Can you teach yourself to knit just from a book?

It is something I have wanted to do for years. As a youngster I learnt stocking stitch, but that was all, not how to cast on/off or do patterns. I don't know anyone who knits who could teach me.

I'm sure you probably can...I decided I wanted to be able to crochet so I bought a book ages ago. It sat there for a while but two weeks ago and picked it up and practiced and practiced and now I'm making a wee cardigan for my daughter i must say I'm just a wee bit proud of myself [][]

Another thing that I did was look on youtube at a couple of different downloads when I couldn't quite get to grips with some parts.

I'm sure you'll pick up knitting the same way - my biggest issue has always been getting the tension correct.

Good luck and let us know how you get along

you should be proud. I bought a kit to make a small beaded talisman neck bag a while back. It said it came with the instructions, but the instructions assumed you knew how to knit to begin with.

My mother taught me to knit in about 30 minutes of her effort when I was about five. I knitted slowly and tightly for a while, but gave up quite soon. As an adult I tried again, but could never get my tension right.

Then I watched a woman who knitted with the other end of the right needle held in her armpit, which allowed her to wrap the wool around her hand in the "proper" manner, which controlled the tension. I watched and tried, then got a book out on casting on and some of the stitches I needed for a pattern I found and promptly knitted a jersey - fast! My tension is perfect, my stitches are fast, except when I need to do tricky things and if I'm just doing stocking stitch or something easily repetitive, I hardly need look at the needles. I now find knitting tremendously pleasurable and do it quite often. Most of what I know now I learnt from one photocopy of a book I found somewhere years ago, which has great line drawings of yarn and stitches and how to form them.

I can't knit on short needles, so can't do socks and things on four, or anything tricky like that, but I can knit a gorgeous 3-ply shawl!

Go for it!

I learnt to knit from You Tube about a year ago. Loved it and it was easy

I think if you were starting out, it would be lovely to get some help from other people as it can help tremendously.
Go to an old folks home if you dont know anyone who can knit, or find a craft group where there will be people who knit.
A good way of starting is perhaps to use the round needles. Have you seen them? They make a continuous round and you only need to do plain knitting but one side comes out pearl and the other plain. Its easiest just to start with plain first. I also find metal needles easier to use than plastic as they slide more easily but all that might be personal preference
I think being taught by someone would be far easier than from a book

I got Knitty Gritty by Aneeta Patel to remind me how to knit (I orignially learnt as a child), it was good for me. One great tip was to buy massive wool and needles to make it less fiddly when you are starting out (and to make a nice thick scarf!)

Another book I have been gifted is Stitch 'n Bitch Handbook by Debbie Stoller - it's a great resource for more advanced techniques.

Youtube is brilliant though, and I'm sure would be a subsititute for both books there are also lots of the videos on http://www.knittinghelp.com are great.

To whet your appetite take a look on Ravelry.com for patterns and information. I spend hours browsing on there when I ought to be working!
Happy knitting!!

Ask at your wool shop as they often have classes or groups who knit. And you will meet others who knit too!I also found youtube a great help when learning to knit on a circular needle. I wouldn't recommend learning on one though.

Love Ravelry

thanks guys. I might give it a go. Macrame is also another skill I would love to be able to do, though I don't think there are many people doing this. I would love to make one of those whacky 70s waistcoats.