A lot of people look at the expert knitters and cannot imagine picking up a pair of needles and trying to knit.  Of course it is going to look confusing if you have never tried to knit but if you give it a chance you will probably be surprised at just how easy it is.  You do not have to be over the age of fifty just to have an interest in knitting.  You can knit no matter what age you are and there are a few steps you can follow to learn how to knit in no time at all.

If you want to learn how to knit, you will first want to choose a design that you like.  Obviously you want to stick to something more basic at first, even something as simple as a coaster or a blanket.  Something that is straight and squared where there are not too many difficult instructions is what you really want to get started with here.  Once you have a design you know what supplies you are going to need.

Your knitting needles are your most important knitting tool so choose a pair of these before you worry about picking out any yarn.   There are a few different types of knitting needles to pick from including the round needles, but a pair of the straight needles will be good enough to get started with and are called for in the more basic patterns.  When picking out your yarn you will want to follow the pattern for the amount of yarn you need but you can usually pick out whatever colors you want, which is one of the nicest things about knitting.   You will have to be aware of what all the different knitting abbreviations mean before getting started or you will not be able to follow your pattern very well.

There are hundreds of abbreviations used but the k and p are what you will see most, k meaning to knit and p meaning to purl.  To knit you would just knit straight across whereas a purl basically shows up as a backwards knitted stitch.  The purl stitch results in the same stitch as a knit, if you were to look at your piece from the opposite side.   Purling creates a very nice streamlined look on knitted pieces and is the second most commonly used stitch in knitting besides regular knitted stitches.

You may find it hard at first to keep track when you are following a pattern and you may find it handy to use a pen to keep track of how many stitches you have to go.  Try to keep the same tension in the yarn as you knit so that there are not some tighter and some looser areas in your knitted pieces. Learning how to knit does not have to be hard.   As long as you work hard and practice you can become a skilled knitter in no time at all.