If I can do pearl and plain knitting and just about cast-on and cast-off

[twiglett]

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twiglett, I have a used book in excellent condition, a hardback and I think it is excellent and can be used as a text book. Sort of like one of those Reader's Digest Guide to sewing....all there.

Would you be interested in buying it? I can put it on ebay? Anyway, it has loads of stuff for babies, men and women. All the designs have instructions, illustrations and complete pictures. I would keep it but I have enough to do and I think if someone knows how to do it already, why should I bother as it will take me more time that I can be doing something else which I can do better.

Hello again! Yes - you can knit baby blankets - one of the things I've enjoyed about the flipping pregnancy! Just cast on 20 stitches and plain knit (every row) until you've got a square and then cast off. You need about 48 squares for a nice sized baby blanket - 6 x 8 squares. I knitted about 6 for ds and he's 2 now and still has a couple in his cot - they've all washed really well and I find it doesn't matter if the wool's not all the same sort. I did a few in 2 different colour squares and a couple with 3 colours in. If you know the sex you can pick the colours appropriately, but if not (we didn't) just whatever you fancy! The nice thing about knitting blankets this way is that the squares don't take very long - so you feel you're getting somewhere fast!

This time I'm just about to complete my 2nd, but baby can have a couple of ds's aswell!

Twiglett, you're right that all knitting is just variations of purl and plain, the trick is reading the pattern correctly and understanding what abbreviations like ktbl or k2tog mean. Do you have a wool shop near you? They would help you pick out a suitable pattern and talk you through it, and probably show you how to do the ktbl thing too! Perhaps a baby blanket of small patterned squares would be a good starting point? Good luck .

The Debbie Bliss books are brilliant for simple baby clothes, hats & blankets. I've knitted loads of stuff from her patterns.
www.debbiebliss.freeserve.co.uk/

Of course you can knit something, Twiglett! You've mastered the basics, the rest you'll pick up as you go along. There are some absolutely gorgeous books out there. Look at this and this and this !

16yo Dd wants to learn to knit in order to make herself some gloves. She's lefthanded and I'm not sure how to teach her or whether the gloves would come out back-to-front. It hurts my head to think about it, lol!

suedonim - my cousin had this problem -she is left handed and wanted to teach her right handed pupils to knit. She sat directly in front of them and told them to copy exactly what she was doing as if they were her mirror image.