Learning to knit...

Well, there are few ways to begin. Actually, there are good next steps, because your coming to this site was your first good step.

Some considerations first. What follows are suggestions for how to begin. We invite you to visit our forums and ask whatever questions you might have. You'll find the people that are there very willing to help out a novice knitter.

Starting with a project
I always suggest that you start small. Try knitting a sweater first. Okay, I'm kidding. Sweaters should be far down on your list. Seriously, I consider knitting a scarf to be the easiest thing to start with. You are basically knitting an extended block of fabric and what could be easier than that. After that, you can move on to hats and what have you. You can also experiment with different sizes and styles of yarn and needles to get some great results.

Supplies
Of course you're going to need supplies to knit (yarn and needles to begin with) and I highly recommend you visit our forums for that information. There are a number of local yarn shops (LYS) listed in the geographical section of our forums. There are also some good online yarn shops that you can visit if you're so inclined. The great thing about our forums is that nobody's paid for their comments and you can see what your fellow male knitters think about these establishments before you visit. Take advantage of their advice.

Okay, now that we've gotten that out of our way, there are a few concrete ways to get some instruction.

LEARNING BY BOOK | LEARNING ONLINE | LEARNING WITH A GROUP

1. Learning by Book:

You have to understand the distinction between books that teach knitting and pattern books. Some books do both. But we're just going to cover instructional books here. Again, visit the forums for any other suggestions.

Some good books to get started with:

Knitting for Dummies
by Pam Allen, Trisha Malcolm, Rich Tennant, Cheryl Fall

Basic and straight forward with some good descriptive images (which are VERY important for the starting knitter.

Knitter's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to the Principles
and Techniques of Handknitting by Montse Stanley

Very straightforward in approach with step-by-step directions and
detailed instructional illustrations. You couldn't ask for more
than that!

Learn to Knit by Penny Hill
This is a nifty book. With over 100 photographs it takes you step by step in learning how to knit.

Stitch 'n Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook by Debbie Stoller
Stoller's book is credited with starting the neo-knitting fad that we've all benefited from. There are Stitch and Bitch groups around the country and some are men-friendly (not ALL, mind you, but some). Stoller's book has an easy to follow style of teaching knitting. Unfortunately she throws in some stupid and unneccesary male bashing and seems pretty stubbornly ignorant about the history of knitting (for a primer on this subject, visit the history page). But if you can hang with all that,
the instructional stuff is pretty good for the novice knitter.

2. Learning Online:

As with everything else, the internet has revolutionized the ability to learn craft. Knitting is no exception. Here are a few free sites with good instructional information. It won't cover everything, but in some cases some include small movies that show you how to cast on, knit and purl.
Pretty cool, huh?

Some good links to for instructional knitting:

Learn to Knit
Very well laid out and

KnitHelp.com
Another great site. They have small animations and teach both continental and english style (there a few different styles of knitting -- you can try a few out and find what works best for you). Note: in order to play these you'll need some kind of player like Media Player, Quicktime, or Real Player. The site includes links to downloading these if you don't have it.

3. Visit a local group!

I can't recommend this enough. Learning with people is the preferable way because its interactive and realtime and you can ask all the questions you might have. Of course this may not be an option where you live. Check out our groups page to see if there's a group near you. Also, check out our online forums. There are listings of shops by geographical area. Calling a shop is a good way to connect up with other friendly knitters. Consider starting a group near you. This may sound like a huge thing to take on, but its surprisingly simple. You can use this site as a way to get the word out and its basically setting up a time to meet at a coffee shop and knit together. Very laid back actually and a good way to build community when we really need it. For more help or suggestions for starting a group, check out our forum board. There's a good piece there about the whole thing. Or email us for more information and helpful hints on starting a MenKnit group near you.

We love your feedback. Let us know how these suggestions worked. Or if you know of something to add to this page email us.

Our logo and roving artwork on the MenKnit website is based on the work of Grafton Fibers.
We invite you to visit their website to see their amazing fiberwork and needles
at www.graftonfibers.com