knit basics

slipknot

1) Hold the short end of the yarn in your palm with your thumb. Wrap the yarn twice around the index and middle fingers.	2) Pull the strand attached to the ball through the loop between your two fingers, forming a new loop.	3) Place the new loop on the needle. Tighten the loop on the needle by pulling on both ends of the yarn to form the slipknot. You are now ready to begin casting on.

“long tail” cast on

1) Make a slipknot on the right needle, leaving a long tail. Wind the tail end around your left thumb, front to back. Wrap the yarn from the ball over your left index finger and secure the ends in your palm.	2) Insert the needle upward in the loop on your thumb. Then, with the needle, draw the yarn from the ball through the loop to form a stitch.	3) Remove your thumb from the loop and tighten the loop on the needle. Continue in this way until all the stitches are cast on.

knit stitch

1) Hold the needle with the caston stitches in your left hand. Hold the working needle in your right hand, wrapping the yarn around your fingers.	2) Insert the right needle from front to back into the first cast-on stitch on the left needle. Wrap the yarn around the right needle, as shown.	3) With the right needle, catch the yarn and pull it through the cast-on stitch.
4) Slip the cast-on stitch off the left needle, leaving the newly formed stitch on the right needle. Repeat these steps in each subsequent stitch until all stitches have been worked from the left needle. You have made one row of knit stitches. To start the next row simply put the needle with stitches on it in your left hand, and the empty needle in your right hand.

purl stitch

1) Hold the working needle in your right hand and the needle with stitches in your left. With the yarn at the front of the work, insert the right needle from back to front into the first stitch on the left needle.	2) With your right index finger, wrap the yarn over the top around the right needle as shown	3) Draw the right needle and the yarn backward through the stitch on the left needle, forming a loop on the right needle.
4) Slip the stitch off the left needle. You have made one purl stitch. Repeat these steps in each subsequent stitch until all stitches have been worked from the left needle. You have made one row of purl stitches.