Here are some straightforward instructions for beginners. I think when people try to learn to knit, they usually choose the wrong pattern and the wrong supplies.
A beginner is naturally clumsy, because the hands have not done the movement before – and the wrong materials make that clumsiness far worse than it needs to be.
The supplies people get wrong
Needles that are too small. Small needles and fine yarn make tiny stitches that are hard to see and hard to manipulate. Start around 5mm (US 8), which is large enough to see and small enough to feel like knitting.
Yarn that is too dark. You cannot see the stitch structure in a dark yarn. This single choice defeats more beginners than any technical difficulty.
Yarn that is fuzzy or novelty. Same problem, worse. Eyelash and bouclé yarns hide the stitches completely and are almost impossible to unpick.
Metal needles. Slippery, so stitches slide off while you are still learning to control them. Bamboo or wood grips slightly and is far more forgiving.
What to buy instead
Bamboo or wooden needles around 5mm, and a ball of smooth, light-coloured, medium weight yarn.
That is it. A blunt tapestry needle for the ends at the finish.
The patterns people get wrong
Anything that has to fit. A hat or a garment needs correct gauge, and a first attempt that fits nobody is discouraging.
Anything long. A full-size blanket as a first project is months of the same thing before any sense of completion.
Anything with several techniques at once. Learn one thing at a time.
What to make
A dishcloth or a simple garter stitch scarf. Flat, no fit to get wrong, one stitch, and finished within an evening or a week.
Garter stitch – every row knitted – is ideal, because it also lies flat without curling, so it needs no border and no blocking to behave.
The one habit worth forming immediately
Count your stitches at the end of every row for the first ten rows.
Accidentally adding stitches at the edges is the standard beginner problem, and it turns a scarf into a triangle. Caught in the same row it costs seconds.
The usual cause is the yarn sitting in front of the needle at the start of a row, creating a loop that looks like a stitch. Check the yarn is behind before knitting the first stitch.
And expect to be clumsy
Everybody is. It passes within a couple of projects and no amount of unpicking speeds it up.
