How to Knit Friday!!!

Congratulations - we all made it to Friday! I'm so proud of us. To take the load off, let me introduce you to How to Knit Friday (subtle title, eh?). Every Friday you and I will work on a little project together. It will be fun! OK I can tell you don't trust me yet... here's Yoshi and my imitation of your face right now:

But really, I will even use a ridiculous looking easy to interpret yarn that YES yes it is Red Heart Super Savor Saver worsted acrylic OK? Sheesh.

Feel free to use any color or yarn you like. You don't even really have to follow along. Even though I catch your expressions some times I can't tell what you do knitting-wise. No pressure. It might be a fun read at least. Lots of pictures.

Since this is our first How to Knit Friday, let's start with the first step (after accumulating materials); casting on. I typically use the long-tail cast on method (which uses, you guessed it, a long tail).

First step: lay a piece of yarn on your leg like so (ok your expression is mimicking Yoshi's, but don't worry the fun will pick up soon):

Loop the yarn over itself, forming a circle on your leg like so:

Take the yarn-end that is the top layer, and place it under the loop so it looks like a pretzel (yum) (in other words, the light pink end on the left of the above picture will be going under the light blue part of the loop):

Time for the needle! See that pink line across the loop? The needle will poke between the line and the edge of the loop:

Lift the needle (careful now, you don't want the pink line on the needle to fall off the needle), and pull both ends until the loop is tight on the needle. Do you know what a synonym for that instance of "loop" is? A stitch! You made a stitch!

Phew! Ok, we can take a break now and pick it up next Friday. This is a pretty picture-intensive post so for all you dial-up guys out there, why do you still have dial-up? That's crazy!

Have a greaaaaat weekend! I'll see you guys on Monday!