Tutorial Tuesday: How to pick up and knit the right number of stitches.

(Note: I am writing this tutorial pretty quickly - Leo is demanding a lot of attention because of allergies. If you notice anything that I leave out, let me know!)

Sometimes a pattern will tell you to pick up and knit a certain number of stitches. Many a knitter has let out a string of four-letter words when trying to pick up exactly the right number of stitches. This little trick will help you pick up and knit the proper number of stitches evenly across your knitting.

Step One. Gather your materials


Besides the typical yarn and needles, you will also need a few safety pins. (I learned the trick of keeping them in an old Altoid container from Debbie Stoeller in Stitch and Bitch.)


Step Two. Place the first safety pin.


Let's pretend that you are asked to pick up and knit 40 stitches along the edge. In order to pick up and knit the stitches evenly, we'll divide the knitting into four equal sections and pick up and knit 10 stitches from each section. To place the first pin, you fold the knitting in half and place a pin at the halfway mark.

Step Three. Keep foldin' and pinnin'.


Fold each half in half and place another pin, for a total of four sections.

Step Four. Pick up and knit an equal number of stitches from each section.


You can do this with any number of stitches - just make sure you divide the number of stitches equally. (Example, if you need to pick up 100 stitches, do four sections of 25 each, or 10 sections of 10. It's all up to you!)

I will probably add more to this tutorial later - right now, Leo needs some love (and some Allegra!)