Knitting Basics | How to make a slip knot

The beginnings of any knitting project always start with the slip knot. It’s the first stitch that goes onto your knitting needle and helps you cast on more stitches. Without it, there’s no knitting project. If you already know how to make a slip knot – that’s great, buddy. You can skip this walk-through and move onto the next one. Everyone else, read on!

Everyone has their own way of making a slip knot, but I’ll show you a super simple method that literally takes seconds to do. Let’s start!

Step 1

Unravel your selected yarn and create a long C-like shape. Leave about 10cm-15cm of the end of the yarn to create a tail. Ensure the yarn tail (shorter yarn length) is at the bottom and the working yarn (yarn coming from the skein/ ball) is on top.

Step 2

Hold the yarn ends with your right hand and loop with your left hand. With your right hand, twist the loop downward to cross the two yarns together. The crossed yarns should look like the photo below – yarn tail crossed under the working yarn, and working yarn crossed over the yarn tail.

Step 3

Pinch a section of the yarn tail with your left fingers and pull it through the loop until a knot forms. Hold both the yarn tail and working yarn as you pull the new loop through the first loop.

Step 4

Congrats! You made a slip knot. Now, thread the knitting needle through the loop and tighten it until it is snug against the needle (but not too tight). The loop is now your first stitch of any knitting project. From here you can cast on any number of stitches as required of a particular project.

Tip! Don’t leave a long yarn tail behind as it’ll get very annoying once you start knitting, from getting tangled with your working yarn to just being a downright nuance. I recommend leaving a 10cm-15cm yarn tail so there’s enough yarn for you to thread into the item once you’ve finished a knitting a project.

Hope this simple and quick walk-through helped you learn your first knitting basic. Feel free to ask any questions you may have about making slip knots. Until next time, stay golden ya nerds.

- Del