Lesson #2 - Choosing the yarn
Yarn is, of course, the most important part of knitting. (Unless you’re knitting with spaghetti that is.) Yarn can be used with any type of needles, (chopsticks, pencils, etc.)and with the popularity of knitting taking off like so many bottle rockets, the choices in yarn have become plentiful, varied, and a bit overwhelming.
For the beginning knitter, I usually would recommend starting with a worsted weight yarn. This is the general middle-of-the-road yarn, and is easy to work with on most needle sizes.
I can hear you say, “But wait! I want to use this fuzzy frilly feathery yarn I just got at Wal-Mart for 4 bucks! You mean I can’t use that?”
Now, I didn’t say that. But if you try to start out with a novelty yarn on needles any smaller than a US 13 (9 mm), you’re asking for trouble. Novelty yarn is a bit tricky to work with if you’re not used to it, so if you insist on using it, might I suggest using large needles, or my favorite method of teaching kids with fun yarns, on your fingers! (That will be lesson #3!) Finger knitting is a way easy, way fast, and way fun *way* to knit a scarf or belt, while at the same time learning the basic knitting theory of pulling loops through other loops to create fabric.
As far as color goes, that’s entirely up to you. Although when you’re comfortable with knitting with one strand of yarn, I recommend using 2 strands at the same time for really neat effects and textures.
All yarn images are from gotyarn.com.
