Learning the basic fundamentals of knitting is easy. You’ll usually start by practicing basic knit and purl stitches – often by knitting a square with a pair of straight needles and some chunky or worsted yarn. It usually takes a week or two to master the knit, purl, stockinette, and garter stitches – all of the basic techniques you’ll need to knit your own scarf. In fact, you can learn to knit your first project without any prior experience in textile crafts at all.