5 tips for beginner knitters

It's normal to feel confused and a bit overwhelmed at the beginning of your knitting journey. There's a lot of vocabulary, a lot of opinions, and a lot of ways to end up with something you don't want to wear.

Here are five tips that make the first project go well. Not "be patient" and "believe in yourself", but the practical things: what to knit, what to buy, and what to do when a stitch drops.

1. Start with something small that you'll actually wear

Two things matter here, and most advice only gets one of them right.

Small means you finish it. A first project that takes three months is a first project you abandon in week five.

Something you'll wear means you stay motivated. A practice swatch the size of a dishcloth teaches you the stitches, but nobody ever pulled one on to go out.

A beanie hits both. It's a few evenings' work, it's forgiving, and you'll put it on the day it's finished. A cowl works the same way. Both teach you knit, purl and working in the round, which is most of what you need for a sweater later.

Small, quick, and something you'll actually put on. That's the whole brief for a first project.

A beanie also gives you three techniques you'll use in everything you knit afterwards: casting on, 1x1 ribbing for the brim, and decreasing with two stitches knitted together to shape the top. Every technique in the pattern comes with a video, linked at the exact step where you need it, so you never have to work out which one to use where.

Browse our beanie and scarf patterns, or design your own in the design tool.

When you're ready for a sweater, our Newbie collection is built for exactly this moment. More on that further down.

2. Buy yarn you can actually see

The most common beginner mistake is starting with thin yarn in a dark color. The stitches are tiny and the shadows swallow them, so you can't tell what went wrong, so you can't fix it.

Start at the chunky end instead. A yarn that knits at roughly 14 to 17 stitches per 10 cm on 5 to 6 mm needles is ideal: the stitches are big enough to read, and the project grows fast enough to keep you going.

Three we'd happily put in a beginner's hands:

A fluffy yarn like Fuzzy Mohair has a hidden advantage: the halo blurs the stitches together, so uneven tension simply doesn't show. That's exactly what you want on a first project. The trade-off is that fuzzy yarn is harder to unravel if you need to go back a few rows, so count as you go and keep the color light.

Speaking of which: pick a color that makes you want to knit, but keep it pale. Beige, dusty pink, pale blue, soft grey. Save the black yarn for when you can knit without looking.

For needles: circular needles rather than straight ones, even for flat knitting. The weight of the project rests in your lap instead of on your wrists, and you'll need them for anything knitted in the round anyway. One pair in the size your yarn calls for, and one pair a size down for ribbing.

Browse all the yarns here, or read our favorite yarn combinations when you want to hold two strands together.

3. Learn two stitches, and nothing else yet

Knit and purl. That's it. Nearly everything else in knitting is those two stitches in a different order.

All knit stitches in the round gives you stockinette, the smooth side you see on most sweaters. Alternating one knit and one purl gives you 1x1 ribbing, the stretchy edge on cuffs and necklines. Two and two gives you 2x2 ribbing, a slightly chunkier version of the same thing.

The same two stitches, in three different orders. Smooth stockinette on the left, 1x1 ribbing in the middle, 2x2 on the right.

Once those two feel automatic, everything else is an addition rather than a new skill. Resist the urge to put a cable, a colorwork yoke and a v-neck into your first project. Add one new thing per project and you'll never have a bad evening.

Every Dreamknit design shows a difficulty level from 1 to 5 before you commit, so you can see what you're taking on. Stay on level 1 or 2 to begin with.

You can see the level before you start. We break down what raises it in our guide to what decides a design's difficulty level.

4. Knit a swatch, even though you don't want to

Everyone skips this. Everyone regrets it.

Your gauge is how many stitches you get across 10 cm. It depends on your hands, not just your yarn, and two people knitting the same yarn on the same needles can land several stitches apart. If the pattern expects 17 stitches and you knit 15, a sweater that should measure 100 cm around comes out at 113.

Measure over 10 cm in the middle of the swatch. This one gives 13 stitches per 10 cm.

Ten minutes now saves you a finished garment that fits someone else. Our guide to gauge swatching shows you how to knit, wash and measure one properly. The swatch also tells you whether you like the fabric before you commit ten evenings to it.

5. Learn the three fixes before you need them

Mistakes aren't a sign you're bad at this. They're the job. What helps is knowing the handful of repairs that cover almost everything:

• A dropped stitch. One stitch slips off and runs down a few rows, leaving a ladder. A crochet hook pulls it back up, one rung at a time. It looks like a disaster and takes two minutes.
• An extra stitch. Usually a yarn over by accident, often at the start of a row. Count your stitches at the end of every round or two and you'll catch it before it becomes a hole.
• Ripping back. Pulling out rows feels like losing work. It isn't. You keep the yarn and the hours you spent learning, and you lose only the rows.

When you're stuck, watch rather than read. Every pattern from our design tool has a video for each technique, built into the PDF right at the step where you need it.

And if you're properly stuck, message us at hello@dreamknit.no or on Instagram. We answer, and we like the questions.

What to knit first: the Newbie collection

When the beanie is done and you want a sweater, this is where to go. We made the Newbie collection after watching too many people give up halfway through a first jumper, and every choice in it exists to stop that happening.

These aren't our normal patterns with the hard bits taken out. They're written from scratch for someone who hasn't done this before, with extra illustrations and fuller explanations at every step, so nothing is left for you to guess at.

Three designs, all level 1:

What makes them beginner patterns rather than just easy ones:

• Written for beginners from the start. Extra illustrations and extra explanation all the way through, on top of the step-by-step text every Dreamknit pattern gets.
• Chunky yarn, big needles. They're written for a thick mohair blend, so a whole sweater is weeks rather than months.
• Stockinette and ribbing only. The two stitches from tip 3, and nothing else to learn mid-project.
• Dropped shoulders and no shaping to speak of. Nothing to measure against your body while you're still working out how to hold the needles.
• Plain language, no abbreviations. Every technique has a video at the step where you need it, so you never have to go hunting.
• Worked top down and seamless. You can try it on as you go, and there's no sewing up at the end.

See the whole Newbie collection.

You can also browse every level 1 pattern here. Or design your own from the start: pick a beanie, choose your yarn, and our knitting pattern generator writes the pattern around your choices in seconds. There's a step-by-step guide to that here.

Frequently asked questions

What should I knit as my very first project?

A beanie or a cowl. Small enough to finish, useful enough to wear, and they teach you knit, purl and knitting in the round.

What yarn and needles should a beginner buy?

A chunky yarn at roughly 14 to 17 stitches per 10 cm, in a light color, on 5 to 6 mm circular needles. Drops Air, Hip Wool and Fuzzy Mohair all sit in that range. Add a pair one size down for ribbing.

Do I really have to knit a swatch?

For a hat, you can get away with it. For anything that has to fit, yes. Your hands decide your gauge, and your gauge decides the measurements.

How long does a first sweater take?

In a chunky yarn, a few weeks of evenings. In a fine yarn held with mohair, considerably longer. That difference is a good reason to start chunky.

How do I fix a dropped stitch?

Catch the loose stitch with a crochet hook and pull it back up through each ladder rung until it reaches the top, then put it back on the needle.

Can I use a different yarn than the pattern says?

Yes, as long as you match the gauge. Our guide to yarn substitutes shows you how to find one, and patterns from our design tool are calculated for whichever yarn you choose.

Everyone's first project is wonky somewhere. Ours were. Cast on anyway 🩵