One of the objects of the knitting game is to move stitches from your left-hand  needle to your right-hand needle, making new rows of stitches in the process. You now have a stitch on the right needle. All you need to do to finish the stitch is to slip the  old stitch off the left needle. Tug gently on the working yarn to secure the new stitch. Repeat this process through the end of the row! When you have knitted every stitch on the  row, you will have an empty needle in your left hand. Swap needles so that the “full” needle is  in your left hand and the empty one is in your right hand, and do it all over again! There are several ways to accomplish the knit stitch; the two most popular are the English  method (also called “throwing”) and the Continental method (also called “picking”). The infor- mation at left pertains to the English method, in which the working yarn is held in the right  hand. In the Continental method, the yarn is held in the left hand. Practice both methods to  see which feels best to you. There’s no right or wrong way to knit—well, I suppose there is a  right way: whichever works best for you! To use the Continental method of knitting, follow the steps below. tip of the needle  should point away  from you. 2. Wrap the yarn  counterclockwise  around the right  needle (the one  you just put  through the stitch  ( Figure 2 ).  3. Pull the right  needle back just  enough to slip  underneath the  left needle and  pull the yarn  along with it,  through the stitch  on the left needle  ( Figure 3 ).  4. Slip the stitch off the left needle ( Figure 4 ). You just created a new stitch! 1. With the working yarn under and in the back of the needle, place the tip of your right  needle between the front and back legs of the first stitch on the left needle ( Figure 1 ). The  Every stitch has a front and a back leg. Each stitch  should sit on the needle with its right leg in front of  the needle. Think “right leg forward.” If you knit a  stitch with its left leg perched in front of the needle,  the stitch will be twisted. Figure 2 Figure 1 Figure 3 Make a practice swatch—just keep knitting rows! If you make a mistake, keep going. You  aren’t making anything but practice knitting, so you can ignore mistakes if you want to. If you  want to correct them, though, please see the OOPS tion on page 6. For Practice Right-Leg Rule Right Leg Forward 5 Copyright © 2011 Interweave. Figure 4 Figure 3 Figure 1 Figure 2 Let's get started! 1. Cast on 20 stitches. 2. Hold the needle with the cast-on stitches in your left hand, the empty needle in your right  hand. Hold the needles a few inches from the tips, between your thumb and first couple  of fingers. 3. With the working yarn in back of the needle, insert the right needle into the front of the  first stitch (the one closest to the tip) from left to right ( Figure 1 ). 4. Now with your right index finger, bring the yarn between the needles from back to front. ( Figure 2 ). 5. With your right hand, pull the right needle—which now has a loop of yarn around it— toward you and through the stitch ( Figure 3 ). The Continental Method The Knit Stitch