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Lesson 4: Getting Started

Your Turn

The goal: Get started knitting and explore how tension changes affect your fabric.

Set up the machine

  1. Practice threading your machine, securing the yarn tail in the yarn clip on the mast.
  2. Confirm the carriage levers are set to plain knitting.
  3. Set the carriage and mast tension to 5.

Select needles and prepare to knit

  1. Put 50 needles in work, 25 left and 25 right, in B-C or D position.
  2. Pass the carriage back and forth with no yarn.
  3. Notice that the needles are all now in B working position.
  4. Push all the needles to A, out of work position.
  5. Using your 1x1 needle pusher, pull every other needle into work, B-C or D position, about 25 needles. 00:15

Cast on and knit

  1. Thread the carriage, number 1 front slot. 00:35
  2. Position the carriage on the right.
  3. Hold the yarn tail with one hand and pass the carriage from right to left. Only the needles that were in work will knit.
  4. Secure the yarn tail with a clip or clothespin. 00:43
  5. Hang the cast-on comb in the loops. Catch every one. 01:08
  6. Put the out-of-work A needles into working position. 01:38
  7. Knit back.

Change the tension

  1. Knit 10 rows at the current tension. 01:49
  2. Loosen the carriage tension by 1 number.
  3. Knit 10 rows.
  4. Repeat until the carriage tension is at 9.
  5. Knit a few more rows.

Finish and compare

  1. Remove the yarn from the carriage yarn feeder. Pass the carriage across the knitting and drop the work from the machine.
  2. Compare the different tensions. Which tension do you prefer for your yarn?
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