Knitting Techniques

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There are quite a few different knitting techniques that you can apply to your knitting depending on your level of experience and the effect you are trying to achieve.  If you are a beginner, I suggest that once you have mastered the basic knitting stitches and have learned how to cast on and cast off your knitting, that you start with one of the basic techniques.

But don't worry, when you have gained some experience with stocking stitch or garter stitch, there are many more interesting techniques that you can have a go at.

For example, would you like to know more about:

Knitting Techniques

Aran Knitting

Contrary to popular belief Aran knitting is not a knitting style that is centuries old as it was in fact created in the early 1900s in the Aran Isles.

This style of knitting uses a technique that involves changing the order of the stitches as you knit them to create patterns.

Although the various patterns and cables usually incorporated into an Aran jumper do not have any historical or symbolic meaning, Aran knitting is a beautiful and unique style of knitting that is popular all over the world.

Double Knitting

The phrase double knitting has a couple of meanings in the knitting world. Double Knitting or DK is a weight of wool and also a knitting method or technique.

In this context, the term refers to creating a knitted fabric that has knit stitches (stocking stitch) on both sides of the fabric.  This knitting technique creates a 'tube' of knitting (double-sided fabric) with a single cast-on edge, with knit stitches on both sides.  

Fair Isle Knitting

Fair Isle is a traditional knitting technique used to create patterns with multiple colours.

All of the knitting is plain knitting (stocking stitch - one row knit and one row purl) but two or more colors are used to create a pattern in the knitting.

Fair Isle Knitting was developed in the Shetland Islands (where my family originally came from a couple of generations ago!) and is it still popular export product made in the traditional style by Shetland knitters to this day. 

Intarsia Knitting

Intarsia knitting is similar to Fair Isle Knitting in that it is usually knitted in stocking stitch and it uses more than one colour to create the pattern. 

Only Intarsia involves larger blocks of colour on a solid background rather than an all-over pattern most often seen with Fair Isle knitting.  

Another point of difference is that in Fair Isle knitting the yarn not being worked is carried across the full width of the work whereas with Intarsia, you join a new ball of yarn for each colour change. 

Modular Knitting

Modular knitting is similar to patchwork as it involves piecing small pieces of knitting together to form a large whole. 

The shapes used in modular knitting include; squares, rectangles, triangles and  circles, fans, and spirals which are knitting individually and then joined together.  

Traditionally the knitting pieces in modular knitting are made using Garter Stitch, but these days it is also common to see this style of knitting done using lace stitch patterns or textured stitch patterns.

This knitting technique is also sometimes called Mitred Knitting or Domino Knitting.

Shadow or Illusion Knitting

With Shadow Knitting, two colours are used to create a knitted piece that has a hidden pattern only visible from certain angles.

Shadow knitting involves knitting two rows of each colour while also following the pattern on a graph of black and white squares.  

Odd numbered rows are all knit rows, even numbered rows follow the pattern by first knitting all white squares and purling all black squares and then reversing for the next even row.

Simple Lace Knitting

Lace knitting is a style of knitting characterized by stable "holes" in the fabric arranged to create a pattern. 

Lacy knitting is considered easier than true lace knitting as you only need to do pattern stitches on the right side or knit row of the work.

Although easier to do that some of the other knitting styles, lacy knitting can be very effective and is often used for garments made for women and children.

True Lace Knitting

Lace knitting is generally not as fine as other forms of lace. But it is better suited for garments and baby shawls as it is softer and much faster to produce.

True knitted lace will have pattern stitches on both sides of the work (both the knit and purl rows) and are fairly complex. Most knitted lace is knitted using a very fine wool, usually one or two ply.

Definitely not suitable for a beginner!

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