Sunday, June 28, 2009

What kind of yarn?

As I have already noted, I present the brand new knitter with an already-started piece of knitted fabric, so that they can bypass the cast-on and the first few rows.

My philosophy is that the first yarn that a beginner uses should be a plain worsted type of yarn. Skinnier yarns are too hard to see. Fatter yarns can be difficult to work with, even for an experienced knitter.

Generally, I am using up my stash of worsted partial-skeins for new knitters.

But I am finding that there is some variation even within the plain worsted family.

Some yarns are slippery, some have a lot of friction, and some are just right!

I've been experimenting with giving beginners yarn that has some friction. Because the yarn doesn't pull through the left-hand needle stitch easily, the students have to apply some extra force to make the new stitch look like a nice upside-down raindrop. The students have to be conscious of the stitch formation, and I think that it will make subsequent projects have the right tension, instead of being too tight.

The downside of using frictitious (ok, I invented that word) yarn is that it is really really easy to knit too tightly in the class.

I'll keep monitoring the results with various kinds of worsted yarns.

What have been your experiences? Thanks in advance for your comments.


Judy Obee
My Knitting Website

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