Knitting is one of the two most common Yarn Crafts, most often used to create garments, whereas Crochet is more common for accessories, outwear, and stuffed toys. (Read more about Knitting vs Crochet.)
Knitting can also be done by machine, although the tools and process are quite different than hand knitting. See Machine Knitting.
Supplies
All you need to get started is one pair of knitting needles and some yarn, and probably some stitch markers. The complicated part is that the thickness of the yarn determines the size of the knitting needles you should use. (This is often written on the packaging of the yarn, and knitting patterns will tell you.) Knitting needles are usually wood or metal; you may want to try both to see whether you prefer the grippiness of wood or the slippiness of metal. All the knitting stitches stay on the knitting needle, so for a large project, you’ll end up with a lot of stitches and may want to use circular knitting needles — needles with a cable between them. (I knit everything on circular needles because I like being able to push the stitches onto the cable when I put the work down, to make it less likely they’ll slip off the needle.) A single pair of knitting needles can cost $6-$15, and over time you’ll probably end up buying many different sizes. Yarn can vary wildly, from under $5 for a giant ball of acrylic yarn to $30+ for a relatively small skein of hand-dyed natural fiber (e.g. wool, alpaca, etc.)
Resources & Tutorials
- Nimble Needles Knitting Stitch Tutorial includes pictures and step-by-step instructions for doing different knitting stitches
- Knitting Fool Stitches - less beginner-friendly, with fewer images, and gives instructions in tabular form using knitting jargon abbreviations. It does have a wealth of mathematical information about the different stitches that might be helpful when thinking about how to map data to knitting stitches.
- knittingstitches.org has images, video tutorials, and printable PDF guides to different stitches / motifs
- Knit Picks glossary has an extensive list of knitting jargon and abbreviations, along with links to tutorials on how to do some of the techniques.
- Ravelry (free account required, but it’s worth it and they’re not spammy or weird) is the best database of free and paid knitting patterns, plus reviews, example projects, etc.
- Math for Knitters book by Kate Atherley offers a wealth of information about how to adapt patterns to different yarns and adjusting the sizing on patterns.
Data and Knitting
If you’re just starting out with knitting, odds are you’ll be taking an existing pattern and adapting them with color and quantity choices that reflect your data. If you feel more bold, you might substitute different knit motifs for standard stockinette stitch in a pattern. If you’re knitting an object like a scarf, size could come into play, with the overall length reflecting your total amount of data.