How to Knit
The Knit and Purl Stitches
 
Knitting
Adding Color
Cable Stitch
Textured Knitting
Stitches and Styles
Duplicate Stitch
   
 
To cast on stitches -
           
Leaving a tail of about 4-6 inches, make a slip knot around one of your knitting needles.
Place the needle in your right hand through the stitch created by the slip knot on the needle in your left hand and wrap your yarn around the needle in your right hand back, to top, to front. Pull the new loop through the first loop and then place the new loop on the needle in your left hand and in front of the first loop. (See figures #1-5) Repeat until you have 50 stitches on your needle.  This process of casting on is called “knitting on stitches.”		  
             
Figure 1
             
             
Figure 2
             
             
Figure 3
             
             
Figure 4
             
To Knit -
         
Figure 5
The knit stitch:
Hold the needle with the 50 stitches you just cast on it in your left hand.
Hold the other needle in your right hand as you would a pencil.
Let the yarn drop over your first finger and under your second finger, and then over the third. As you practice the knit stitch this will become more natural to you and you will learn to adjust the tension in your yarn for the best results.		  
 
Figure 6

With the right hand bring the yarn over the point of the right needle.  Fig. #6

Gently pull the yarn through the stitch. Fig. #7
Slip the old stitch off the left hand needle and you have completed your first stitch. A new row is forming on your right needle. Continue until you have knit a stitch into each of the old stitches on the left needle and it is empty. You should now have 50 stitches on your right needle.
Place your right needle in your left hand and repeat the process.
Continue to knit rows until you have a piece of knit fabric that is equal in length to the length of you foot from your toes to you heel.

  
 
Figure 7
                 
To Purl -     
              
          The Purl stitch is just the opposite of the knit stitch. In the knit stitch you held the yarn to the back of your work and you inserted the needle into the back of the stitch being worked. In the purl stitch you hold the yarn in front of your work and you insert the needle into the front of the stitch being worked. It really is that simple. Cast on 50 stitches just as you did when you started to knit. Please refer to the “How to Knit” page if you need some help in remembering how to cast on.      
        Hold the needle with the cast on stitches in your left hand and the empty needle in your right hand. Be sure that you have the yarn to the front of your work this time. Insert your needle into the front of the stitch from right to left. . See Figure #11  
             
Figure 11
Wrap your yarn around the right needle from front/left around to back and back to the front/right side of the needle. See Figure #12  Gently pull the yarn through the stitch being worked. Repeat. See Figure #13 Continue to purl each stitch until your knitting is the same size as your knit stitch square. Bind off as for the knit square.  
             
Figure 12
             
Figure 13
Casting off -
   

Holding the needle with the stitches in your left hand, knit two stitches. Fig. #8

Knit one more stitch and pull the stitch furthest to the right over the one next to it and off the needle. Continue until only one stitch remains.  
 
Clip your yarn 4-6 inches from your needle and bring the loose end through the remaining stitch. Pull tightly.

         
Figure 8
         
         
Figure 9
         
         
Figure 10