Getting Started

• 1). Hold one double-pointed needle in your hand and cast on a number of stitches using the slingshot method--also known as long tail cast on--where you hold the tail ends of the yarn in a V against your palm between your thumb and forefinger. See Resources for reference if you aren't familiar with this cast on method.
  
  
• 2). Divide the stitches evenly, by slipping purlwise, onto three double-pointed needles if you are using a four-needle set, or onto four double-pointed needles if you are using a five-needle set. One needle, the stitching needle, is always free of stitches.
  
  
• 3
  Figure 1 - Double Pointed Cast On Rows
  
  Check that you haven't twisted the cast on row by laying the needles on a flat surface and forming a closed shape. A four-needle set--three needles holding stitches--will form a triangle. A five-needle set--four needles holding stitches--will form a square. The cast on stitches should go to the inside of the shape. (See Figure 1).
  
  
• 4). Place a stitch marker around the yarn of the first stitch to mark the start of the round. Do not put the stitch marker around the needle or between stitches, because it will likely fall off.
  
  

Knitting

• 1). Hold the free needle in your right hand, the needles with the cast on stitches in your left and begin to knit, starting with the first needle.
  
  
• 2). Watch how when you knit the first stitch, the work joins to form a circle with the right side always facing you. Thus, when working in stockinette stitch, you knit every stitch around, no need to purl.
  
  
• 3
  Figure 2 - Knitting in Progress
  
  Knit the stitches on the first needle. Each time you clear the stitches on one needle, that needle then becomes your stitching needle for the next set of stitches. (See Figure 2 for an example of a work in progress)
  
  
• 4). Once you complete a set of stitches on one needle, move them to the middle of that needle so they don't fall off the ends. Wooden needles tend to be less slippery than aluminum or plastic, but as long as your stitches have a good tension, the needles will not slip out.
  
  
• 5
  Figure 3 - Knitted Tube
  
  Continue working in rounds and you will see a knitted tube emerge from your needles. (See Figure 3.)
  
  
• 6). Bind off, increase or decrease as you would if working on straight needles.