Knit With Me : A Beginner's Guide to Seed Stitch

in #knitting7 years ago

I've been toying with the idea of doing knitting tutorials on Steemit for awhile now, and this morning a vision for them finally came together: Knit With Me, a series of posts showing off different techniques in knitting which will leave you prepared to create your own masterpieces!

I'll present a simple project in each post that you can follow along with at home, learning different aspects of knitting at your own pace. The first project series will be washcloths, as they are quick to knit up and employ all the basic techniques of a larger project. Today's project of a Seed Stitch Washcloth will highlight: cast on, knit, purl, and cast off.

Note: If you'd rather make a dishcloth, simply cast on 2-3 times the number of stitches to make a wider towel and knit extra rows until you get the size you like.

Second Note: These should be knit up in nice absorbent cotton yarn. As I only have wool in my stash at the moment, that's what I'll be using in my example.

Seed Stitch Washcloth


Seed Stitch is an effect created by combining knit and purl stitches side-by-side, so that every knit stitch is flanked by a purl stitch to each side, and each purl by knit stitches to either side. Before we dive into Seed Stitch, however, we must first Cast on.

Step 1: Knitted Cast-On



Please have pity on my chipped nail polish

Begin by casting on 26 stitches as shown in the video (if you have your own preferred cast-on method, feel free to use it!)
Note: Don't cast on the stitches too tightly. I still tend to do this and it makes knitting the first row a real pain, as you have to shove the needle into a tight cast-on stitch. You'll see my struggles in the second video.

Step 2: Work the Body of the Washcloth:



Row 1: [Knit 1, Purl 1] repeat to end of row
Row 2: [Purl 1, Knit 1] repeat to end of row
Repeat rows 1&2 until the cloth reaches the desired length. See Step 3 for finishing instructions

Step 3: Knitted Bind-Off


Follow the bind-off shown in the above video until you only have 1 stitch left on your needle. Cut the yarn, leaving 3-4 inches, pass end of yarn through loop and tighten.

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Thanks for reading my first ever Knit With Me post! If you have any questions or anything is unclear, please leave a comment below and I'll do my best to sort it out for you. Anything that made it difficult for you to follow along? Let me know and I'll start brainstorming ways to improve for the future. If you found this post helpful and worthy of your time, you can always show your support with a comment, upvote, or resteem. Until next time: Happy Knitting!

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Very good explainations and video quality! You have a nice voice and way to explain things. I look forward to your next tutorial!

Thank you @creative-life! I really appreciate all your support :)

Hey guys,
Thank you all for your support! I'm blown away by how well this post did. It's true that I spent a lot of time on it and had hoped that it would be helpful to and appreciated by the Steemit community, but I never expected quite so much love! Thank you @hendrikdegrote, @liberosist, @curie, @meerkat, @steem-id, @anwenbaumeister, @ausbitbank, @buttcoins, @hr1, @crystalize, @crosheille, @creative-life, @neumannsalva, @cryptocariad, @shanibeer, @elew, @walkerland, and everyone else! Looking forward to providing more quality content for you all soon!

Congratulations, it was well earned! I love seeing quality posts like this do well. :)

Congratulations!!!! Your voice is lovely and clear - perfect. And it so nice that you have chosen seed stitch, because I hope to publish next week a simple cardigan pattern, where you need seed stitch. I could link your video if you like?
So sad we don’t live near, I think it would be fun to make videos together (I like to film… but I am not so keen on filming me 😆)

Thank you @neumannsalva!! Yes feel free to link to this post if it's helpful! I'm excited to see your cardigan pattern--did you write it yourself? I'd like to learn more about designing patterns.

It would be so neat if we lived closer to each other. The filming obviously isn't my strong point 😂I think the videos were out of focus as often as they were in focus! And aside from that, knitting friends are always fun ☺

Yes it is my own pattern, but very simple and not graded. I haven't made nice photos to date, so I am unsure if I can post it on monday. And your tutorial will be very helpful :-D
I have some patterns on ravelry, but all for crochet :-D
If you are interested: https://www.ravelry.com/designers/simone-neumann-salva
💕💕

Thank you so much 💗 tutorials like this are so useful for beginners like me. I love to stitch along and I am definitely a visual learner. I look forward to seeing more 😀

I'm so happy to hear it helped! I did my best to make it as clear as possible, but it's obviously amateur at-home filming :). Thanks for the feedback, I'll be putting more up soon!

I actually like that it is at home filming. It makes it feel more authentic, like famiky sharing knowledge ❤

Look at you!!! First let me say Congratulations on such a Great response from the Steemit community!! Whooo Hooo!! You did such a good job on explaining what the seed stitch is and how to purl and knit! I love the name of your series...it’s very inviting! 😃

I’m really looking forward to taking some time to practice knitting and learning new techniques as such as these. You have also help to inspire me to get started on my beginner crochet series that I’ve been putting off. I haven’t made the time to learn how to work our new camera and I want to learn how to use DTube and post the videos correctly. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and skills! Keep up the great work!!! 🤗

Thank you! 😊😊

This is wonderful @colleenthruber!

Thank you @crystalize!

Very clear process @colleenthurber ! I enjoyed watching the video tutorials :)

Thanks @cryptocariad, I'm so happy you enjoyed them!

Lovely videos and easy to follow. I've found a UK yarn supplier for these King Cole

Oh good! I'll be doing more in the washcloth series featuring other stitches and techniques soon too! Glad you found a good supplier

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Perfect tuition!

Perfect execution!! I love the loop you added in there for hanging. Wow, I'm so excited to see that you made your washcloth, thank you for sharing!

Nice, thank you! I look forward to more :)

I'm glad you enjoyed it @elew!

It sent me down a rabbit hole and now I know I do some strange inverted long tail casting on, and Norwegian cast on...and opposite of most everyone, I hold the yarn in the right hand, the same as the working needle, and I have all the styles mixed together...but it works :)

I am sure I inverted some things being left handed and learning from my right handed grandmother...but I do alot of things inverted apparently.

I will be watching your videos though, because I might find some regular ways easier. :)

Nice post Colleen!

just watched this with the kids....they want to comment so i will type... percy says ' i liked it at the start because your knit was good and very neat'
amari
i liked the end, but i really liked all of it...i want to see colleen...why has she not talked to me in months...even less than grandma and grand dad talked to me."
haha...its fun commenting through kids