go to your LYS to get some expert eyes to look at what you’re doing and help you.

Do whatever it takes, just keep it fun!  If you find your shoulders up around your ears, STOP!  Put the knitting down, roll your shoulders, get up and stretch a bit, grab that mug of coffee or glass of wine and sit down to your knitting once again.  You’ll be amazed how a little break will help you see better, knit better, feel better!

Have fun!

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