Living

To really understand knitting kits requires gaining at least a basic understanding of knitting. I’ll make it short and sweet. Knitting is the systematic application of yarn or yarns connected together by the movement of loops and loops looping into loops – ‘knit and purl’. From the back to the front a ‘knit’ stitch is created and by looping a loop from the front to the back you create a ‘purl’ stitch. Enough said about that.

Fortunately, all knitting kits are likely to come with at least the basics in pamphlet or manual. Basic equipment is a set of knitting needles and some yarn. It’s kind of funny that the basic elements of a modern knitting kit are all ancient. In fact, once you take a good look at the what comprises a knitting kit, you can easily imagine that in an older age some rough fabric was produced with raw threads, then coarse yarn looped together using sticks or bones.

Modern knitting needles are still made of wood and bone, but more often than not, today they are primarily made of plastic.

Knitting by Numbers

It isn’t quite like painting by numbers, but it is a systematic approach that also works on a building block principle. Once you learn to make the first two rows, variations can easily be added - styles, designs and colors – the sky’s the limit.

Counting loops is an important part of good knitting, so get in the habit early on. The difference between a square and a rectangle or an oval and circle is the number of loops.

Lessons vs. Knitting Kits

Whether to get lessons or try to learn from knitting kits is a personal thing. The kits have all the basics, but there is no replacement for a helping hand or skilled pointer to speed up progress. Maybe a combination of both is the best case scenario. Once a working level of knitting knowledge is achieved, then knitting kits provide useful and specific projects to work on.

For example, there are many knitting kits available for making an Irish sweater. Kits vary but typically come with a combination of needles, yarns and patterns.

Craft Stores

Craft stores are everywhere these days and are generally very helpful to knitters. Carrying a wide selection of yarns, supplies and knitting kits, craft stores play a major role - they quite often have onsite classes and are almost always ready to render assistance.