The first term we learn in knitting is "to cast on stitches" ([Figure 256]). Select a pair of medium-sized wooden needles. Your worsted should be wound into a ball. "Casting on" is the foundation for the work. Take a knitting needle in each hand between the thumb and first finger. Make a loop of the worsted over the left-hand needle near the end. Put your right-hand needle through this loop under the left needle. Holding the needles in this position, throw the worsted around the point of the right-hand needle and draw the right-hand needle through the first loop. There is now a loop on each needle. Slip the last loop made over the left needle. * Both needles are in the one loop, the left on top of the right. Again throw the worsted over the point of the right-hand needle and draw the needle through with the loop on it. Slip this loop over the left-hand needle and repeat from *, till the number of stitches desired are cast on.
The * indicates from which point the directions are to be repeated.
The German method of knitting is to hold the work in the left hand and the worsted over the first finger, under the second and third and then over the little finger.
Fig. 257. Knitting (K)
To knit, the right-hand needle is in the first loop from the point of the other needle. * Throw the worsted over point of the right-hand needle and draw it through the loop. Slip the first stitch off the left needle and insert the right needle into the next stitch and repeat from *, till all the stitches have been transferred to the right-hand needle ([Figure 257]).
Remember to hold the work in the left hand when starting to knit each needle or row.
