Beginner knitter ready to move on to the next stage!

Well, you could make a dishcloth (out of cotton dishcloth yarn, if you use acrylic you get a soggy mess of a cloth). Or you could make a hat. Either in the round or straight and then sewn up. I've had a lot of success with slippers, although I've lost my favourite pattern. Have you looked at knitty.com? There are some interesting patterns there, and not all of them are very difficult (finger puppers is easy, and the fetching gloves are okay if you can do stocking stitch and work in the round, they're a good way to learn cabling)

I would suggest either making a hat or arm warmies. Now that you've mastered the basics, I would move into learning how to knit in the round with either circular needles or double points. Circular needles are pretty easy to pick up on your own, but since I'm not the best book learner when it comes to knitting, I had to enlist some help from my sister (a much better knitter than myself mind you) to teach me . Another option for a next step would be to try some patterns on your next scarf. Lace patterns can be pretty fun and challenging enough to keep you inerested. A great site that get some ideas is www.knitty.com. They have a nice system that lets you know how hard each project is. Also craftster.org is a great forum where a lot of people making their stuff have knit-alongs. It's like having a built in knitting support system. Good luck!

http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com has TONS of patterns. They are not sorted by difficulty level, but by types of projects. They are very well organized, and you can search for a new pattern to your hearts content. When I first started knitting, my first two projects were scarves, and my third was a sweater! Once you get the basics of knitting down, you can do most patterns with relative ease. Good luck! Hopefully you can post some of your finished projects one day!

I'm looking for a really easy tank top pattern I can knit just with straight needles- anyone have any good suggestions? Maybe something like www.knitty.com/issuespring05/PATTmariposa.html ? Would this be a good beginner project, having only knitted scarves?

Ooh, I was just thinking of starting a discussion like this! I've just finished my first scarf, I know how to do garter and stockinette, knit and purl stitches but not really anything else. I'm looking for another easy project I can do with my big straight needles. I did get some really cool fuzzy yarn for xmas, so I might just do another scarf first, but would love to learn to knit a toque- do you have to use the circular needles or will it work with the straight ones I already have?

If you feel confident with both knit and purl, you could probalby move on to hats. A stockinette rolled-brim beanie is super easy, and the only new skill you'd need to learn would be knit 2 together (k2tog). If you feel especially adventurous, you could do a ribbed brim (k2 p2) instead.

I started making baby clothes and things. There is a Patons book of simple baby knits in 4ply and 8ply. I found them really good because they are only knit and purl stitches, and still look really good when finished. Plus, because they're for babies and their small, they don't really take long to do, and you don't get bored (I get bored trying to do big projects). The other thing I like to do, is knit squares from scraps of wool, and once you have enough squares, sew them all up into a blanket. Or, why not make a few scarves in similar wool and sew them together into a blanket or something like that? The possibilites are endless!

hats are a great next step, also there are lots of patterns for ipod and cel phone carriers that are fun projects that finish fast and enable you to practice various techniques

I just started knitting again myself, I've been more into sewing before. I started buying a magazine that's available in the UK that teaches you to knit, but I've missed issues already. I started to make a scarf but ran out of wool. I want to make a scarf I have a pattern for but you need special wool and bigger needles than I have at the moment.

well i think the second thing i tried to make when i got bored of knitting scarves was a blanket i just used extra long needles and knit long pieces kind of like extra long scarves then just stitch all the pieces together i also knitted my maltese dog a little sweater i knitted a square to go across his back then a rectangle to attach to the square and wrap around his belly then another rectangle to wrap around his chest both the blanket and the dog sweater turned out really good