On this site you will find everything you need to know to knit to donate to charity—from the basic essentials of donating to charity to a list of charitable organizations that seek out donated knitted items to give to sick children, the homeless, premature babies and others in need; to how to work on your own or with other knitters to reach those in need…and even more.
Written by Knitting Stitches on January 14th, 2010
Discover the trendy art of knitting! Learn to knit, stitch and create a variety of different projects from socks to mittens and everything in between! Set includes 40-page, full-color book; 6 brightly colored bundles of worsted weight yarn; size 8, wooden knitting needles; a wooden crochet hook and a plastic sewing needle. Carry works-in-progress anywhere you go in the handy vinyl carrying bag.
Written by Knitting Stitches on January 12th, 2010
The Pink Scarf Knitting Kit gives you all the tools you need to create a fluffy pink scarf. It’s an ideal kit for beginners and includes basic pattern, 8mm pink knitting needles and 3 x 50g balls of yarn.
Written by Knitting Stitches on January 1st, 2010
Learn the basics of knitting to create a colorful bohemian belt purse. Kit includes 110 yards of yarn, 3 different yards of fun yarn, knitting needles, 1 plastic needle, daisy maker, 20 pony beads, and easy to follow instructions. For ages 8 and up.
Written by Knitting Stitches on November 23rd, 2009
In this course you will learn how to spin many exotic fibers including camel, llama, alpaca, cashmere, angora, dog, rabbit, and quiviut from the Musk Ox. The workshop also includes live footage of many of these animals so that you can become better acquainted.
You will learn to spin many types of novelty yarn including spiral, gimped, boucle, turkish knot, and cocoon using a combination of fibers and spinning techniques which include frosting and encasement. Tips on buying these fibers and the best end use of the yarn are also included.
Written by Knitting Stitches on October 28th, 2009
This wooden gadget knits yarn “snakes,” which can then be coiled and fashioned into necklaces, purse straps, baskets, rugs and more. The bright red Knitting Mushroom (5″ tall) comes with a crochet hook, a small piece of multicolored wool yarn to practice on.
Written by Knitting Stitches on August 14th, 2009
Since the bind-off edge should be the same tension as the knitted piece, stitches should be bound off evenly and according to pattern.
While most stitchers understand this rule as well as what to do if you bind off too tightly or loosely; trying to figure out how to keep the last stitch from becoming a shapeless loop can be elusive. Here are a few recommendations from experienced knitters.
Work the last two stitches together; pull the third stitch from the end over it and finish off.
Slip the last stitch; pull the next to the last one over it. Cut the yarn and pull through the slipped stitch and adjust the tension.
Bind off until one stitch remains on the left-hand needle; slip it to the right-hand needle and pick up the loop of the stitch one row below the slipped stitch. Return the slipped stitch to the left-hand needle and work the loop and the last stitch together.
On the row before the bind-off row, work the first stitch, give the yarn a tug and finish the row. The last stitch of the bind-off row will be tightened.
Written by Knitting Stitches on August 13th, 2009
Increases and decreases are used to shape knitted pieces. Increases make pieces larger; decreases make them smaller. For ease of working, increases and decreases are often worked on right-side rows either within the knitted piece or at the side edges. Here’s a summary of basic increasing and decreasing to shape a knitted piece.
The simplest increase technique is the make-one increase (M1) which most knitters usually learn to do first. Because it makes an invisible increase, it’s very effective when making increases within the middle of a row or the body of a piece. To do this increase, with the needle tip lift the strand between the last stitch knit and the next stitch on the left hand needle and knit into the back of it. One knit stitch will have been added. At the beginning of a row, to increase you knit twice in the same stitch to form two distinct stitches.
By working a specific decrease, you can slant the stitches to the right by knitting two stitches together (k2tog) or left (ssk) by slipping the next two stitches knit-wise, one at a time, to the right hand needle, inserting the tip of the left hand needle into the fronts of these stitches from left to right; and knitting them together. One stitch has been decreased. This is valuable to know when working pieces with shaping such as raglan armholes, where the slant of the edge is important. When the slant is unimportant, you can work either type of decrease. But the k2tog decrease is simplest.
Use these techniques for adding or subtracting one or two stitches at a time. When increasing or decreasing several stitches, you will need to use casting-on or binding-off techniques.
