What then is a good beginners project?

There have been some requests for suggestions for easy patterns to start of with, for people who have either not knit in many years, or never at all. First of all there are some criterion;

q A project that is not too big (because it is always nice with some more or less instant gratification)
q Not too many different stitches. In the beginning it is hard enough to just hold the needles and thread and count stitches and have even tension and… I think you see where I am going with this. And if you take on too advanced a project it’s rather probable that you’ll fail one way or another.
q Nothing too fancy. There is no point in investing too much when you just start out knitting, before you know that you like it just start of with some inexpensive yarn and needles.
q Something useful. It’s no fun knitting something that can’t be used. It just feels… pointless I guess.

So what kind of projects fit into this then? I’d say a washcloth is probably the perfect thing to start with. You can use it every day, it doesn’t matter that it doesn’t look that even, and it is rather small so it will be knit up quickly. You can also do a lot of washcloths using different techniques; it doesn’t matter if the patterns don’t match each other. Another good project is a scarf. It is getting cold outside so it will be useful. It might not look that even to begin with, but after a while you can see the gradual process from beginner stitches to the even stitch of an experienced knitter. The downside of a scarf is that it takes absolutely forever to knit, and it is boring to just use the same stitch over, and over, and over again.

What you need: Needles, yarn and patience. The yarn packet will tell you what size of needles that you need to have for that yarn. There is also a specification showing how many stitches that goes into 10 cm of knitting (rows and columns) For an easy project I would pick a yarn having approximately 20*30 stitches. If the yarn is much thicker or thinner than that, it is kind of a hassle to work with. I’d recommend a smooth non-hairy yarn as well in a light colour so that you can actually see what you are doing!

The most simple of wash cloths would be just knitting. Begin with maybe 40 stitches. Continue to knit until you have a square. After that you could do another one where every second row is knit, every second is purled. After that you could do a ribbed on (every second stitch purled, every second knit) And so on.

I have to say though that I think that if you have the persistency for it, a pair of mittens is rather ideal as a second or third project. It is something very useful, and you don’t have to know a billion stitches to do them (actually just 3 at the minimum) They are rather quick, and more importantly: it feels like such an achievement to do them.

Now you may ask me: “so; I have the yarn, I have the needles. What I don’t have is the knowledge about how to do the stitches. Please oh please can you explain how to do them?” And my reply would be: “I’m always happy to help. But… I think the better method would be for you to look at some videos that show how to do it as well! Sometimes it is just more relaxing to look in your own quiet quarters without feeling stressed, just taking your time following someone else’s lead. Of course I can help you as well though!” And luckily for both of us, there is an excellent webpage showing just that!
And where can yarn and needles be found then in this large city? After a quick yellow pages search, these were the stores I came up with:

Tjorven
Elna
Strikkedilla
Addresses to the places in Oslo selling yarn, but that don’t have their own webpages