Learn to Knit – it’s Easy!
Follow the picture guide - you can't go wrong!
Casting On: * You can use any size needles and wool thickness when you are learning and practising your knitting skills. A simple rule to follow is, the thicker your wool/yarn, the thicker you needles should be.  Make your first stitch with a 'slip knot' as ahown in the first piture. Insert the right-hand needle into the first stitch and wind the wool from the ball around it, forming a loop.
Pull the second loop through the first stitch and hook it over the front of your left needle. Continue like this, creating each new stitch from the one you've just made. Carry on until you have just the required number of stitches on the left needle.
How to hold wool Left-handed - and Right-handed 
Everyone figures out the most comfortable way for them to hold their knitting needles with practice. If you are new to knitting, use these diagrams as a guide to get you started.
 Hold the needle with the cast-on stitches in your left hand. With the wool at the back of the work, push the right-hand needle through the front stitch, from front to back. Wind the wool under the right needle and back towards you over the top of the right needle, to form a loop. Pull this loop (the new stitch) through the first stitch to the front of the work. Slip the new stitch off the left needle, keeping it on the right needle.
Repeat the above steps until all the stitches have been transferred to the right needle.
Knit stitch, and Purl stitch. If you knit rows of knit stitches only, this pattern is called garter stitch and if you knit alternate rows of knit and purl stitches, this pattern is called stocking stitch. (No prizes for guessing what these were originally used for!)
 Hold the needle with the cast on stitches in your left hand. Holding the yarn in front of the work, push the right-hand needle through the first stitch, from back to front. Wind the wool over and then under the right needle, forming a loop.
Take this loop (the new stitch) through the first stitch to the back of the work. Slip the first stitch off the left needle, and keep the new stitch on the right needle.Repeat the above steps until all stitches have been transferred to the right needle.
When you are learning a new skill, it's best to keep it simple, so we'll keep this on a need-to-know basis! You won't need to know how to increase or decrease for your fingerless gloves so we won't go showing you all of that just yet. (If you are the kind of person who wants all the nitty gritty details, I found an awesome book in the local library called,"Illustrated Basic Crochet & Knit." Look it up under its ISBN No. 0-87040-389-3. It's in its 16th edition since it was published in 1976 and it's still a brilliant guide!)
 Knit the first two stitches. *Hold the wool behind the work, and insert the left-hand needle in the first stitch. Lift the first stitch over the second stitch and then drop it off the needle.*
Knit the next stitch so that you have two stitches on your right needle again. Repeat the instructions between the asterisks until you have only one stitch left on the left needle. Cut your wool and thread it through the remaining stitch and pull tightly to end off.
 With thicker wool/yarn, sew up by sewing every half of the edge stitches together. With finer wools, a neater way is called "scooping the sinker loops" If you can figure this out from the picture, great, otherwise use the edge stiches method! Knitting abbreviations: When reading knitting patterns, they seem to be in code! This glossary of knitting terminology should help you with most of the abbreviations used in knitting:  That should be enough to get you on your way : )With a bit of practice, you should be ready to get started on your first knitting project? Try our Free Fingerless Glove Pattern now!
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