Hi, I'm newwwwww!!!

[blinkymakesit]

Hellooow. My name is Chels and I'm new to the community, and to knitting, but certainly not to Harry Potter. Anyway, I just have some questions I hope you guys can help me with.

I decided as my first project to do the Gryffindor POA Scarf from the atypically.knit pattern. Here's some of my questions:

1. I couldn't find any circular 16" needles with

Comments

[onelittlevoice]

hey chels. knitting in the round is kind of a big first step. like i've been knitting for a while, and getting the loop to join up is still tricky for me. but if you've got it, then good for you.

I think I'm doing my POA scarf on circular 10's so you should be good. I'm looking at it, I just don't have my gauge checker on me. But yeah, it looks like a 10. 8's will be tiny and take forever to finish....and 29" will stretch it out like crazy. The 10's should be totally fine.

casting off a circular needle is just like casting off a regular straight needle. don't pull it off lol the fabric will do just as you said--fall totally apart.

if you know ANYONE that knits, just have them show you a knit and a purl. and maybe casting on/off. thats all you need to know. you can pretty much figure out the rest.

a really great book to look at for learning knitting is "stitch and bitch" or "stitch and bitch nation". lots of good starter patterns--even some hats :)

[fadingembers]

How are you casting off? If everything falls apart, it sounds like one of your stitches is still "alive". You shouldn't be "pulling it off the needles" persay, and binding off on circulars should work the same as straights (knit 2, *slip first stitch over second, knit 1; repeat until one live stitch is left). If you need visuals, Knitting Help has a couple different ways of binding off, with accompanying video, so you can find a method you like best.

As for free patterns, Knittingpatterncentral.com is your friend. Admittedly, they just have links and don't rate on a scale of basic to advanced, but you can eye the patterns and see if they're within your comfort zone.

[broadwaystar6]

Wow. I was going to post both of these! Well done!

[cairadawn]

The POA Scarf is my first project and I thought it was going to be really hard. Boy was I wrong. Once I got past the idea that I was not going to be making wash cloths any more and that it is not going to be straight I was fine. I guess the only thing that helped me was that is that I have treated it just like I was working on straight needles...I was (and still am)so new at this that I did not know what NOT to do so I was fine. If you want someone to commiserate with just let me know. I am almost finished with my Ravenclaw scarf, and once I get it finished I am going to start a Gryffindor one for my mother!

[toastess]

i started mine on 10 circs and it ended up really wide if you follow the pattern. you might need to start with fewer cast on stitches, otherwise you might end up like me... frogging 4 trapped bars of a scarf that is 16 inches wide O_O

[contrarier]

seems like everyone's posted all the right places to visit for your questions, so all I have to say is- Welcome to the community!