How to Knit a Tallit
The Tallit, a traditional article of clothing in Judaism, serves predominately as a prayer shawl. Most often made of wool, the Tallit traditionally comes in white with blue stripes. Additionally, a fringe of specially tied knots, the tzitzit, adorns the four corners of the Tallit. Creating your own Tallit, for yourself or as a gift, makes an excellent project.
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Things You'll Need
- White wool yarn
- Blue wool yarn
- A pair of knitting needles (size 6 recommended)
- Scissors
Instructions
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Begin by choosing the size Tallit that you wish to knit. The Tallit comes in varying sizes, but is generally a rectangular piece. A width of a foot or more is suggested.
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Knit a swatch of the white wool yarn in garter stitch to determine your gauge. The number of stitches needed to create a width of one inch will be multiplied to decide how many stitches you should cast on. For example, if there are 6 stitches in an inch of knitting, you will need to cast on 72 stitches for your knitted piece to be a foot wide.
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Cast on your required number of stitches. Knit until you've reached the number of rows needed for your piece to measure 2 inches long. Change yarns to begin using the blue wool yarn. Knit in the blue yarn until you've reached the number of rows needed for the blue band to measure 1 inch long. Return to knitting with the white wool yarn.
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Decide how long you wish your Tallit to be. For a Tallit that is 5 feet long, knit in the white wool until you have reached 4 feet 9 inches. Change to the blue yarn and knit for one inch. Change back to the white yarn and finish out the length of the piece, casting off at 5 feet in length.
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Tie tzitzits in each of the four corners. Do this by cutting four pieces of yarn 6 inches long. Repeat until you have 4 sets like this. Thread the first set of 4 pieces halfway through the corner of the Tallit. You should have 8 ends of yarn. Customarily, 5 knots are tied into these threads. Between each knot, 1 thread is wound around the others. Repeat in each corner until all 4 sets have been tied into the corners of the Tallit.
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References
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