1. Finger Knitting

Knitting involves maneuvering two needles at once and wrapping yarn in seemingly arbitrary ways-- which can be very frustrating until you get into the flow! So, let's start here with kid-friendly finger knitting to familiarize yourself with your tools: your yarn + your hands.

Supplies:

  • bulky yarn
  • *or use a few strands of thinner yarn together

Step 1: Casting On

  1. Hold your hand in front of you with your palm face up
  2. Leaving a short tail (3-5") behind, weave your yarn between your fingers by starting at your index & looping back at your pinky

Step 2: Knitting

  1. Wrap the yarn from the back of your hand to around the front of your hand
  2. Lift the loop on your pink over the yarn and your pinky finger, so that a new loop is formed by the yarn. Continue with your other fingers
  3. Repeat wrapping around your hand + replacing loops 3 times. Do not worry if it starts to get crowded by your fingers, after the third time, pull the tail until there is space by your fingers again
  4. Continue wrapping + replacing loops + pulling your tail every few rounds
  5. A chain will start to form. If you do not see the chain, pull the tail more tautly
  6. Continue the chain until you reach the desired length for your project

Step 3: Casting Off

***if you do not want to keep your chain, you can now remove your loops from your fingers, unravel your chain, and rewrap into your ball of yarn***

  1. Cut your yarn with about 15" left over for finishing your chain
  2. Wrap the yarn around your hand and replace the loop of your pinky with the new yarn as you did before
  3. Pull the new loop until the whole piece of your yarn comes out (now there is no loop on your pinky)
  4. Repeat for your other fingers
  5. Now you should have all four loops linked together with your yarn. Tie a knot with the yarn to secure that the loops do not fall off

Project Ideas:

  • Save the chain to use as super bulky yarn in a future project
  • Coil around & hand stitch to create a pillow or cushion
  • Use as decorative garland at a party
  • Brain multiple chains together for a skinny scarf
Cecilia Lewis