You may learn how to knit intricate intarsia before you ever attempt a basic cable. This is okay. These skill levels are guidelines meant to help you find tutorials easily or understand the difficulty of a pattern. While you can use the skill level as a basic gauge, read through the pattern for a better understanding of where your skill lies.
This basic skill level guide is based on the guide from yarnstandards.com which is (or is similar to) the guide used by many magazines, books, websites, and patterns and you can use it to help determine what you are very good at and what you need to work on to reach the next level.
Beginner Knitting Techniques
If you are brand new to knitting you will start here. You will generally need to know how to complete the following:
- Casting on
- Casting off
- Knitting
- Purling
- Increasing stitches
- Decreasing stitches
Advanced Beginner (or Easy) Knitting Techniques
If you have mastered knitting and purling and you are ready to try something a little more complicated, you may be ready to add some of these techniques to your skill base:
- Basic stitches (i.e. K2tog – knit 2 together)
- Repetitive stitch patterns (i.e. seed stitch)
- Simple color changes (i.e. striping)
- Simple shaping
- Basic Finishing (i.e. weaving in ends)
- Blocking your project
Intermediate Knitter
You have been knitting for a while and want to start experimenting more with knitting “in-the-round”, color, bobbles, cables and lace. Intermediate patterns often include the following techniques:
- Using double-pointed and “round” needles
- “Magic Loop” (using one really long round needle to work on a small project)
- Simple color-work (intarsia)
- Mid-level shaping (i.e. armholes)
- Mid-level finishing (i.e. stitching two pieces together)
- Simple lacework
- Basic cables
- Bobbles
Experienced Knitter
When you have learned the basics of everything and you want to try your hands at a challenging piece of work, you’ll be ready to try a pattern with the following:
- Advanced color-work (intarsia and fair isle with several color changes)
- Advanced lacework
- Cables
- Advanced techniques (i.e. knitting short rows)
