You First Start Learning How to Knit When you first start learning how to knit, it might be a bit awkward and clumsy. As a beginning knitter, you probably don’t realize how important those first few minutes are in terms of your knitting habits. That first motion, that way your hands move with the yarn, is what your hands are most likely to do every time you pick up the yarn. Don’t rush through it and try to get those rows done as fast as you can. Instead, take a deep breath and go slow.
If you cast on 10 or 20 stitches and go back and forth a few rows, paying attention to the way your hands move, it will be easier to get into good habits. The key to knitting control is to do small amounts at a time and keep practicing. For instance, cast on a few stitches and knit across 10 of them. Then stop and look at your work. Are your stitches even? Do they seem to sit comfortably on the needles, neither too loose nor too tight? If the yarn seems to squeak when you knit with it or if you have to push the needles hard to get them into the stitches, it’s too tight. Loosen up a bit and let the yarn flow a bit more. It’s exercises like this that will train your hands to know when the stitches are right.
One of the most common knitting bad habits I see is pulling the yarn too tight after completing a stitch. The resulting fabric is stiff and knitting the next row is difficult because you can’t get the needle into the stitches. To avoid this bad knitting habit, after you complete a stitch, stop pulling the yarn for a second. Let the stitch settle on the needle before tightening up. Knitting should flow, not be forced. Making this change in your knitting motion will improve your results greatly. The best way to practice this motion is in small daily increments. You don’t have to practice for an hour or more at a time (though you can if you want to). Even 15 minutes a day will help you develop muscle memory and improve your knitting.
Use the first few minutes of your practice time to knit back and forth across a few rows of a swatch, focusing on the motion of the yarn around the needles. Use the rest of the time to go back and forth across the row several times without worrying about making a finished object. Just concentrate on the motion. You’ll know it’s working when you see your stitches start to even out and your needles no longer struggle to go into the stitches. Then it’s time to play around with yarns and needles a bit. Try a different fiber content or a slightly larger or smaller needle to see how it affects your knitting.
Some yarns will give you a softer feel and less control over the stitches, while others will give you more grip and help you maintain tension. Experimenting with these differences will help you understand your stitches even better. With time and practice, adjusting as necessary, you’ll find your basic knit stitch going from awkward to smooth.