The Purl Stitch

Now that you have mastered the knit stitch, it is safe to say that you are ready for the purl stitch.
1. Cast on a small number of stitches, (ten to twenty), to practice
2. take the needle with the casted on stitches and place it in your left hand needle.
3. Instead of inserting your right hand needle into the first loop and making sure the right is behind the left, you will be going through the first loop with your right needle to make the right needle be in front of the left hand needle.
4. move the string connected to the ball of yarn to the front of your needles, and wrap it around the right hand needle which is in front of the left hand needle.
5. Now slowly pull back the right hand needle and poke it through the loop that connects the two needles, just as you did for knitting, you will now do this for purling just, poking the needle through the loop from the bottom instead of the top. Now you can pull the stitch off the string!
6. Continue doing so until you have reached the end of your row, and trade needles between hands!
Knit and purl stitches are the most common and combinations of the two can make beautiful patterns! It can be difficult to transition between knit and purl stitiches in the middle of a work, and the most common mistake is the placement of the string that is connected to the ball of yarn. once you have done a knit stitch, take the string and go around the right hand needle, to the front to do a purl stitch.  The same goes for a purl stitch to a knit stitch, after you complete the purl stitch, take the string and bring it back around the right needle and do the knit stitch.