Cast On

• 1). Make a slip knot 4 inches from the end of your yarn and slide the knot over your right-hand knitting needle. Pull on your yarn to tighten the knot around the needle. The knot should be tight enough to hug the needle, but you should still be able to easily slide it along the needle's shaft.
  
  
• 2). Hold the working yarn in your left hand, and allow the 4-inch tail to dangle. Make a loop with the working yarn, crossing the yarn farthest from the needle over the yarn closest to the needle. Slide the loop onto your knitting needle and pull on the working yarn until the loop fits snug around the knitting needle. This will create one backwards loop cast-on stitch.
  
  
• 3). Continue casting on with the backwards loop method until you have between 20 and 24 stitches.
  
  

Knit Stitch

• 1). Hold the needle with the cast-on stitches in your left hand and hold your yarn and the second knitting needle in your right hand. Hold the yarn behind your needles, bring it over your index finger and loosely grasp it with your pinkie and forefinger.
  
  
• 2). Insert the tip of the right-hand needle through the front of the first loop on the left-hand needle from left to right. Wrap the yarn around the tip of the right-hand needle from back to front.
  
  
• 3). Pull the right-hand needle and the wrapped yarn back through the loop to make your first knit stitch. Drop the stitch you just knit into from the left-hand needle.
  
  
• 4). Knit into the remaining stitches in the same manner. When you get to the end of the row, place the stitch-filled right-hand needle in your left hand and the empty left-hand needle in your right hand.
  
  

Purl Stitch

• 1). Hold your yarn in front of your needles and insert the tip of the right needle through the front of the first loop on the left-hand needle from right to left.
  
  
• 2). Wrap your yarn around the tip of the right-hand needle from back to front and pull both the right-hand needle and wrapped yarn back through the stitch.
  
  
• 3). Drop the stitch from the left-hand needle and continue working stitches in the same manner until you get to the end of the row.
  
  
• 4). Alternate between knit rows and purl rows to create stockinette stitch, which has smooth rows of "v"-shaped stitches on one side and bumpy ridges on the other side.
  
  

Bind Off

• 1). Knit two stitches onto your right-hand needle.
  
  
• 2). Lift up the first knit stitch with your left-hand needle.
  
  
• 3). Pass the lifted-up stitch over the other stitch on your right-hand needle and drop it from the needle to make your first bind-off stitch.
  
  
• 4). Continue binding off in stitches in this manner until you have only one stitch on your right-hand needle. Break your yarn, leaving a 4-inch tail and pull the tail through the stitch to finish the bind-off.