When people ask me what they need when they start knitting I say arthritis free hands. But in truth there isn’t a lot that you need to start knitting.
One of the easiest ones can be accomplished by beginners of all ages and it is pretty popular right now.
A Shabby Chic Scarf
If you want to start a small project, or if you want to teach a child how to knit I would highly suggest starting with a simple finger knit project. Holding needles for hours can be stressful, learning to hold them properly is stressful for adults, though I have found that this is less of a problem for children.
Still, if starting small is what you are interested in and this is something that I advocate you can always knit a small project with just your fingers.
Finger knitting, to me, feels like something natural. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that some ancient ancestor was sitting around a fire and knitting with finger alone. They were probably a grandmother, and it was probably a sweater.
Anyway, back to the project at hand.
There aren’t a lot of projects that you can knit like this but when you are working with children the amount of options is less important as when you try and teach an adult. Trust me if you have never held a needle in your hands before you won’t be whipping up cardigans, no matter how motivated you are.. The easier the better and the pattern is easy to get a grip on. Here is a version with pictures if you are having trouble visualizing the technique.
Step 1.
You are going to need to slide the end of a ball of yarn between your thumb and index finger (this will allow you to control the ball while you knit). By pinching it between your fingers you can control the yarn as you knit.
Now you will need to loop the yarn around your pinkie and then begin to weave it through your fingers.
Step 2.
When you have looped the yarn over and under on your fingers you will need to loop the yarn around your index finger turning back to your pinkie.
Step 3.
You should now have a full loop around your four fingers.
Step 4.
This produces a pattern that you can now begin to weave together. Slip the bottom row so that it goes over the one above it. Think about it like pulling one loop over the next loop. You will start at the pinkie and work your way up. Once you have the hang of it, you may need to untangle the yarn and start again, you can repeat the steps 2-4 until you reach the length that want the item to be. If you are making a bracelet you will not need that much and a couple of repetitions will be enough, for bigger items like a scarf you can expect to go through the process a number of times. Once you are finished you can tie the tip off and you’re all set.