Before you run out and get a lot of knitting tools, and learn a lot of techniques, choose a pattern. The pattern itself will tell you what you need to learn and what tools to buy.

Table of Contents

Choose a Pattern

The absolute simplest pattern on Ravelry is Garter Squish by Stephen West. You only need to know how to cast on, bind off, knit, and create an i-cord edge. In the end you will have a squishy blanket. What if you would rather have a squishy scarf? Not to worry, just make your blanket smaller or use finer yarn with a smaller needle.

Download the pattern

The Garter Squish pattern is available for free from Ravelry. Look for the free Ravelry download link on the pattern page.

Understand the pattern

Reading through the Garter Squish pattern will give you skills to read and understand other patterns. Most patterns will have a similar format.

Finished measurements

The FINISHED MEASUREMENTS section in the pattern gives the expected dimensions of the blanket if you knit with the specified yarn and needles. Finished measurements are 48 inches wide (4 feet) and 66 inches long (5 ¹⁄₂ feet). This is large enough for a lap blanket on a cold winter night.

Needles and notions

The NEEDLES AND NOTIONS section gives a list of all the tools you will need to complete the blanket.

Gauge and yarn

The GAUGE and YARN sections in the pattern gives you the number of stitches and rows in a 4 inch square. Most patterns use a 4 inch square for the gauge since this is easily converted to a 10 cm square for metric measurements.

Stephen West expects you to use yarn you already have. Therefore he gives a long list of yarn worsted weight yarn that are all soft and squishy.

Worsted symbol
	Worsted weight yarn is a common name for weight 4 yarn. Your yarn will either say worsted, afgan, aran, medium. It might have this symbol on the yarn package.

The missing legend

Most yarn patterns will have a legend to describe what the knitting symbols mean. Since this is such a simple pattern the legend is missing. Most patterns assume you have knit before and therefore skip the description of the most common knitting symbols.

Don’t worry, you can use this handy translation for the knitting shorthand in the pattern:

• CO 126 means cast on 126 stitches. I will give instructions on how to cast on below.
• K123 means knit 123 stitches. It is easier to remember to knit until you are 3 stitches from the end. That way you don’t have to count stitches.
• sl3 wyif means slip 3 stitches with yarn in front. This forms the i-cord edge. I will give instructions on the i-cord edge below.
• BO means bind off stitches. I will give instructions on how to bind off below.
• k2tog tbl means knit 2 together through the back needle.

Here is the official standard for knitting abbreviations.

Look for pattern supplies and tools.

You only need 3 things to knit Garter Squish.

1. 32” US 15 [10 mm] circular needle
2. tapestry needle
3. 3,240yds [2,963m] of yarn

Whoa - that sounds like a lot of yarn - how much will this cost? ¹

Depending on the exact mix of yarn, the blanket will use between 6 skeins and 33 skeins. The blanket will cost between $\$186$ and $\$1250$ and yarn alone. The least expensive yarn per yard is Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted. You can easily knit the entire blanket in Malabrigo for $186 and it will still be soft and squishy.

How about turning the blanket into a scarf?

Your first ravelry project should be a quick project that does not break the bank. How about turning the soft squishy blanket into a soft squishy scarf? The scarf can be as narrow as 4 inches wide and you can knit it until you run out of yarn.

Change the instructions in order to convert the blanket into a scarf. The finished blanked is 4 feet wide and 5 ¹⁄₂ feet long. Where the blanket instructions say to CO 126 sts, the scarf instructions would tell you to cast on 24 stitches. When you are knitting a row, knit to 3 stitches before the end of the row and knit the i-cord.

You can then buy 2 skeins of super soft Marino wool and your first project will cost less than $24 in yarn.

Skills needed to knit Garter Squish

Cast on

Garter Squish instructions don’t specify a specific cast on. You can choose any kind of cast on if you are already familiar with a technique.

A common cast on is the long tail cast on. However the long tail cast on is not as stretchy as the bind off. Here is a variation of the long tail cast on that gives extra stretch.

Here are instructions for the original long tail cast on.

Knit

A garter stitch is worked in knit stitch on both the front and back. This creates a wave of purl bumps on both sides of Garter Squish making it soft, elastic, and squishy. The garter stitch is the easiest stitch to learn since you only have to knit.

The Garter Squish is knit flat on circular needles. This means you knit to the end of the front of Garter Squish and turn it over. Then you knit the back of the Garter Squish and turn it over again.

The first video shows English or American Style garter stitch. For English Style, you hold the yarn in your right hand and “throw” the yarn around the working needle. English Style knitting is often called throwing.

Many modern knitters are learning Continental or German Style. For Contental Style, you hold the yarn in your left hand and “pick” the yarn with the working needle. Continental Style knitting is often called picking.

It doesn’t matter which style of knitting you use for your first project since the yarn will end up identically on the needle. Often lessons on youtube alternate between picking and throwing so it is good to know both techniques. You will also need to know both techniques in a later lesson when we get into stranded knitting.

I-Cord Edge

Garter Squish has an i-cord edge which creates a decorative purposefully rolled edge.

The instructions tell you to knit across Garter Squish until you are 3 stitches from the edge.

Then you move the yarn to the front through the two needles. Then slip 3 remaining stitches from the holding needle to the working needle without knitting.

You turn Garter Squish over to work the other side.

Bind off

Garter Squish has a specific kind of bind off. Knit 2 Together through the back loop and then slip back to the left needle.

Math stuff

Skip over this section if you don’t like math.

For a rectangular project I don’t make a gauge swatch since I can measure Garter Squish while I am knitting it to verify that it will come out to the approximate final dimensions.

As soon as your project is large enough, measure the stitches and rows in a 4 inch square.

$$final Width=48\frac{11}{measured Stitches}$$ $$final Length=66\frac{18}{measured Rows}$$

You can also use information about gauge, finished measurements, yarn yardage, CO stitches, and total rows to reduce the amount of yarn the project will use.

You need 3,240 yards of yarn to knit the full blanket. If you only have 2 skeins of yarn for a total of 400 yards then you will need to turn the blanket into a scarf.

If you want to keep the original 5 ¹⁄₂ foot length then the new width is

$$max Width=48\frac{yards}{3,240}$$

If you reduce the length by half then you can cast on twice as many stitches.

You can make the scarf any desired width. You can easliy make a 4 inch, 6 inch or 8 inch wide scarf.

$$max Length=66\frac{48}{desired Width}\frac{yards}{3,240}$$

If you make these adjustments then you will also need to adjust the number of stitches and rows in the final blanket.

$$cast On Stitches=126\frac{desired Width}{48}$$

$$total Rows=282\frac{desired Length}{66}$$