There are things I wish I'd known when I was starting to knit so here's some of them!
- Pick a yarn you like! Nothing will put you off more than knitting with boring yarn, so get something in a colour you love! And if this means buying more yarn then so be it.
- Don't be afraid of frogging (also known as undoing your work and starting again) You will make mistakes. You will probably make the same mistakes over & over again, but it's these mistakes that help you learn. The more you knit the better you get, and as you improve you'll learn ways of fixing these mistakes.
- Raid the charity shops! You can find vintage needles at bargain prices and you will be needing a variety of sizes as you knit more. I got most of my shiny coloured needles for 10p a pair from the local charity shop! So you will be getting pretty vintage needles and helping charity at the same time. You may also find some cheap yarn while you're at it.
- Use the right needles and yarn. The pattern should tell you at the beginning what size needles & yarn you need, and if you don't use these then your knitting won't turn out properly. I knit some jumpers in Double Knitting wool instead of 3ply and they turned out stupidly big on Blythe.
- If you get stuck there is help online. Ravelry is a great site for the new knitter (you need to make an account first) as it has free patterns and Blythe knitting groups for you to join. Other good sites are youtube where you can find knitting videos, Vogue Knitting has helpful tutorials and knitting help has yet more videos.
- Treat yourself to a nice project book. Write down what you knit so that you can refer back to it afterwards and alter it if you need to. One with handy pockets will help you store the printed patterns which you inevitably gain.
- Knit a little every day! The more you knit the better & faster you get so try and knit at least a couple of rows everyday.
