[eBook Code] Knitting a Scarf In A Day For Dummies (eBook Code, 1st)

Introduction 1

What You Can Do In A Day  1

Conventions Used in This Book  1

Foolish Assumptions  3

Icons Used in This Book  3

Chapter 1: Knitting Need-to-Knows 5

Why Knit?  5

Knitting your worries away  5

Gaining a feeling of accomplishment  6

Keeping your mind and hands occupied  6

Creating a one-of-a-kind piece  6

Sorting Out What Knitters Need  7

The tools  7

An understanding of the basics  8

Selecting Yarn: The (Quick) Consumer’s Guide  9

Fiber fundamentals  9

A weighty matter 11

Yarn packaging 12

Reading labels  12

Choosing a ball, skein, or hank  13

Picking Up Knitting Needles  14

Sizing up needles  14

Seeing what they’re made of  15

Grabbing Must-Have Gadgets  16

Chapter 2: Deciphering Patterns and Gauge         17

Reading Stitch Patterns  17

Deciphering common abbreviations and shorthand 18

Following written stitch patterns  20

Measuring Gauge to Get the Size Right  21

Considering what affects gauge  23

Making a gauge swatch  24

Measuring your gauge  25

Matching your pattern’s gauge  25

Chapter 3: Essential Skills: Casting On, Knitting, Purling, and Binding Off       27

Casting On  28

Now You’re Knitting and Purling  31

Getting a knack for knitting  32

Pushing forward with purling  36

Binding (or Casting) Off  37

Chapter 4: Basic Stitches You’ll Use Again and Again   41

Starting with Garter Stitch  42

Knitting and Purling Stockinette Stitch  43

Creating Box Stitch  44

Chapter 5: Applying Your Knitting Knowledge with Three Scarf Patterns          45

Ribbed Scarf 46

New skill: Switching from knit to purl and back again 46

Materials and vital statistics  47

Directions  48

Box-Stitch Scarf  48

Materials and vital statistics  49

Directions  49

Double-Wrap Garter-Stitch Scarf  50

New skill: The double wrap (and beyond)  50

Materials and vital statistics  51

Directions  52

Chapter 6: Oops! Fixing Common Mistakes          53

Stopping Mistakes or Catching Them Early  53

Dealing with Dropped Stitches  54

Finding and securing a dropped stitch  55

Picking up a dropped stitch in the row below  56

To make a knit stitch  57

To make a purl stitch  58

Rescuing a dropped stitch from several rows below  60

In stockinette stitch  60

In garter stitch  61

Ripping (Your Heart) Out  63

Ripping out stitch by stitch  63

Ripping out row by row  64

Chapter 7: Where to Go from Here 67

Taking Your First Steps  67

Visiting dummiescom  68