Getting the yarn on to the needle is the first step to learning the basics of knittng:
1. Place the slip knot on a needle and hold the needle in your right hand pointing left. Hold your slip knot in place with your right index finger so it does not slip off the needle.
2. Place your left thumb and index finger between two strands of yarn dangling from the needle. Hold this dangling yarn taut with your ring and pinky fingers.
3. Flip the left thumb up while guiding the needle down and to the left. A loop will form around your thumb.
4. Guide the needle up through the loop on your thumb.
5. Guide the needle over the yarn which is around your index finger and catch it with the needle.
6. Now, guide the yarn hooked by the needle down through the loop around your thumb.
7. Slip your thumb out of its loop and place it inside the strand of yarn which is closest to you. Pull down gently. This is your first cast on stitch and you are ready to knit!
Lesson 3: Knitting
The most basic and commonly used stitch - it is essential to learning the basics of knitting:
1. Cast on the required number of stitches for your pattern or just twenty if your are practicing. Hold the needle with the cast on stitches in your left hand and the empty one in the right. The needles should be pointed towards each other.
2. As you hold the yarn in the back of the left needle in between your right thumb and index finger, insert the right needle from front to back through the stitch on the left needle. You will notice that the needles form an 'X' shape (the right needle below the left needle).
3. Maintain this crossed position by holding both needles with the thumb, index and middle fingers of your left hand. (hold the right needle with the thumb nail on top facing you and the nails of the index and middle fingers underneath the right needle and facing away. With the right hand, pick up yarn and wrap it counterclockwise under and around the bottom needle (don't wrap it around the left needle).
4. Hold yarn in place around the right needle, in between the right thumb and index finger and guide the right needle towards you through the center of the stitch on the left needle. The right needle should now be on top of the left.
5. Pull the remaining yarn off the left needle by pulling the right needle up and to the right so the new stitch slides off the left needle to the right. You have created a stitch on the right needle! Continue working stitches in this manner if you are doing only knit rows. You are knitting! If you want to make alternate knit and purl rows proceed to lesson 4.
