When it comes to knitting or crocheting, one of the most crucial ties or knots you need to learn is doing a slip knot. For beginners, it can be an unfamiliar word but you need to learn and hone your skills in knitting.
In this article, we will provide a simple step by step guide on how to properly do a slip knot. Here’s the instructions below that you can follow:
Making a Slip Knot – A Step by Step Guide
- Create a circle with your yarn
For a test try, grab a 6-inch yarn that you can practice with. Then lay it onto the table and take the other end of the yarn and intersect it to the other by creating a circle.
- Create the loop
The circle you created with your yarn earlier is the loop. Now slowly take the loop with your fingers and slide your index finger together with your thumb inside. You need to pull the other end of the yarn and go through the loop.
- Locking the loop
You will need to hold the loop on top while slowly pulling through the other end of the yarn to lock the loop. You should be seeing a bigger knot by now after pulling the end of the yarn.
- Inserting the knitting needle
Then, you need to insert the knitting needle in the loop. Pull the ends of the loop and tighten it onto the needle making sure it’s secure. There you have it, you got your first slip knot to jump start your knitting process.
Other Ways You Can Try To Making a Slip Knot
Technique # 2
- Make a loop from the yarn
First, lay the yarn onto a flat surface. Then access the middle part of the yarn and raise it up a little bit, twisting it to form it like a circle or a loop. Make sure that the yarn is able to cross over the other.
- Support the yarn with two fingers
With the use of your two fingers, mainly index finger and thumb, have it go inside the loop and stretch it out. It’s like you’re expanding the loop by flexing your fingers outwards. Then the rest of your fingers should be supporting the rest of the yarn tails so it retains its form while expanding the yarn.
- Snatch the other end of the yarn tail
Whichever direction you’re going depending if you’re a leftie or not, you would need to drop the loop on one of the yarn tails. As soon as you drop the loop, pull out the yarn tail slowly while your other hand supports the opposite tail.
- Lock the knot
Then pull the yarn tail all the way down to partially lock the knot. Be sure to provide extra space in the loop where you will insert the knitting needle. Make sure to hold the top of the loop while the other hand is pulling the yarn tail to ensure that it will be locked.
- Set up the knot in the knitting needle
Grab your knitting needle and have it inserted inside the loop, open up the loop with your fingers and use the other hand to insert the needle. Then lay the needle on the surface and use your two hands to grab the two tails to lock the yarn onto the needle. Make sure it’s tight enough to use for crocheting later.
Technique #3
- Create the first loop
You can follow the same steps from the previous ones when creating the first loop. After that, be sure that the other hand is holding the first loop securely before proceeding to the next step.
- Creating the second loop
Beside the first loop, you need to create a second one and secure the loop with your other hand. Both loops should be identical in size and not too distant from each other.
- Inserting the loops with each other
This technique is making a loop inside the loop. To do this, you need to grab the second loop and insert it inside the first loop. Be quick to hold each loop upon inserting it, it’s like switching both places.
- Lock the loop
Locking the loop for this technique is the same process. All you need to do is to pull the tail of the yarn downwards until it’s locking halfway. Then insert the knitting needle inside the loop and lock it all the way so you can start knitting.
There you have it rookie knitters! You have at least three choices to choose from on how to make your slip knot. Feel free to pick whichever works best or you’re comfortable to work with. Be careful to not have it tangled altogether.