SO YOU WANT TO KNIT?
The only important items you really need are a pair of knitting needles and a ball of yarn. The rest is up to you and your hands.
In this tutorial, you will be show how to knit from begininng to end. If you follow the instructions as written, you will have the knowledge to create your first scarf!
So sit down, get comfortable, and get to knitting!
Casting on is the first step to any knitting project, but it can be confusing.
First, measure out a long tail of yarn, allowing 1/2"-1" per stitch. Make a slip knot on your right-hand needle, making sure the cut end of your tail is facing you.
With the needle in your right hand, hold both strands in your left hand, with the short end around the outside of your thumb and the long end around the outside of your index finger.
Insert your needle through the outside of the thumb loop, pick up the inside of the index loop, and exit back out the thumb loop. This creates the stitch on the needle. Tighten it down until it's snug (you should be able to move it up and down the needle fairly easy). Repeat these steps until you have your desired number of stitches, or however many your pattern calls for.
DON'T WORRY! Soon this will become second nature to you!
When you have your desired number of stitches cast on, you are ready to knit your first row.
Switch the needle with the stitches to your left hand, and hold the empty needle in your right. Using the illustration above as a guide, stick your right needle from front to back into the first stitch on the left. Then, wrap your yarn counter-clockwise around the tip.
Gently pull the right needle out towards you, catching the yarn you just wrapped, and pulling it through the stitch on the left needle.
Slide the left needle stitch off the needle completely and pull your yarn snug. This completes the knit stitch! Continue this same sequence until you have no stitches left.
To make a Garter Stitch scarf, knit every row and skip to step 5 when you're ready to finish.
After you've completed a row of knitting, it's time to learn to purl. Purling is essentially the opposite of knitting, and combined, they create amazing things. By knitting a row, and then purling a row, we create Stockinette Stitch.
Holding the empty needle in your right hand like before, insert it kind of sideways into the front of the first left hand stitch. Make sure your right hand needle is angled towards you, the opposite of the knit stitch.
Wrap your yarn counter clockwise again, and this time push the needle away from you and catch the stitch from the back.
Just like before, slide the left needle stitch off the needle completely and pull your yarn snug. This completes the purl stitch! Continue this same sequence until you have no stitches left.
The final step is binding off. This is closing all your open stitches, so you have a nice finished edge.
To start, knit two stitches from your left needle. Pass the first stitch you knit over the second one by lifting it up with your left needle tip and carrying it over the right needle tip.
Next, knit another stitch from the left needle and slip the existing stitch over it. Repeat this sequence until only one stitch remains on your right needle.
Cut your working yarn, leaving a medium length to work with. Slip your last stitch off the needle, taking care to keep it wide open so it doesn't come apart. Thread the tail of your yarn through the loop and pull tight. Weave any yarn tails into the stitches using a large needle, and you're done!