How to Knit

So, I just started knitting early this year and I LOVE it!  It is a great way to pass the time and incredibly easy to make useful things.  Knitting involves three basic steps: casting on, knitting, and binding off (which I explain below.)  A scarf is a good first project, but it is one of the most time consuming things to knit, consider yourself warned.  There's a lot more to knitting that I don't go into in these step by step directions including doing the purl stitch, knitting lace, circular needles and certainly countless more techniques with which I am not yet familiar.  However, the following directions are enough to get you started and many people only learn these few tricks and make tons, and tons of things with them.  Whether you stop at these instructions or choose to move on to more complicated knitting, please enjoy!

Casting On

Step 1.

Make a simple loop by overlapping the yarn on itself, leaving a 2"-3" tail

Step 2.

Push a second loop of yarn from the ball end through the loop you just made

Step 3.

Insert a knitting needle into the second loop, you will hold this needle in your left hand

Step 4.

Pull the loop tight so that it is snug on the needle, this is your first stitch

Step 5.

Insert the second needle behind the first stitch keeping the needle and the yarn from the ball (not the tail) in your right hand

Step 6.

Bring the yarn from your right hind over from behind the needles, between and to the front of the needles

Step 7.

Use the needle in your right hand to push down the yarn you just put between the two needles.  Keep pushing until you have a loop (stitch) on your right-hand needle

Step 8.

Slip the stich from the right needle to the left one

Step 9.

Repeat steps 5-8 until you have as many stitches as you want on the left needle.  Always insert the right-hand needle into the first stitch on the left needle

Knitting

Step 10.

Insert the empty needle into the first stitch on your left-hand needle and bring the yarn from behind and between the needles to the front as in step 6 and make a stitch, leaving it on the right-hand needle

Step 11.

Instead of slipping the stitch from the right-hand needle to the left one, slip the stitch you just worked (knitted) off of the left-needle. You will now have one less stitch on the left needle, and one stitch on the right needle

Step 12.

Repeat this across the row, when you get to the end of the row all the stitches will be on the right-hand needle.  Switch this needle to your left hand and repeat as many times as necessary to make your fabric as long as you want

Binding Off

Step 13.

Knit two stitches

Step 14.

Do not knit any more stitches, instread insert the tip of the left-hand needle into the far stitch (the first one you knit) on the right-hand needle

Step 15.

Pull this stitch over the second stitch on the right-hand needle (the one you knit second)

Step 16.

Slip the stitch you just pulled over the other off of the left-hand needle.  Knit one more stitch from the left needle and repeat, always pulling the farthest stitch over the one near the tip

Step 17.

Do this across the row until you have only one stitch on your right hand needle.  Cut the end of the yarn a few inches away from the end of your fabric and pull it through the loop to finish.  You can make a knot to secure the last stitch