Knitting Overview

Series Summary

Within the past five years, knitting has become hip again, if it was ever actually hip in the first place. Check any number of bookstores and you'll find several volumes of patterns for items such as bikinis and purses that are new to the cannon of knitting basics. A new generation of expressive yarns make the creation of eye-catching clothes and accessories easier than ever. Knitting asserts your independence from traditional clothing manufacturers and is the perfect outlet for your personal style. All you need is a set of needles and some yarn to enter this exciting new world of diy fashion.

In this free series from our knitting expert, learn everything from basic needle and yarn selection to basic techniques such as purl stitching, ribbing, decreasing and increasing. Our expert also gives you an overview of where to purchase your knitting supplies and even suggests a few basic project ideas. Watch these videos and you will be knitting like a pro in no time.

Video Transcript

"Hi! I'm Jodi Adler and today here at Expert Village, we're going to talk about all about knitting. First thing, knitting is a form of weaving. It's been around for I don't know how many hundreds of years. I actually first learned to knit in girl scouts. I have a Girl Scout badge in knitting. I know, I'm very proud of that. Then I didn't knit for a long time, and then knitting became really hip and hot like 5 years ago, maybe 7 years ago. A friend of my moms own one of these little boutique knit shops and she gave me these pro knitting needles and got me started all over again. Since then, I want to show you some of the things I've done and they're really fun. Look at this. I did not knit the puppy dog. For a friend I knit a dog jacket for when it's cold out and the dog needs to run around outside on a leash. These can be made for any size puppy. This is not the right size for this little animal, but that's all I had at home. This is really fun too. Look, a purse. I made this all by myself. Doesn't it look nice on my shoulder. I did not make the beads, but you sew them on later. This is so easy this purse, you wouldn't believe it. Then on the inside you can line it. You can pick any kind of lining you like. Let me see if I can get that open. The lining has purses. Pretty cool I think. Then there's this. This looks so hard. Everybody wants it when I wear it. This thing is called a drop stitch scarf. You do regular knitting and then you kind of lose the stitches and you pick them up again. Looks hard. It's easy. If we have time, we're going to get to that today too. This is a hat an scarf combo, which everybody needs during the winter. I know I do. There's the scarf, here's the hat. You do it in any color to bring our your eyes. I like this one. Alright, we're done with that. This thing I want to get to this. This is a spiral scarf. It looks like a snake and you put it on. Isn't it elegant. Don't I just look wealthy when I'm wearing it. I am anyway. The other thing I want to show you. Where did that go? My necklace. I knit the knit beads in this necklace. Not the wooden ones but the knit ones. Look at this. Isn't this fun? Did you ever think you could knit a necklace? Before we do any of this stuff, what we have to do first is learn how to cast on."