Do you want to learn how to knit with Malabrigo yarn? Then you’re on the right page. Knitting is a craft technique that fits people of all ages and skills. It also happens to be a healthy hobby. It’s creative, eco-minded, and meditative. It also delivers the excitement of creating a one-of-a-kind material using your own two hands.

If you want to be good at this, there are a couple of things that you will need. Get a pair of needles, Malabrigo yarn from Darn Good Yarn, and a project that’s best suited to your skillset. If you’re only a beginner, you can start with something easy and simple. You can start with something small, like a winter shawl or a headband in garter. As you develop this skill, you can start adding signature touches to your knit products. You can add cabled embellishments, unique knitting stitches, or finished trims.

There are two basic knitting styles:

• The English Method
• German/Continental Method

The real difference between the two of them is how the Malabrigo yarn is held. With the English method, the yarn is held in the right hand. With the German/Continental method, it’s held in the left. Both of these methods can produce equally fine results, but as a beginner, we’ll focus on the German/Continental method. Doing this can take you through the step by step process. It can also teach you how to cast on, knit, purl, and cast off. You’ll need to master this method, pick a project, and repeat.

How to Tie a Slip Knot

1. Loop the yarn into a pretzel shape and leave a tail end at least three times the width of what you’re knitting. For example, if your scarf is 7 inches wide, you’ll need a 21-inch long tail.
2. Slip the knitting needle through pretzel shape.
3. Lastly, pull the yarn ends to tighten it.

How to Cast On

In order to begin the knitting, you’ll need to create a foundation row of stitches on your needle. You can do this by casting it on. Here’s how you can do it.

1. Drape the tail of yarn over your left thumb and the ball end (working Malabrigo yarn) over your left index finger.
2. Use your fingers to catch the lengths in left palm.
3. Insert the needle upward through the loop on your thumb.
4. Catch the working yarn on your index finger with the needle.
5. And then pull it through the loop on your thumb.
6. Remove your thumb from the loop.
7. Reposition your thumb and tighten a new stitch on your right-hand needle while you keep the yarn ends secured in your palm.
8. Repeat these steps until you have finally cast on the required number of stitches.

How to Knit

1. To start knitting, hold the needle with the cast-on stitches in your left hand.
2. And then, wrap the yarn around your left index finger. Hold it back of the left needle.
3. Insert the point of the right needle from front to back into the first cast-on stitch from the left needle.
4. Catch the Malabrigo yarn with the right needle. And then, pull the yarn through the opened stitch.
5. And then, slip the cast-on stitch off the left needle as you hold your middle finger against the second cast-on stitch. Doing this ensures that it doesn’t easily slip off.
6. When you already emptied the last stitch from the left needle, exchange the needles, and then return the needle with stitching to your left hand.

How to Purl

The purl stitch and knit stitch are different in two ways:

• The yarn is held in the front of the project instead of the back;
• The needle is inserted from the back to the front instead of from the front to the back.

Below are the steps on how to purl:

1. Hold the needle with cast-on stitches using your left hand.
2. And then, wrap the Malabrigo yarn (the ball end) around your left index finger.
3. Hold it in front of the work.
4. Insert the point of the right needle from the back to the front, into the first cast-on stitch on the left needle. This will open up a stitch.
5. Lay the yarn over the needle from the front to the back by moving your left index finger downward.
6. And then, push it from the front to the back through the cast-on stitch.
7. Slip the cast-on stitch off your left needle as you hold your middle finger against the second cast-on stitch. This will ensure that it won’t slip off.

The stitch on the right needle is the newly formed purl stitch. As the purl faces you, it will look like a grain of rice. Its reverse side should look like a V.

How to Pick Up a Dropped Stitch

Dropping a stitch while knitting is normal. So, if it happens to you, don’t panic. It’s easy to retrieve it using a crochet hook. Below are the steps on how to do it:

1. Insert the crochet hook from the front to the back, into the loop of the dropped stitch. Make sure that the knit side faces you.
2. Use the hook to catch the first horizontal ladder.
3. And then, pull it through the loop to the front.
4. Keep repeating this until all the ladders have been pulled through the loop.
5. Place the stitch back onto the left-hand needle. The right side of the loop should be on the front of the needle.

To pick up a stitch dropped on a purl row, turn your work around. Make sure to follow these instructions.  

How to Cast Off

Casting off is necessary to keep the stitches from unraveling as soon as they’re removed from the needle. Below are the steps to do this:

1. Knit two stitches.
2. Insert the left needle onto the first stitch.
3. Lift this stitch up over the second stitch and off the needle.
4. Continue to knit the stitches in this manner until all of the stitches have been cast off.
5. Cut the yarn, and make sure its tail is 6 inches long.
6. Pull the tail through the last stitch to secure.
7. Use a yarn needle to weave the tail ends of the yarn through the backs of several stitches.