I knit and wool

The shop I visited is called I knit - www.iknit.org.uk

It's a small shop, but has lots of books and a good selection of wool. I asked the guy in the shop, I know I need needles and wool, but where to I start he said to me, first you need wool. I also asked if they had any books for beginners. He pointed and told me where the shelf for beginners books were - which is where I had just been looking. I asked if he recommended any. In which he told me. I looked at all the books, but there were so many that had patterns for babies which didn't suit me, so I went for a book called stitch 'n bitch. It's an American book, and some of the drawings to describe how to do the knit and purl stitch aren't fantastic, but the layout of the book, the funky patterns and the way the put things is definitely for the younger person. Generally the way it describes things are also good and easy to understand.

As most beginners will tell you, the easiest thing to do first is a scarf using the knit stitch. This is because you practice doing what is probably the most important stitch and what the whole hobby is called from it!

Once deciding what you want to make, you need to decide which wool you are going to use. This is more important than deciding the needles and a sort of mistake I've made.

There are 5 types of wool - 4ply/ baby, Sport/ double knit (DK), Aran/ worsted weight, Chunky/ bulky and Extra or Super bulky.

For your first project I strongly recommend (and it did say this in the stitch 'n bitch book which I didn't take the advice from) using a chunky or super bulky wool. It's big and think and you can create scarves quickly and as you are using bigger needles it makes it easy to learn to do the basics, as well as having to cast on fewer stitches.

There are lots of things mentioned on the label of the wool you pick. There are the suggested needle size, what kind of wool it is (wool, alpaca, mohair, cotton, silk or angora), length, washing instructions and one you have to take into consideration when picking up more than one from the same manufacturer is the colour and dye number. If buying more than one of the same colour make sure it's from the same lot, other wise you could find you have slightly different shades of the same colour.

Once you've chosen your wool, check out the size needles you will need. The size needles you will need are stated on the label for the wool. I would suggest using either 9mm (US 13) or 10mm (US 15). I don't like really chunky items, so the size 9mm or 10mm still makes it fairly big, but not as bulky. Also as a beginner don't spend too much on wool. You can buy nicer and more expensive wool when you become better.

I bought Aran wool (which wasn't cheap), and have 5mm (US 8) needles but the results are so much slower. I didn't know how many rows to cast on so the first time round created to many. I then decided to start again but to use 40 stitches, which still feels like a lot and I wonder if I'll ever make a scarf.

 Last thing on wool. Wool comes in 3 shapes when you buy it from the store - a ball, a skein and a hank. If the wool comes in a ball you'll be ready to start immediately. If the wool comes in a skein, the wool is still ready for you to star knitting, but you will have to go hunting around to find the end. If you get a hank which is a big twist of wool, you will have to take the time to make it into a ball. If you don't have anyone to help you, untwist the hank so you have a big loop and put it over your neck. Untie the end and start wrapping it into a ball. This does take a bit of time, but it's quite satisfying once all the wool is in a ball!

When it comes to deciding which needles to use, if you can get wooden needles, they are always nicer to hold than metal ones. I've been told, that wooden needles are better for your fingers too, as i've discovered you use the tips of your fingers a lot when trying to knit. Wooden needles are slightly more expensive (average £5) than metal (usually aluminium), but not by much unless you are buying a really expensive wood.

I was overwhelmed when I had to decide what I needed, when if I had had some explain the types of wool and what is suitable for a beginner then maybe I wouldn't have been. Don't worry about getting all the other bits that books suggest for your kit just yet. Until you've perfected the knit stitch and purl stitch and some of the other basics (which as a beginner myself I'm no where near) you don't need other stuff for your kit.

I'm now at the point I want to go back to the shop and buy some thicker wool and bigger needles, so I get to do the scarves and perfect my technique quicker.