BiCrafty Bootcamp: Beginner Knitting Lessons for Crocheters || Start Here

Step-By-Step Instructions for Learning to Knit

with Bonus Tips for Crocheters Who Want to Become BiCrafty

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Welcome to a brand new knitting school for crocheters. This is a series of lessons in learning how to knit from the ground up. Of course, anyone can use these lessons to learn knitting. However, it’s particularly geared towards crocheters who are ready to pick up some needles and become bicrafty. These knitting lessons for crocheters build on what you already know about yarn to give you a jumpstart on learning how to knit.

Week-by-week we’ll work together to develop and build on foundational knitting skills, creating a sampler scarf as we go. You’ll get knitting lessons for crocheters, including video tutorials. Additionally, you’ll get tips, suggestions, and thoughts from the two Marly Bird team members who will learn to knit alongside you. All of the lessons will be free online – released here weekly with supplemental YouTube videos and biweekly live shares on social media. Therefore, you can work along with us or you can use this set of knitting lessons whenever you are ready. That said, we hope you’ll join us as we learn! It all starts here 3/31/21. SIGN UP FREE RIGHT NOW.

Finally, we’re excited to have teamed up with some of the best knitting names in the industry – Signature Needle Arts, Jimmy Beans Wool, ChiaoGoo, Prym and Erin.Lane Bags just to get us started. We can’t wait to show you all they have to offer you as you foray into the world of knitting.

Note: This post may contain affiliate links. If you click one then make a purchase, I get a percentage of the sale. Your price doesn’t change. Thank you for your support.

What Is The Knitting Lessons for Crocheters Series?

BiCrafty Bootcamp: Beginner Knitting Lessons for Crocheters is a series of lessons for learning how to knit from the ground up. However, it will also emphasize “tricks for crocheters” to help people who crochet learn to knit quickly. Here are some of the important details:

• Each week you’ll find a new blog post sharing the next step in learning how to knit. We’ll start from the ground up and build upon that foundation with new skills each week. (As you’ll see, each new blog post will be linked in the schedule at the end of this post.)
• The blog posts will also include video tutorials and written instructions for that week’s lessons in learning how to knit.
• Each post will also include special “crocheter’s edge” insights that will help enhance the knitting education for crocheters. This emphasizes how what you already know can help you in your knitting lessons for crocheters.
• The posts will also link to relevant Marly Bird patterns and tutorials for further expansion on the skills for that week’s lesson. If you want to take off on your own and expand your knitting skills, you’ll be able to do so.
• Once a month throughout this set of lessons (which will carry through Spring and Summer), we’ll add a blog post in which we check in with the team. Learn more about the team below.
• Moreover, two team members will share their journey of learning how to knit via social media live chats every other week on Facebook and/or Instagram. This will be time when you can stitch along with us, ask questions, and interact with the group.
• Together, we’ll create a stitch sampler scarf designed by Marly Bird specifically for this knitting school.

Meet the Team

Obviously, this is a Marly Bird project. I love being a bicrafty designer, bringing together the sometimes disparate worlds of knitting and crochet. I teach a wide variety of different classes in both crafts for varied skill levels. Many crocheters express the desire to learn how to knit; this is your chance.

Of course, even if you don’t know how to crochet, you can still use these knitting lessons for crocheters to learn how to knit. However, we’ll emphasize how crocheters can take the skills they already have and apply them to simplifying the process of learning to knit. To that end, we have two crocheters on the team who will learn to knit along with this series.

Meet Kathryn

Kathryn is this blog’s content director. Her particular niche is using crochet to heal through mental and physical health challenges. To that end you’ve seen some of her related posts on this site about crochet for healing. She’s the author of Crochet Saved My Life and Hook to Heal, among other titles. These books explore ways to use yarn crafting for healing.

She’s known for years and that knitting offers many of the same benefits as crochet but wants to see for herself how that works for her. Although she’s picked up knitting needles in the past, she’s a virtual beginner to the world of knitting. If you’ve never knit before, you’re in the same boat as Kathryn. You’ll work side-by-side on this journey to pick up the knitting lessons for crocheters. And you’ll get her insights into the healing benefits of knitting and crochet as you craft with her.

Meet Cryssi

Cryssi is my admin assistant who helps me with all of the behind-the-scenes logistics of running a bicrafty designer business. Here’s what she has to share about her participation in the BiCrafty Boot Camp: Beginner Knitting Lessons for Crocheters.

Beginning to Love Yarn at a Young Age

“My love of yarn really goes back to 1994, my 9^th birthday. That year, my great aunt gave me my first crocheted afghan. The colors, the texture, the comfort of snuggling under something made especially for me – it was something I instantly loved. I was always a creative child; I loved writing, drawing, painting, etc., and this seemed to be another outlet for that creativity. So, my great aunt began to teach me, and I mastered the chain stitch. I made chains upon chains and I would dangle them from the four corners of my canopy bed.  But, I was 9, and the next concepts of crochet were frustrating and I put down my hook. 

Rediscovering Crochet

Fast forward to 2009 when my now-husband took me home to meet his family for Thanksgiving and my now-mother-in-law encouraged me to pick my hook back up. She and my husband’s aunt spent many patient hours teaching me how to crochet granny squares. It took me almost 2 years to finish that first blanket, but when I did, I was “hooked”. I instantly ran out to buy more yarn to start a new blanket and have not put my hook down since.

I rarely go a single day without crocheting. It has been a comfort during some really hard days and the most amazing creative outlet I’ve ever had. In 2013, when my great aunt was really sick, she was housebound and decided to pick up her hook again after many years. It was a tremendous blessing for me to go to her house every Saturday for weeks and “re-teach” her how to crochet. When she died a few months later, her last project was left unfinished and I was able to finish it for her. What a beautiful circle of life moment that was for me. 

Ready to Knit

I have been interested in really learning to knit for years. I did learn how to knit and purl about 5 years ago, but I never actually made anything or developed those skills into anything. I’m really excited for this series and can’t wait to share my successes and big fat failures with you all.”

Cryssi and Kathryn will be going live on social media every other week starting April 1, 2021. You can join them for knitting and chatting about anything related to the BiCrafty Boot Camp: Knitting Lessons for Crocheters.

Meet Meg

Meg provides social media support and blog roundups here on the Marly Bird team. She is an experienced knitter and crocheter who has taught classes in the crafts. Her role in the Knitting Lessons for Crocheters series is as behind-the-scenes support. She’ll help Kathryn and Cryssi with their questions, show them tricks they already know as crocheters to improve their knitting, and help Marly answer their technical questions.

Each post also includes “knitters’ tips for crocheters” – hints for the times when crochet doesn’t exactly help you learn knitting. For example, in crochet, you can put down your work at any time and easily come back to it whenever you feel like it. Experienced knitters know that this is a bad idea in knitting because you are likely to drop stitches and make a big mess if you don’t finish off the row you’re on. Many of these tips throughout the series are coming directly from Meg.

BiCrafty Bootcamp Sponsors and Supplies

We’ve teamed up with some of the top names in the knitting world – Signature Needle Arts, ChiaoGoo, Jimmy Beans Wool, and Erin Lane Bags. We are so lucky to have this amazing support in developing this series of Knitting Lessons for Crocheters. And we can’t wait to show you all of the terrific tools that they have for knitters.

We’ll show you a variety of different options from each of these companies throughout the following lessons as you figure out which knitting supplies are the right ones for you. You’ll also want to check out our complete beginners guide to knitting needles. Our sponsors for the BiCrafty Boot Camp: Beginner Knitting Lessons for Crocheters include:

Signature Needle Arts

We will begin the series working with a knitting needles set from Signature Needle Arts. This company started when a knitter who also happened to be “President of Bothe Associates Inc., a family-owned precision machine shop, that makes custom metal components” got frustrated with her knitting needles. She wanted sharper points. So, she created them. And the Stiletto Point needle was born, becoming the signature of a brand that grew into many other tools. Signature Needle Arts also sells some brands of luxury yarn including Malabrigo, Sincere Sheep, and Dirty Water Dyeworks.

Check out our review of Signature Needle Arts.

ChiaoGoo

We will also introduce you to knitting needles sets from ChiaoGoo. They “offer a complete line of bamboo/wood or stainless steel Single Points, Double Points, Circulars” as well as crochet hooks. In fact, crocheters might already be familiar with the brand, particularly if they’ve ever delved into Tunisian crochet. This family-owned business is run by four brothers who were born and raised in Linan, China, known as the country’s Bamboo Capital. Their grandfather was a bamboo craftsman. Their mother was a knitter. Together, they came up with the inspired knitting needles sets as well as the ChiaoGoo name, given for Mom, which translates to “highly skillful and crafty lady.”

Check out our review of ChiaoGoo knitting needles.

Jimmy Beans Wool

You might already be familiar with Jimmy Beans Wool because of their yarn. In addition to the other yarn that they sell, they adopted the beautiful Madelinetosh brand in 2019. But they’re not just known for yarn; they’re known for all things knitting and many things crochet. They currently sell over 100 varieties of knitting needles and crochet hooks, with an emphasis on knitting. This family business started as a husband-and-wife project and has grown into a huge warehouse space, retail store, and online presence. Plus they offer the awesome Beans for Brains college scholarship. We will be using their SmartStix Interchangeables knitting needles set.

See our review of SmartStix Interchangeables.

Prym

Prym is a small business that offers knitting needles and crochet hooks. Their products have an ergonomic design, which is a great option for people with arthritis and other hand difficulties. The tips of their knitting needles have a unique teardrop shape that makes it easier to avoid splitting yarn, pick up your stitches comfortably, and keep those stitches on the needle. Cryssi is a big fan of this knitting needles set!

Check out our Prym knitting needles review.

Erin.Lane Bags

While you don’t need a lot of knitting needles to start with (check out our beginner knitters supply list), you know how these things go … the further along you get with your knitting lessons for crocheters, the more tools you’re naturally going to desire. Therefore, you’ll want to start off right away with a good organizational system. Erin.Lane offers some of our favorite knitting project bags. And this is another great family business.