How to Knit - A Beginner's First Scarf

Steps

1. 1. Grab Your Yarn and Needles

   You need two things to start: a ball of yarn and a pair of knitting needles. Size 9 needles are a solid starting point for beginners.

   

2. 2. Make a Slip Knot

   Pull about 15 inches of yarn from the ball. Make a loop, reach through the loop, grab the yarn and pull up a new loop.

   

3. 3. Cast On Your Stitches

   The long tail cast on is the standard beginner method. Hold both the working yarn and the tail with your bottom three fingers.

   Tip: If your cast-on stitches are too tight, you will struggle to knit the first row. Keep them snug but loose enough to slide on the needle.

   

4. 4. Work the Knit Stitch

   Turn your work so the needle with stitches is in your left hand. Insert the right needle into the first loop on the left needle from left to right.

   

5. 5. Keep Knitting Rows

   When you reach the end of a row, flip the needle to your left hand and start the next row. Every row is the same knit stitch across.

   Tip: You can hold the working yarn in your right hand (English style) or left hand (Continental style). Try both and see which feels more natural. Neither is wrong.

   

6. 6. Fix a Dropped Stitch

   If a stitch slips off the needle, grab it before it unravels further. If it does drop a row or two, use a crochet hook to pick it back up.

   

7. 7. Bind Off and Finish

   To get the stitches off the needle, knit two stitches onto the right needle. Insert the left needle into the first stitch on the right needle and pull it up and over the second stitch and off.